Chandni Chowk to China

• Have you ever dreamed of being more than your circumstances? Sidhu (Askay Kumar) longs to escape his dreary existence cutting vegetables at a road-side food stand in Chandni Chowk, one of the oldest and busiest markets in Delhi, India. When two strangers from China proclaim he is the reincarnation of a Chinese war hero, Sidhu envisions fame, fortune and adventure. Journeying with them back to Chin

Have you ever dreamed of being more than your circumstances? Sidhu (Askay Kumar) longs to escape his dreary existence cutting vegetables at a road-side food stand in Chandni Chowk, one of the oldest and busiest markets in Delhi, India. When two strangers from China proclaim he is the reincarnation of a Chinese war hero, Sidhu envisions fame, fortune and adventure. Journeying with them back to China, Sidhu meets the alluring Sakhi (Deepika Padukone) and love blossoms. But can it survive the vicious s! muggler, Hojo (Gordon Liu) and his cadre of kung-fu assassins? Megalomaniacal villains, crazy inventors, Chinese mystics and outlandish kung-fu assassins all get thrown together in this joyful, uplifting adventure full of beautiful landscapes, attention-grabbing songs, and high energy dancing. Featuring top Bollywood actors Akshay Kumar and Deepika Padukone and produced by acclaimed father and son duo, Ramesh and Rohan Sippy, Chandni Chowk to China promises to excite.It's a rare Bollywood show that gets a healthy stateside push, but in 2009 Chandni Chowk to China invaded U.S. theaters with its crackpot blend of music, slapstick, and melodrama. The plot itself couldn't be clearer. (Just kidding.) Akshay Kumar, leading light of Bollywood, plays Sidhu, a Delhi nitwit who slices potatoes at a food store in the chaotic Chandni Chowk neighborhood. After discovering the unmistakable image of the god Ganesh in the skin of a spud, Sidhu is proclaimed the reincarnation of a ! legendary Chinese hero. A trip to the Great Wall and a job def! ending t he much-abused population of a small town can't be far behind. Mix in a pretty TV-commercial spokesmodel (Deepika Padukone) visiting China to bring closure to a childhood tragedy, plus martial-arts goofiness, a villain (legendary Kill Bill star Gordon Liu) with a razor-edge bowler hat--take that, Goldfinger--and the occasional musical number, and you've got yourself a thoroughly entertaining piece of absurdity. Kumar is spirited, Padukone is gorgeous, and Ranvir Shorey and Mithun Chakraborty provide amusing support. Arguments can certainly be made about whether Warner Bros. could have thrown their weight behind some other Bollywood offering for a U.S. push (this film's chopsocky similarities to Kung Fu Hustle, which rang up tidy profits, might explain the choice), but taken on its own zany terms, Chandni Chowk is a good time. --Robert Horton