Chandni Chowk To China
Encyclopedia
Chandni Chowk to China shortened as CC2C is a Hindi
film which released on 16 January 2009. It is directed by Nikhil Advani
and stars Akshay Kumar
and Deepika Padukone
in the lead roles, with Hindi cinema
veteran Mithun Chakraborty
and Hong Kong action cinema
veteran Gordon Liu
among the co-stars. In addition to being shot in China
, many parts of the film were shot in Bangkok
, Thailand
, although some of the China scenes were shot in sets in the Shanghai Film Studio
.
Distributed in the U.S. and co-produced by Warner Bros.
, it is the third Bollywood
movie made and distributed in partnership with a major Hollywood studio, following Sony
's Saawariya
(2007) and Walt Disney Pictures
' animated feature Roadside Romeo
(2008). It is Warner Bros. Pictures' first Hindi film.
) is a lowly vegetable cutter at a roadside food stall in the Chandni Chowk
section of Delhi
. He longs to escape his dreary existence and looks for shortcuts with astrologer
s, tarot card readers, and fake fakir
s, refusing to believe in himself despite his foster father Dada's (Mithun Chakraborty
) best efforts. When two strangers from China claim him as a reincarnation of a war hero in the past and take him to China, Sidhu, thanks to devious translations by his con-man buddy Chopstick (Ranvir Shorey
), believes he will be taken to an exotic land and feted as a hero. In actuality, the Chinese men want him to rid their Chinese village of the vicious smuggler Hojo (Gordon Liu
).
Sidhu blissfully sets forth to China with Chopstick. Along the way he meets Sakhi (Deepika Padukone
), the Indian-Chinese spokesmodel known as Ms. Tele Shoppers Media, or Ms. TSM, who is travelling to the land of her birth and of her presumed-dead [who is still alive] father and her twin sister, Suzy. Suzy, also known as the femme fatale
Meow Meow, works for Hojo, not knowing Hojo tried to kill her father. Sidhu, through a series of lucky coincidences, initially manages to sidestep being beaten brutally up by Hojo, but Hojo eventually catches up with him and exposes him as the buffoon he really is. Hojo kills Dada, and a disgraced Sidhu, left for dead himself, vows revenge. He encounters an amnesia
c vagrant who turns out to be former Police Chief Chiang (Roger Yuan
), the father of Sakhi and Suzy. Chiang recovers his memory, with his Kung Fu skills still intact. Sidhu wishes to learn cosmo Kung Fu. Chiang takes Sidhu on as his apprentice, and after months of training, Sidhu decides to kill Hojo.
Hojo tells a lie to Meow Meow that Chiang killed her father. When Hojo meets up with Sidhu, Meow Meow hugs Chiang and stabs him in the back with a knife. Sidhu attacks Meow Meow, but Sakhi stops him. Meow Meow was shocked and figured out that Hojo lied to her. Meow Meow betrays Hojo and helps her father. They watch Sidhu battle Hojo. When Sidhu almost loses, his dada appears and tells him not to worship a potato and Chiang tells him to use the skill that is special to him. His specialty was chopping vegetables and cooking which helped him beat Hojo brutally in the end. In the end, Sidhu gains Sakhi's love. Right before the credits, pictures appear of what happen to the village. The last one shows that something has happened somewhere in an another village in Africa. They say there is a "To be Continued -- Chandni Chowk to Africa
."
Shooting began in January 2008 and included a schedule in China
.
The music is by Shankar, Ehsaan and Loy. The film also features music by Kailash Kher, Bappi Lahiri-Bappa Lahiri and a rap song sung by Akshay Kumar and composed by Punjabi rapper Bohemia
. The soundtrack album was released 2 December 2008.
and a 44 out of 100 score from Metacritic
. Claudia Puig of USA Today
said, "This Indian/Chinese cinematic hybrid is likable and entertaining but overlong and occasionally hokey", and that star Akshay Kumar's "physical humor brings to mind Jim Carrey
". John Anderson of Variety
wrote, "If Chandni Chowk to China were a person, it would need Valium", and found that "everything is fast and furious, hilarious, hysterical and frantic. Some of the sequences as are quite beautiful and, in the case of the dance numbers featuring Padukone, stunning. But it's the fight scenes as that truly take off". Frank Lovece
of Newsday
wrote, "Less a Bollywood bonbon than a pan-Asian fusion dish, this combination of Indian musical and Chinese chopsocky is, nonetheless, delicious fun".
