What’s happened to Akshay’s choice of films? Post-Welcome, none of his films have succeeded in impressing majority of the audiences. Tashan was disastrous; Singh Is Kinng was nonsense and in my opinion, the biggest disappointment of 2008. And now comes Chandni Chowk To China, which is an equally bad film. The film could have been entertaining inspite of having a flawed story. But thanks to Nikhil Advani’s pathetic execution, Chandni Chowk To China disappoints hugely.
The story of the movie: Sidhu (Akshay Kumar) is a ‘vegetable cutter’ at a roadside food stall in Chandni Chowk area of Delhi. He was fed up of his life and wanted to become rich as soon as possible. That’s why he used to buy lottery tickets and visit astrologers. His guardian Dada (Mithun Chakraborthy) always adviced him not to run behind such people and that he should believe in himself. But Dada’s efforts proved futile. Things take a turn when two Chinese guys come across Sidhu and claim that he is a reincarnation of a Chinese warrior, Liu Shang. They request Chinese-fluent Chopstick (Ranvir Shorey), a conman and also a resident of Chandni Chowk, to persuade Sidhu to come with them and help his fellow villagers get rid of Hojo (Gordon Liu) who exploited them. However, Chopstick doesn’t reveal the whole truth and Sidhu sets off to China, without knowing the fact he’s actually taken there to eliminate Hojo. On his trip, he comes across Sakhi (Deepika Padukone) and then his lookalike Suzi! How will Sidhu defeat a powerful man like Hojo? And what is the mystery behind Sakhi and her lookalike?
The main reason behind Chandni Chowk To China’s failure is that its interesting only in parts. To add to it, Nikhil Advani fails miserably this time. The film starts off well and you expect it to be thoroughly interesting. But the Chandni Chowk scenes are so much nonsensical that it seems the director and producers have taken the audiences granted, thinking it can provide anything to them and they’ll gulp it down whole heartedly! Agreed that those scenes were funny, but it’s not the kind of humour which would be accepted and loved by everyone. And something like this is definitely not expected from an Akshay Kumar film!
The intermission point was supposed to be the highpoint of the film and was expected to be thoroughly impactful. But again, the direction and screenplay spoils everything. And so many flaws in the film! Why did the Chinese guys come to India to search for Liu Shang’s reincarnation? Since the warrior was Chinese, there were high chances that its avatar could be found in China; then why did they come to search for him in India?! There are many such glitches in the story.
The last 40 minutes of the film was good but again lacked impact. Same for climax.
On the flipside, the film has few plusses-performances, some funny moments (esp the scene in the aeroplane!), music and cinematography.
Akshay Kumar, no doubt, was excellent. Be it any film, he gives his best shot and the same is for Chandni Chowk To China as well. As mentioned earlier in one of my reviews, Akshay always come up with something new in all his films and in this film too, he gives a fantastic performance, which doesn’t look similar to his acting in previous films. Akki has 5 more releases this year-8X10, Blue, De Dana Dan, Kambakth Ishq and Housefull. Let’s hope that these flicks are sensible and not illogical like Chandni Chowk To China!
Deepika Padukone rocks! She plays both the roles wonderfully and comes up with an impressive performance. Moviegoers and critics may soon forget this film but her performance will surely be remembered for a long time! Ranvir Shorey was excellent as the Indo-Chinese conman. Watch out for his excellent performance in the aeroplane scene and the title track. Mithun Chakraborthy gives a powerful performance!
Gordon Liu, the well-known actor who has worked in famous flicks like ‘The 36th Chamber of Shaolin’ and Kill Bill, was perfect in a villainous role. Roger Yuang as Chiang is quite likeable. He has also spoken chaste Hindi (or was it dubbed?) in the film.
The film has a number of music directors. 3 songs are worth appreciating-title track, Tere Naina (by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy) and SIDHU (by Kailash-Naresh-Paresh). Tere Naina is a brilliant song having an odd but likeable tune. Also, it’s well-shot too.
Himman Dhamija’s cinematography was perfect and he captures China well, esp the Great Wall. However, one doesn’t get to see more of China since most of the incidents in the film happen on the Great Wall of China! Dee Dee Ku’s action sequences made for an interesting watch. However, one expected some Jackie Chan kind of stunts in the film.
Rajat Arora and Sridhar Raghavan wrote the story, screenplay and dialogues. Story was flawed, but still the film had been interesting if handled well. But the screenplay was unsatisfactory. Dialogues were funny though.
Nikhil Advani failed to utilize a wonderful chance. He had actors like Akshay, Mithun and Gordon Liu and producers like Talrejas, Sippys and Warner Bros financing it. He could have come up with a blockbuster easily, but alas! Also, his direction is degrading. In Kal Ho Naa Ho, he was excellent. In his next, Salaam-E-Ishq, he was overall good and in Chandni Chowk To China, he is worst! Directors get better with each and every film, but with Nikhil, its vice versa!
Some of the good scenes of the film:
The first scene
Dada kicking Sidhu! (nonsensical but manages to raise laughs!)
Sidhu with the Chinese strangers
The aeroplane sequence (funniest!)
Sidhu and Chiang inside the under-renovation restaurant
The song ‘Tere Naina’
On the whole, Chandni Chowk To China is interesting only in parts. The bad execution spoils everything. Coinicdentally, the film has taken an average opening, inspite of having Akshay Kumar, the so-called Kinng of Bollywood! And the funniest part is-Nikhil has plans of making a sequel to Chandni Chowk To China! Anyone interested?!
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