Chandni Chowk to China - Movie Review and Synopsis

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Category: Movies. Tags: Action, Akshay Kumar, Chia Hui Liu, Comedy, Deepika Padukone, Mithun Chakraborty, Nikhil Advani, Roger Yuan, Warner Bros. Pictures.

Chandni Chowk to China Sidhu(Akshay Kumar) is the lowest on the totem pole, cutting vegetables at road side food stall in Chandni Chowk in Delhi. He longs to escape his dreary existence and looks for shortcuts with astrologers, tarot reader and fake fakirs, basically anything except himself, despite his father figure Dada’s (Mithun Chakravorty) best efforts.

His redeeming moment arrives when two strangers from China claim him as reincarnation of a war hero in the past and take him to china. Sidhu now dreams of wine, women and princely existence in foreign lands. Thanks to the devious translator, a conman by the name Chopstick(Ranvir Shorey), little does he know that he is being taken to the promised land to rid the Chinese village of the vicious smuggler Hojo(Gordon Liu)!

So Sidhu blissfully sets forth to China with Chopstick who instigates dreams of a delicious future and forgets to reveal the perils which await him. Along the way he meets Sakhi(Deepika Padukone), Ms. Tele Shoppers Media (Ms TSM) who has embarked on a journey to pay homage to the land of her birth and her dead father and twin.

Initially Sidhu through a series of lucky coincidences manages to sidestep being beaten by Hojo’s men but finally Hojo catches up with him and exposes him as the country buffoon that he really is. Sidhu has the fire of revenge in his belly and finds the one man who will make him Kungfu expert and set the village free. Armed with his Sifu(master), faith in himself and the love of the fair Sakhi Sidhu sets forth to conquer all!.

Every other week or so, a Bollywood film is released in the U.S. and typically these movies flirt with breakout success. As Hollywood increasingly looks for film funding abroad, it was bound to happen that a studio would target a Bollywood film for likely crossover success, and that’s what Warner Bros. has done in this case. The Stephen Chow set should love this lookalike (and I mean that in a sweet, nurturing way), as should the more hardcore kung-fu heads who appreciate the work of actor Gordon Liu.

Director: Nikhil Advani
Stars: Akshay Kumar, Deepika Padukone, Chia Hui Liu, Mithun Chakraborty, Roger Yuan
Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures
Release Date: 16 January 2009 (USA)