Steven Rae of The Philadelphia Inquirer
stated that, "Chandni Chowk is entertainingly goofy for about 30 minutes. And then, for the next two hours-plus, it's agony." Scott Tobias of The Onion
described the film as "crass, schizophrenic, culturally insensitive, horribly paced, and shameless in its pandering to the lowest common denominator", while Owen Gleiberman
of Entertainment Weekly
said, "This galumphing elephant of a chopsocky revenge-of-the-nerd
quasi-musical lacks the lyrical choreographic
beauty that has marked such Stateside Bollywood releases as the gorgeous Lagaan
". Michael Philips
of the Chicago Tribune
called the film "a massive and rather tiring showcase for Bollywood action hero Akshay Kumar". Indian critic Taran Adarsh
gave the movie 1.5/5 stars, calling it "a big, big, big letdown". Rajeev Masand
of IBN
termed it a tiring watch, while praising Kumar's performance.
The film has received one award nomination, with Deepika Padukone
being nominated for Best Actress at the 3rd Asian Film Awards
held in March 2009.
, there were protests against the film due to a passing claim that Buddha was born in India; Lumbini
, which is the birthplace of Buddha, is located in Nepal. .
Several shows were cancelled due to heavy protests from students and youth groups. Protests included threats by Buddhists to burn movie theaters that screened the film, and racial slurs like "Dhoti
" (the Indian term for a form of traditional clothing which is used as a derogatory racial slur against Indians in Nepal, see Usage of Dhoti in Nepal) hurled at the Indian embassy in Katmandu.
The protests continued for several days, despite the Nepali distributor editing out the piece of narration that mentioned Buddha in the copies of the film shown in Nepal. On Thursday, 22 January Nepali cinemas stopped screening Chandni Chowk to China.
.
Hindi
Standard Hindi, or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi, also known as Manak Hindi , High Hindi, Nagari Hindi, and Literary Hindi, is a standardized and sanskritized register of the Hindustani language derived from the Khariboli dialect of Delhi...
film which released on 16 January 2009. It is directed by Nikhil Advani
Nikhil Advani
-Early life and background:Advani was born in Mumbai. His father has a Pharmaceutical business and his mother is an advertising professional.He studied at Green Lawns High School, Breach Candy, and later did his Masters in chemistry at St...
and stars Akshay Kumar
Akshay Kumar
Akshay Kumar is an Indian film actor, producer and martial artist who has appeared in over a hundred Hindi films. When he began his acting career in the 1990s, he primarily starred in action films and was particularly known for his appearances in feature films commonly called the "Khiladi series",...
and Deepika Padukone
Deepika Padukone
Deepika Padukone is an Indian actress and a former model. She appears mostly in Hindi as well as Tamil and Kannada language films. Born to Badminton player Prakash Padukone, she chose to become an actress and not pursue a career in sports.Padukone made her acting debut in the 2006 Kannada film...
in the lead roles, with Hindi cinema
Bollywood
Bollywood is the informal term popularly used for the Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai , Maharashtra, India. The term is often incorrectly used to refer to the whole of Indian cinema; it is only a part of the total Indian film industry, which includes other production centers producing...
veteran Mithun Chakraborty
Mithun Chakraborty
Mithun Chakraborty is an Indian film actor, social activist, and entrepreneur, who has won three National Film Awards. He made his acting debut with the arthouse drama Mrigaya , for which he won his first National Film Award for Best Actor....
and Hong Kong action cinema
Hong Kong action cinema
Hong Kong action cinema is the principal source of the Hong Kong film industry's global fame. It combines elements from the action film, as codified by Hollywood, with Chinese storytelling and aesthetic traditions, to create a culturally distinctive form that nevertheless has a wide transcultural...
veteran Gordon Liu
Gordon Liu
Gordon Liu is a Chinese martial arts film actor. He became famous for playing the lead in The 36th Chamber of Shaolin and its sequels...
among the co-stars. In addition to being shot in China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, many parts of the film were shot in Bangkok
Bangkok
Bangkok is the capital and largest urban area city in Thailand. It is known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon or simply Krung Thep , meaning "city of angels." The full name of Bangkok is Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahintharayutthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom...
, Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
, although some of the China scenes were shot in sets in the Shanghai Film Studio
Shanghai Film Studio
Shanghai Film Studio is the film division of the Shanghai Film Group Corporation in Shanghai, China. It is responsible for the production of Chinese films and TV programs.-History:...
.
Distributed in the U.S. and co-produced by Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
, it is the third Bollywood
Bollywood
Bollywood is the informal term popularly used for the Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai , Maharashtra, India. The term is often incorrectly used to refer to the whole of Indian cinema; it is only a part of the total Indian film industry, which includes other production centers producing...
movie made and distributed in partnership with a major Hollywood studio, following Sony
Sony
, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
's Saawariya
Saawariya
Saawariya is a 2007 Hindi film based on Fyodor Dostoevsky's short story "White Nights".Co-produced by Sony Pictures Entertainment and released on 9 November 2007, it is the first Bollywood movie to receive a North American release by a Hollywood studio, shortly preceding Walt Disney Pictures'...
(2007) and Walt Disney Pictures
Walt Disney Pictures
Walt Disney Pictures is an American film studio owned by The Walt Disney Company. Walt Disney Pictures and Television, a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Studios and the main production company for live-action feature films within the Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group, based at the Walt Disney...
' animated feature Roadside Romeo
Roadside Romeo
Roadside Romeo is a 2008 computer animated musical comedy film written and directed by Jugal Hansraj and co-produced by Aditya Chopra and Yash Chopra of Yash Raj Films and Walt Disney Pictures...
(2008). It is Warner Bros. Pictures' first Hindi film.
Plot
Sidhu (Akshay KumarAkshay Kumar
Akshay Kumar is an Indian film actor, producer and martial artist who has appeared in over a hundred Hindi films. When he began his acting career in the 1990s, he primarily starred in action films and was particularly known for his appearances in feature films commonly called the "Khiladi series",...
) is a lowly vegetable cutter at a roadside food stall in the Chandni Chowk
Chandni Chowk
Chandni Chowk , originally meaning moonlit square or market, is one of the oldest and busiest markets in Old Delhi, now in central north Delhi, India...
section of Delhi
Delhi
Delhi , officially National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest by population in India, next to Mumbai. It is the eighth largest metropolis in the world by population with 16,753,265 inhabitants in the Territory at the 2011 Census...
. He longs to escape his dreary existence and looks for shortcuts with astrologer
Astrologer
An astrologer practices one or more forms of astrology. Typically an astrologer draws a horoscope for the time of an event, such as a person's birth, and interprets celestial points and their placements at the time of the event to better understand someone, determine the auspiciousness of an...
s, tarot card readers, and fake fakir
Fakir
The fakir or faqir ; ) Derived from faqr is a Muslim Sufi ascetic in Middle East and South Asia. The Faqirs were wandering Dervishes teaching Islam and living on alms....
s, refusing to believe in himself despite his foster father Dada's (Mithun Chakraborty
Mithun Chakraborty
Mithun Chakraborty is an Indian film actor, social activist, and entrepreneur, who has won three National Film Awards. He made his acting debut with the arthouse drama Mrigaya , for which he won his first National Film Award for Best Actor....
) best efforts. When two strangers from China claim him as a reincarnation of a war hero in the past and take him to China, Sidhu, thanks to devious translations by his con-man buddy Chopstick (Ranvir Shorey
Ranvir Shorey
Ranvir Shorey is an Indian actor and former VJ. Since making his debut in Ek Chotisi Love Story , he has starred in a number of high profile films such as Jism and Lakshya...
), believes he will be taken to an exotic land and feted as a hero. In actuality, the Chinese men want him to rid their Chinese village of the vicious smuggler Hojo (Gordon Liu
Gordon Liu
Gordon Liu is a Chinese martial arts film actor. He became famous for playing the lead in The 36th Chamber of Shaolin and its sequels...
).
