BAKWAAS!. Review on Chandni Chowk to China Movie

I was waiting anxiously for CC2C to release as I was expecting a good entertainer filled with comedy and action. What I saw has left me in shock.

Story:-

CC2C starts on the Great Wall of China where an ancient Chinese warrior called Liu Shang fights with a whole army single handedly with his amazing kung-fu moves and dies fighting. Cut to modern day China where an evil villain called Hojo terrorizes a village and makes the villagers work for him to carry out his evil plans. The oppressed villagers go to an astrologer who tells them that the great warrior Liu Shang has taken rebirth in India. They decide to go to India and get him to China hoping that he will be the one to conquer Hoko.

Cut to Chandni Chowk and we meet Sidhu (Akshay) who runs a dhaba with his foster father who he calls Dada (Mithun). He is extremely unhappy with his life and dreams of getting rich quickly for which he visits are kinds of astrologers, fakirs, including a half-Chinese/half-whatever called Chopstick (Ranvir Shorey). When the Chinese come to Chandni Chowk and see Sidhu as their warrior, Chopstick sees an opportunity here of travelling free to China and tells Sidhu the whole story but deletes the Hojo part. Sidhu is overjoyed. Dada is apprehensive about Sidhu flying to China but finally gives him the permission.

Sakhi (Deepika) is introduced as a model for Chinese wonder products. She bumps into Sidhu at the Chinese Embassy and what follows….its too idiotic to put in words. After a pathetic dream song Sidhu lands in China. At the airport he mistakes Sakhi’s lookalike Meow Meow (yes that’s her name) for her and unknowingly exposes her as a diamond smuggler (she works for Hojo). Meow Meow shows some cool karate moves and flees. Sidhu and Chopstick reach the village and are welcomed as heroes.

Sakhi visits the factory where the Chinese products she endorses are manufactured. One scientist casually asks her what brings her to China and suddenly with tears in her eyes she starts narrating her life story. Her father was a Chinese policeman called Wuang and her mother an Indian. Wuang had arrested Hojo once and to take revenge Hojo had killed her father and twin sister. Next we see Sakhi praying for her dead father and sister on the Great Wall of China with a thali in her hands. Her ‘pooja ke phool’ fall on a beggar sitting under the wall. It is Sakhi’s long lost father! He has lost his memory! And the moment the flowers fall on his head, he gets sudden flashes of his past!

Hojo and Sidhu come face to face and Sidhu finally learns the true reason he was brought to China for. At the same time Dada also turns up. During the confrontation Hojo kills Dada and beats Sidhu black and blue. Then he throws Sidhu from the Great Wall of China but he is saved by Wuang! Now Sidhu wants revenge for his Dada’s death decides to learn kung fu. I was hoping that the movie will pick up from here but…….

Impact:-

I was very excited when the movie started. The warrior’s fight at the Great Wall of China was great piece of action. Hojo’s introduction was impressive and I looked forward to what was coming. I decided to overlook the fact the two extremely poor villagers could fly all the way to India. Also that they decided Sidhu was Liu Shang’s reincarnation the moment they met him. Never mind if Sidhu did not look even remotely like the picture of Liu Shang. Cinematic liberty, I told myself.

I also excused it as cinematic liberty that a single kick from Dada could make Sidhu go flying into the clouds. I tried to smile when the Chinese scientists broke into a Hindi song to welcome Sakhi. I again overlooked it when Meow Meow, who doesn’t know a word of Hindi, breaks into songs like ‘hoton mein aisi baat’ and ‘zara zara touch me’. When Wuang got back his memory the moment he saw a 20 year old photo of his family, I thought this is a tribute to the 70s bollywood. I told myself it was cute when Sidhu and Sakhi jumped from a skyscraper while fleeing from the villain and reached the ground safely with the help of an umbrella cum parachute, but not before breaking into a song. But when such absurdities kept increasing with every scene I gave up trying to enjoy this assault to my senses. By the climax, I was so indifferent to going ons that it did not surprise me that Sidhu, even after learning Kung-fu, used his ‘baawarchi’ skills to defeat the villain.

Technically:-

Its difficult to believe that this movie has been directed by the same guy who directed Kal Ho Na Ho. Nikhil Advani gives serious competition to Goldie Behl (Drona) for bad direction. The idea wasn’t bad, but the screenplay and direction completely ruined the movie. The dialogues swing from being good at times to plain mediocre. The music is bad and so is the choreography. Cinematography is average. The action is quite good by Indian standards though all those who are familiar with Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan movies won’t find it that great. China is reduced to the Great Wall and a small village. Yes, that’s all we see of China.

Performances:-

Its sad that the Chinese actors did a better job than Indian actors in both the action and emotions department. The guy who played Hojo was the best thing to watch in the movie. Not only is he great at action, he made a chilling villain with just an evil smile and a glint in his eye. The actor who played Deepika’s father was also quite good. Ranveer was okay in his role. As for the main leads-

Mithunda – Thanks for being the only actor to save India’s honour in this movie. How I wish your role was longer than 20 odd minutes.

Deepika – You are gorgeous and graceful. You were also quite impressive in the action scenes. But please hone up your acting skills. The fact that you have limited expressions in your kitty is becoming obvious now. The flat dialogue delivery is also not helping.

Akshay – You disappointed me big time. I came to see CC2C only for you. But realized that you have no respect for your fans. Otherwise you would not have dished this out for us. Your ‘lovable goof’ act is getting on the nerves now. The four standard expressions you have on your face throughout the movie did not help. On the action front….sorry but your moves seemed pale in comparison with the slick moves of the Chinese actors.

My Final Take:-

This movie had great potential but was let down by bad writing and even worse direction. Its sad that huge amounts of money is spent on shooting at foreign locales, but no attention given to the main thing in a movie – the script. It sad that bollywood thinks its okay to insult the movie-goer’s intelligence. Very sad.