Chandni Chowk to China

The movie received negative reviews. It received 46% positive ratings on the film-critics aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes 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 Kumars 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 its 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, its 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 Kumars 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.