36 China Town (2006)

User Rating:

5.7/10   

Directors:

Abbas Alibhai Burmawalla
Mastan Alibhai Burmawalla

Writers:

Shyam Goel (story)
Jitendra Parmar (dialogue)

Release Date:

21 April 2006 (India)

Genre:

Comedy | Thriller

Tagline:

In Chinatown... everyone is guilty...

Plot:

An inspector heads to Chinatown, a resort, to investigate the occurrence of a crime, only to discover that in Chinatown, EVERYBODY is a criminal...

Plot Keywords:

Casino | Chinatown | Goa | Butler | Actor

Awards:

1 win & 1 nomination

Cast

Akshaye Khanna	...	Chief Police Inspector Karan
Kareena Kapoor	...	Priya
Shahid Kapur	...	Raj Malhotra
Paresh Rawal	...	Natwar
Payal Rohatgi	...	Gracy
Johnny Lever	...	K.K. (as Johny Lever)
Tanaaz Currim Irani	...	Ruby (as Tanaaz Lal)
Isha Koppikar	...	Sonia Chang
Tanushree Dutta	...	Film heroine
Upen Patel	...	Rocky
Priyanka Chopra	...	Karan's wife
Vivek Shaq	...	Inspector Ravi (as Vivek Shauq)
Rajendranath Zutshi	...	Drunk (as Raj Zutshi)
Dinyar Contractor	...	Lobo (as Diniyaar Contractor)
Roshan Tirandaz	...	Mrs. Lobo

Runtime:

140 min

Country:

India

Language:

Hindi

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

UK:12A | India:UA

Company:

Mukta Arts

Trivia:

The film's concept came to directors Abbas-Mustan while watching the detective thriller Chinatown (1974). This film is thus partly based on and partly a tribute to that film.

Movie Connections:

Remake of Once Upon a Crime... (1992)

Soundtrack:

Jab Kahi

Make no mistake this is no thriller its a comedy involving a Murder.

I went into this movie expecting a stylised(somewhat overly) thriller from Abbas-Mastan duo and boy was I surprised.

The movie started off like expected with a stylised flashback and a decent attempt to merge to the stories of a few individuals but it was all different and confusing since then.

In fact everything about this movie and the motives behind it such as packaging it as a thriller and the dozen ploy holes (maybe more i lost count after a while) are confusing.

I've reviewed this movie like a comedy with a murder involved maybe even like a spoof as THIS MOVIE CANNOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES BE CALLED A THRILLER AND ANYONE GOING INTO THIS MOVIE EXPECTING ONE WILL BE SEVERELY Disappointed also if i did review this movie as a thriller than even one star would be to much.

The story of this movie is promising enough with a few bumbling people all landing up at the same time at China Town(sic) in Goa at the same time a murder happens.

The characters are all caricatures with the henpecked husband, the suave playboy, the tough cop, the bumbling sidekicks etc. Even so they are all tolerable and the performances by everyone is good given the limited premise of the movie.

Special mention to Upen Patel (who I'm sure is dubbed) who has had a decent debut and Johny Lever who thanks to his short hiatus from films (and the fact that his Numero Uno status as the most annoying guy in Bollywood being taken over by Rajpal Yadav) is actually quite tolerable in this film. However he and Paresh Rawal have nothing new to offer in terms of their roles. In fact Item Girl Payal Rohtagi also gave a decent performance.

The songs in this film save for the first one are probably the worst part of this film as they completely destroyed the flow of the film and were played when you least wanted it. In fact one could easily hear the collective sigh of the audience when yet another HIMMESBHAI song was played.

The comedy is nothing special though a few scenes especially those involving the interrogation of the Suspects was hilarious. Some of the scenes even though they were predictable had me falling out my seat laughing.

Also a really funny person throughout the movie was the Stupid Junior Cop who was Akshaye Khannas sidekick all his one liners were absolutely hilarious.

The sets of this film were actually quite good although the crude labeling of the Casino was very annoying (come one people are gambling inside we all know its a casino).

Which brings us to Murder Mystery...the lesser said the better there were a dozen plot holes it was shoddily done and completely unimportant I'm sure almost no one in the audience cared who the killer was....hell it was so bad that the killer actually cracks a joke about the killing after being caught WTF.

Save for the first ten minutes when this movie tries to be a thriller this movie is actually funny.

A good comedy (maybe even a spoof)but the obtrusive songs and the fact that this movie was not supposed to be comedy and a thriller affect its ratings.

Watch this movie if you want to see a good comedy with the background of a murder mystery.

PS maybe subhash ghai saw the box office of the recent comedies and repackaged this movie as a thriller to con us whatever be the reason this movie will definitely reflect negatively against him.