Chandni Chowk to China(Comedy)
Cast: Akshay Kumar, Deepika Padukone, Mithun Chakraborty, Ranvir Shorey, Gordon Liu
Direction: Nikhil Advani
Music: Shankar- Ehasan- Loy
Rating: 2 Stars
There is such a thing as too much of a good thing, after all. Akshay’s latest film 2C2C(Chandni Chowk to China) proves that. The guy who has provided us with endless laughter throughout 2008 with his endearing ‘I am a lovable buffoon’ act has started 2009 on a lower note. Things had begun to look a bit stretched and overdone with Singh is King itself but somehow the Punju bonhomie of it was carried through reasonably well by Akshay for that movie to please many and be declared a hit. With 2C2C the mantra of over the top slapstick has failed to deliver. I would call it a classic case of overkill.
That Warner Bros chose this film as their vehicle for an entry into the melodramatic and ‘heavily inspired by other films’ world of Bollywood, is hard to understand. The story(if you can call it that) is predictably thin but that has never been a serious concern with our films. Siddhu(Akshay) is a miserable clod in Chandni Chowk, peeling potatoes and getting kicked sky high in the process till he is spotted by two Chinese villagers who are convinced that he is the reincarnation of one Liu Sheng who is to be the messiah who will save the villagers from the evil Hojo(Gordon Liu). In this journey of Siddhu from Chandni Chowk to China he is accompanied by the conman(Ranvir Shorey) and in China one of his partners in the jihad against Hojo is the slant eyed eye candy Miao Miao(Deepika Padukone).
The rest is predictable stuff with Akshay learning martial arts( Kung Fu) to better able to take on the evil Hojo. Though it is a pleasure to watch Gordon Liu of ‘The 36 chambers of Shaolin’ fame one can not help but think of it as a come down for him. Gordon still packs a mega punch and most of the Warner Bro budget seems to have gone in the action and fight sequences.
Without going into all the details of this confused story line let me just say that there is another Deepika(separated at birth twins saga) in the fray and Akshay gets involved with both. Deepika plays both Sakhi and Suzy(Miao Miao) and does a reasonably good job in the two roles. Ranvir is totally wasted in this low brow role. After seeing him in Khosla Ka Ghonsla and Bheja Fry it is disappointing to see him in this loud and garish role. There is a ‘ghostly’ Mithun Da also in the film and he is okay in his role of ‘goader- in- chief’ who keeps goading Siddhu on to fight the evil Hojo.
The music is not of the memorable variety but the song that has Deepika and Akshay floating with a magic umbrella is well done. The two actually fall in love while falling down after having jumped off a building. Deepika’s magic umbrella saves the duo and thus it is we have a romantic sequence in the oddest of places.
So is the movie a hit or a miss? I would say it is a miss. As for the dilemma to see or not to see the movie, I would say that it can be checked out on DVD or the cable for some of its action sequences and the romantic song, some of the funny moments and the backdrop of the Great Wall of China but I would not advise blowing up your hard earned cash to catch this one in a cinema hall. The best way to watch this one is at home with family and friends and loads of home made pop corn. That way you can avoid feeling the drag of its **three hour run. There seems to have been no editor on the production team.A bit of creative editing might just have salvaged this first big starrer flop of the year.
Akshay is a great action and comic hero and he needs to combine the two in the manner of Hera- Pheri to get our funny bones tickled. 2009 has just started and one not very great movie does not signal the end of Akshay’s reign. Here’s wishing Akshay a very good year. May he make us laugh again as only he knows how to.
P.S: In the promos of the film, before the release, the director and the actor repeatedly told us to leave our brains behind when we go to watch the movie. I did, but it still was not enough.This one fails to connect with the viewer emotionally too.so maybe one needs to leave behind one’s heart and funny bones too!