Sidhu blissfully sets forth to China with Chopstick. Along the way he meets Sakhi (Deepika Padukone
Deepika Padukone
Deepika Padukone is an Indian actress and a former model. She appears mostly in Hindi as well as Tamil and Kannada language films. Born to Badminton player Prakash Padukone, she chose to become an actress and not pursue a career in sports.Padukone made her acting debut in the 2006 Kannada film...
), the Indian-Chinese spokesmodel known as Ms. Tele Shoppers Media, or Ms. TSM, who is travelling to the land of her birth and of her presumed-dead [who is still alive] father and her twin sister, Suzy. Suzy, also known as the femme fatale
Femme fatale
A femme fatale is a mysterious and seductive woman whose charms ensnare her lovers in bonds of irresistible desire, often leading them into compromising, dangerous, and deadly situations. She is an archetype of literature and art...
Meow Meow, works for Hojo, not knowing Hojo tried to kill her father. Sidhu, through a series of lucky coincidences, initially manages to sidestep being beaten brutally up by Hojo, but Hojo eventually catches up with him and exposes him as the buffoon he really is. Hojo kills Dada, and a disgraced Sidhu, left for dead himself, vows revenge. He encounters an amnesia
Amnesia
Amnesia is a condition in which one's memory is lost. The causes of amnesia have traditionally been divided into categories. Memory appears to be stored in several parts of the limbic system of the brain, and any condition that interferes with the function of this system can cause amnesia...
c vagrant who turns out to be former Police Chief Chiang (Roger Yuan
Roger Yuan
Roger Yuan is a Los Angeles-born actor, martial artist, stunt man and fight choreographer. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of California Los Angeles. Yuan is a black belt in Chun Kuk Do...
), the father of Sakhi and Suzy. Chiang recovers his memory, with his Kung Fu skills still intact. Sidhu wishes to learn cosmo Kung Fu. Chiang takes Sidhu on as his apprentice, and after months of training, Sidhu decides to kill Hojo.
Hojo tells a lie to Meow Meow that Chiang killed her father. When Hojo meets up with Sidhu, Meow Meow hugs Chiang and stabs him in the back with a knife. Sidhu attacks Meow Meow, but Sakhi stops him. Meow Meow was shocked and figured out that Hojo lied to her. Meow Meow betrays Hojo and helps her father. They watch Sidhu battle Hojo. When Sidhu almost loses, his dada appears and tells him not to worship a potato and Chiang tells him to use the skill that is special to him. His specialty was chopping vegetables and cooking which helped him beat Hojo brutally in the end. In the end, Sidhu gains Sakhi's love. Right before the credits, pictures appear of what happen to the village. The last one shows that something has happened somewhere in an another village in Africa. They say there is a "To be Continued -- Chandni Chowk to Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
."
Cast
- Akshay KumarAkshay KumarAkshay Kumar is an Indian film actor, producer and martial artist who has appeared in over a hundred Hindi films. When he began his acting career in the 1990s, he primarily starred in action films and was particularly known for his appearances in feature films commonly called the "Khiladi series",...
as Sidhu Sharma / Liu Sheng - Deepika PadukoneDeepika PadukoneDeepika Padukone is an Indian actress and a former model. She appears mostly in Hindi as well as Tamil and Kannada language films. Born to Badminton player Prakash Padukone, she chose to become an actress and not pursue a career in sports.Padukone made her acting debut in the 2006 Kannada film...
as Saaki / Suzie / Meow Meow / Ms.TSM - Ranvir ShoreyRanvir ShoreyRanvir Shorey is an Indian actor and former VJ. Since making his debut in Ek Chotisi Love Story , he has starred in a number of high profile films such as Jism and Lakshya...
as Chopstick - Mithun ChakrabortyMithun ChakrabortyMithun Chakraborty is an Indian film actor, social activist, and entrepreneur, who has won three National Film Awards. He made his acting debut with the arthouse drama Mrigaya , for which he won his first National Film Award for Best Actor....
as Dada - Roger YuanRoger YuanRoger Yuan is a Los Angeles-born actor, martial artist, stunt man and fight choreographer. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of California Los Angeles. Yuan is a black belt in Chun Kuk Do...
as Police Chief Chiang - Gordon LiuGordon LiuGordon Liu is a Chinese martial arts film actor. He became famous for playing the lead in The 36th Chamber of Shaolin and its sequels...
as Hojo - Kiran JunejaKiran JunejaKiran Juneja/Kiran Joneja is a veteran Indian actress. She works in Hindi Cinema also called bollywood. She is second wife of famous filmmaker Ramesh Sippy. She hails from Punjabi Bagh area of New Delhi, India and her father was a doctor.-TV career:She started with modeling assignments for...
as Chiang's wife
Production
The film, earlier known as Mera Naam Chin Chin Choo and also Made in China, is written by Sridhar Raghavan.Shooting began in January 2008 and included a schedule in China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
.
