Entertainment

WHOLE NEW BOLLY GAME

CALL it fusion cinema. “Chandi Chowk to China” is the second Bollywood production from Warner Bros., which outsourced US distribution of its first, “Slumdog Millionaire,” to Fox Searchlight.

This one – which Warners is giving the biggest stateside release ever for a Bollywood epic – is, unlike “Slumdog,” more or less entirely in Hindi.

It stars Akshay Kumar, India’s answer to Jackie Chan (with a side helping of Adam Sandler), as Sidhu, a dimwitted, cowardly short-order cook in Delhi’s Chandi Chowk section.

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Sidhu is mistaken for the reincarnation of a Chinese hero. So he’s imported to China to take on the fearsome Chinese industrialist Hojo (Gordon Liu), who sports a derby borrowed from the James Bond villain Oddjob.

Not that Sidhu’s untrustworthy translator (Ranvir Shorey) tells him what’s really going on.

The convoluted plot involves good and bad twins (both played by gorgeous model Deepika Padukone) and their amnesiac long-lost father (Roger Yuan), who ends up coaching martial arts to Sidhu – not to mention Sidhu’s own father.

“Chandi Chowk’ is fun but somewhat exhausting, with several elaborate production numbers, a bullet-proof umbrella that also serves as a parachute, a magical potato – plus a running time just over 2 1/2 hours, which is short by Bollywood standards.

A sequel is promised in the closing credits.

In Hindi and Mandarin with English subtitles. Running time: 154 minutes. Rated PG-13 (martial arts violence). At the Loews Village and the ImaginAsian.