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Review: Chandni Chowk to China

Unoriginal, even by Bollywood's standards
By CHRIS WANGLER  |  January 13, 2009
2.5 2.5 Stars


VIDEO: The trailer for Chandni Chowk to China

Director Nikhil Advani's quirky Chinese-Indian collaboration is the widest release ever of a Bollywood film, and the first ever kung fu Bollywood comedy. Without abandoning the masala genre conventions, the film raises production values to a new standard, with stunts by Crouching Tiger maven Huen Chiu-Ku, more extras than the closing ceremonies of the Olympics, and at least five toe-tapping musical numbers.

But even by Bollywood's formulaic story standards, the fairy-tale plot is about as original as Apu's accent on The Simpsons. Akshay Kumar plays a pathetic but pious vegetable chopper who's mistaken for a folk hero by some Chinese villagers. Whisked away to China, he falls in love, learns to rely on himself, and defends the village from an evil Oddjob look-alike with his new kung fu skills.

Yawning sets in by the onset of the second hour, and the Chinese side of the story amounts to one stereotype after another.

  Topics: Reviews , Bollywood , Martial Arts , Movie Reviews ,  More more >
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Comments
Re: Review: Chandni Chowk to China
CC2C was a fun and funny movie. The problem with this review - and others in the American press - is that you don't have the cultural context to place it in. There were a lot of hilarious jokes about Akshay's past films and Mithun's career as the 'disco dancer.' I don't blame you, I blame Warner Brothers for choosing a very Indian-specific comedy as their first wide-release "Bollywood" film. If you want more context, you can read my review here: //filmi-girl.livejournal.com/163439.html
By Filmi_Girl on 01/17/2009 at 8:34:14

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