Chandni Chowk is said to be partly based on Akshay's life

Akshay Kumar and director Nikhil Advani chose a novel way to promote their new film Chandni Chowk To China. They invited the media for lunch, and showed them a sizeable chunk of the film. Chandni Chowk is said to be partly based on Akshay’s life. Akki was born in the Delhi locality of Chandni Chowk and went on to become a chef in Bangkok before he became an actor in Mumbai. Similarly, his character Sidhu in the film travels from Chandni Chowk to China, learns kung-fu and becomes a hero to his Chinese friends.

But the story is not as simple as that.

Through a series of hilarious incidents, Sidhu learns that he is the descendant of a warrior and travels from Chandni Chowk -- where he is a halwaii (confectioner) -- to China to fight the villain Ho Jo in order to follow the prophecy.

Martial arts play an important role in the film. Akshay learns kung-fu from Sukhi’s (Deepika Padukone) father.

And the movie -- or the bits we saw -- is certainly very funny. Like Singh Is Kinng, Akshay makes even serious scenes look funny.

But perhaps more attention should have been paid to the action scenes. The fight directors should have played more subtly with the cables that they used to navigate Akshay while he is shown crossing a stream of water by jumping on logs of wood or even while practicing to break hot pots of water with his legs.

They should have known that this will affect the visual appeal of the film.

On the action front, Akshay has tried to perform perfectly. In between comedy and action there is the budding romance between Askhay and Deepika. Let us inform you, Deepika once again has a double role like in Om Shanti Om -- she plays an Indian and a Chinese.

From what we saw it sure is a fun film and in totality looks promising.

Though Chandni Chowk to China was initially slated to be a Diwali release, due to technical reasons the film has been postponed and will now release on January 16, 2009.

Designer and photographer Rajesh Karkera tells us about the movie clips that were shown to the media, and tells us how impressed he was:
I thought the promotional event would be like any other. Imagine my surprise then when we were asked to leave behind our video cameras, as well as mobile phones, at the entrance.

That’s when Akshay told all of us that it was a private screening for members of the press.

The first screening was the two-minute theatrical trailer of the film, followed by three music videos. The title song made us laugh at Akshay’s antics in China, while Bappi Lahiri’s India se aaya mera dost starts off in Chinese.

A rather generous portion of the film was screened as well.

Visually, Chandni Chowk is quite appealing. The cinematography is execellent. The film seems to be a fun-filled journey, sprinkled with Akshay’s comic antics as well as serious moods.