There’s little in Kung Fu Yoga that might send Indian audiences into raptures There is little in Kung Fu Yoga that might send Indian audiences into raptures. The resultant froth is anything but heady. Long-time creative collaborators Chan and director Tong spin a yarn that is obviously aimed at chucking the Indian and Chinese styles of filmmaking into a pot and stirring them up.
The film culminates in a temple of gold watched over by a glittering idol of Lord Shiva. The prime locations are the Terracotta Warriors Museum in Xi’an, an ice cave (purportedly in China’s Kunlun Mountains), the camel race tracks and streets of Dubai, and the deserts of Rajasthan are the prime sites. The film has been shot in China, Iceland, Dubai and India. The locations are diverse and impressive. The breathless pace that Kung Fu Yoga sets obviates the possibility of the audience fully grasping what is unfolding on the screen. Neither, obviously, would its audience be inclined to seek deeper meaning in its fantastical narrative construct. Kung Fu Yoga is too over the top to in any way impact the world’s comprehension of Sino-Indian equations.Ī dizzyingly fast-paced but musty mish-mash of martial arts, stunts and comedy, Kung Fu Yoga isn’t the kind of film that has any time to pause and ponder. Kung Fu Yoga Movie Review: Sonu Sood plays a descendant of a renegade Magadha empire generalīut to read any larger political and cultural motives into how the film pans would be completely misplaced. Kung Fu Yoga is skewed in favour of China in every which way. Principal antagonist Sonu Sood, who plays a descendant of a renegade Magadha empire general but is inexplicably called Randall, occasionally employs Indian wrestling techniques in combat when he isn’t barking orders to his lackeys.īut this guy is generally reduced to taking his action-cues from Chan and his gang. Jackie Chan and Aarif Rahman, perpetually in action mode, peddle the power of Chinese martial arts while the benefits of Yoga are mentioned only in passing. The song, which draws everybody, including the baddie, into its flow, constitutes a small concession in a film where Yoga is doomed to play second fiddle to Kung Fu. Pity it is a case of too little too late.Ĭhan’s Bollywood dance moves are by far the most charming part of the film Abrupt and illogical as it might be in the context of the adventure tale that Kung Fu Yoga is meant to be, Chan’s Bollywood dance moves are by far the most charming part of the film.
Stanley Tong’s overheated film ends on an off-key musical note after two warring sides – a band of well-intentioned treasure hunters and a gang of grab-and-run mercenaries – have had a series of violent confrontations over a diamond-studded key to a fabled treasure trove hidden in a long lost kingdom. There is no way of knowing if Jackie Chan was tempted to plunge into this disorienting whirl of a film by the chance to dance to a peppy Bollywood beat, but he sure does a swell job of the hand gestures and body feints that the routine demands. This was an excellent return to the Jackie from yesteryear.Cast:Jakcie Chan, Sonu Sood, Amyra Dastur, Disha Patani, Aarif Rahman, Zhang Yixing There is a car chase in the movie that is pretty fantastic. Instead, he provides us with typical action movie fluff. But he's too old to be breaking bones for our enjoyment.
You'll See him do little stunts like jump through a luggage carrier with style (most of us half his age can't do that) and you'll see him do some really good old school kung fu moves like he did in Fearless Hyena. It's not Jackie at his prime but he's at his best mixing humor with action. Jackie Chan plays Jack Chan (Really?) an archaeologist looking for a treasure that connects Chinese and Indian culture, and when he finds it this ultimate Bollywood Archetype comes after him for it. It's a great action adventure film (with a bad title) in what looks like it could be the sequel to Armour of the Gods or Operation Condor (which in America would be considered Armour of the Gods 2). Not enough dance routine to make that claim ( Unless like me you count Jackie's Kung Fu fighting as dancing) I herd some Bollywood director was suppose to film it but backed out leaving Chinese cinema veteran Stanley Tong to fill the void.