The music is by Shankar, Ehsaan and Loy. The film also features music by Kailash Kher, Bappi Lahiri-Bappa Lahiri and a rap song sung by Akshay Kumar and composed by Punjabi rapper Bohemia
Bohemia (musician)
Bohemia is an Pakistani American Punjabi rapper and a music producer from California, Bohemia quickly gained popularity in 2003 with his independent debut album, ‘Vich Pardesan De ’ which hit the Top 10 on BBC Radio 1 UK. The following album, ‘Pesa Nasha Pyar’, became the first full-length...
. The soundtrack album was released 2 December 2008.
Box office reception
Chandni Chowk to China earned in its opening weekend. It went on to earn a total of in India. The film's total North American box office in the four weeks of running was $921,738, and total worldwide gross was $13,439,480. The film was rated a flop.Critical reception
The movie received negative reviews. It received 46% positive ratings on the film-critics aggregate site Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
and a 44 out of 100 score from Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
. Claudia Puig of USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
said, "This Indian/Chinese cinematic hybrid is likable and entertaining but overlong and occasionally hokey", and that star Akshay Kumar's "physical humor brings to mind Jim Carrey
Jim Carrey
James Eugene "Jim" Carrey is a Canadian-American actor and comedian. He has received two Golden Globe Awards and has also been nominated on four occasions. Carrey began comedy in 1979, performing at Yuk Yuk's in Toronto, Ontario...
". John Anderson of Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
wrote, "If Chandni Chowk to China were a person, it would need Valium", and found that "everything is fast and furious, hilarious, hysterical and frantic. Some of the sequences as are quite beautiful and, in the case of the dance numbers featuring Padukone, stunning. But it's the fight scenes as that truly take off". Frank Lovece
Frank Lovece
Frank Lovece is an American journalist, author, comedy performer and comic book writer. He was additionally one of the first professional Web journalists, becoming an editor of a Silicon Alley start-up in 1996....
of Newsday
Newsday
Newsday is a daily American newspaper that primarily serves Nassau and Suffolk counties and the New York City borough of Queens on Long Island, although it is sold throughout the New York metropolitan area...
wrote, "Less a Bollywood bonbon than a pan-Asian fusion dish, this combination of Indian musical and Chinese chopsocky is, nonetheless, delicious fun".
Steven Rae of The Philadelphia Inquirer
The Philadelphia Inquirer
The Philadelphia Inquirer is a morning daily newspaper that serves the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, metropolitan area of the United States. The newspaper was founded by John R. Walker and John Norvell in June 1829 as The Pennsylvania Inquirer and is the third-oldest surviving daily newspaper in the...
stated that, "Chandni Chowk is entertainingly goofy for about 30 minutes. And then, for the next two hours-plus, it's agony." Scott Tobias of The Onion
The Onion
The Onion is an American news satire organization. It is an entertainment newspaper and a website featuring satirical articles reporting on international, national, and local news, in addition to a non-satirical entertainment section known as The A.V. Club...
described the film as "crass, schizophrenic, culturally insensitive, horribly paced, and shameless in its pandering to the lowest common denominator", while Owen Gleiberman
Owen Gleiberman
Owen Gleiberman is an American film critic for Entertainment Weekly, a position he has held since the magazine's launch in 1990. From 1981–89, he worked at the Boston Phoenix....
of Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
said, "This galumphing elephant of a chopsocky revenge-of-the-nerd
Nerd
Nerd is a derogatory slang term for an intelligent but socially awkward and obsessive person who spends time on unpopular or obscure pursuits, to the exclusion of more mainstream activities. Nerds are considered to be awkward, shy, and unattractive...
quasi-musical lacks the lyrical choreographic
Choreography
Choreography is the art of designing sequences of movements in which motion, form, or both are specified. Choreography may also refer to the design itself, which is sometimes expressed by means of dance notation. The word choreography literally means "dance-writing" from the Greek words "χορεία" ...
beauty that has marked such Stateside Bollywood releases as the gorgeous Lagaan
Lagaan
Lagaan is a 2001 Bollywood sports film written and directed by Ashutosh Gowariker. Aamir Khan, who was also the producer for the film, stars with Gracy Singh in the lead roles; British actors Rachel Shelley and Paul Blackthorne play the supporting roles...
". Michael Philips
Michael Phillips (critic)
Michael Phillips is a film critic for the Chicago Tribune newspaper. Previously he was the drama critic of the Tribune; the Los Angeles Times; the St. Paul Pioneer Press; the San Diego Union-Tribune; and the Dallas Times Herald....
of the Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
called the film "a massive and rather tiring showcase for Bollywood action hero Akshay Kumar". Indian critic Taran Adarsh
Taran Adarsh
Taran Adarsh is an Indian film critic, journalist, editor and film trade analyst. He is also a former producer and screenwriter. He is the son of film director and producer, B.K. Adarsh....
gave the movie 1.5/5 stars, calling it "a big, big, big letdown". Rajeev Masand
Rajeev Masand
Rajeev Masand is an Indian film critic and entertainment reporter for CNN-IBN. Masand started his career as an entertainment correspondent at the young age of 16...
of IBN
IBN
IBN or ibn may refer to:In general* ibn, patronymic in Arabic personal names * IBN code page , a Nordic language code page under MS-DOS...
termed it a tiring watch, while praising Kumar's performance.
The film has received one award nomination, with Deepika Padukone
Deepika Padukone
Deepika Padukone is an Indian actress and a former model. She appears mostly in Hindi as well as Tamil and Kannada language films. Born to Badminton player Prakash Padukone, she chose to become an actress and not pursue a career in sports.Padukone made her acting debut in the 2006 Kannada film...
being nominated for Best Actress at the 3rd Asian Film Awards
3rd Asian Film Awards
The 3rd Asian Film Awards was given in a ceremony on 23 March 2009 as part of the Hong Kong International Film Festival.-Best Film:*Winner: Tokyo Sonata **Forever Enthralled...
held in March 2009.
Controversy
In NepalNepal
Nepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...
, there were protests against the film due to a passing claim that Buddha was born in India; Lumbini
Lumbini
Lumbinī is a Buddhist pilgrimage site in the Rupandehi district of Nepal. It is the place where Queen Mayadevi gave birth to Siddhartha Gautama, who as the Buddha Gautama founded the Buddhist tradition. The Buddha lived between roughly 563 and 483 BCE...
, which is the birthplace of Buddha, is located in Nepal. .
Several shows were cancelled due to heavy protests from students and youth groups. Protests included threats by Buddhists to burn movie theaters that screened the film, and racial slurs like "Dhoti
Dhoti
The dhoti or pancha is the traditional men's garment in the in India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. A similar garment is worn in some rural areas of Punjab province in Pakistan, but the use is fast declining...
" (the Indian term for a form of traditional clothing which is used as a derogatory racial slur against Indians in Nepal, see Usage of Dhoti in Nepal) hurled at the Indian embassy in Katmandu.
The protests continued for several days, despite the Nepali distributor editing out the piece of narration that mentioned Buddha in the copies of the film shown in Nepal. On Thursday, 22 January Nepali cinemas stopped screening Chandni Chowk to China.
Music
The music of Chandni Chowk to China was released on 2 December 2008. The album features composers as diverse as Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, Kailash-Paresh-Naresh, Bappi Lahiri-Bappa Lahiri and Bohemia aka the Punjabi rapperBohemia (musician)
Bohemia is an Pakistani American Punjabi rapper and a music producer from California, Bohemia quickly gained popularity in 2003 with his independent debut album, ‘Vich Pardesan De ’ which hit the Top 10 on BBC Radio 1 UK. The following album, ‘Pesa Nasha Pyar’, became the first full-length...
.