The story revolves around Sonia(Isha Kopikkar) who is the owner of a casino in Chinatown, Goa. She is a successful and rich lady whose only love is her little son. When... ... her son goes missing she advertises a reward for a large sum of money for anyone who can find her son.
Raj(Shahid Kapoor) is a struggling actor who needs money fast to make his mark in Bollywood. Priya(Kareena Kapoor) too has run away from home and split up with her boyfriend, in order to establish herself she needs money as well. Accidentially the twosome discover the missing child and off they head to Chinatown to claim their prize money.
They land up at 36 Chinatown but instead of finding Sonia alive and well they find her dead body and in panic flee the scene of the crime. Priya leaves her bag behind by accident and in recovering the bag the duo get caught at the scene of the crime. The cop in charge of the case(Akshaye Khanna) is convinced this is not a open-and-shut case and there is more to the story than meets the eye.
The suspects include two holidaying couple(Paresh Rawal/Payal Rohati and Johnny Lever/Tanaaz Currim), the local playboy(Upen Patel), a drunkard(Raj Zutsi) and the house servants(Dinyaar Contractor and Roshan Tirandaaz).
Who is the killer? And what is the killers motive? 36 CHINATOWN provides the answers.
In terms of a story Shyam Goel has written a story that packs in all the ingredients of a masala film loaded with comedy, romance, action and drama, given this is supposed to be a suspense/thriller the angle of the police officer comes in too late, and even when it does the focus still doesn't shift entirely onto the suspense angle of the movie. The srceenplay in the movie is a disappointment! The series of events that unfold seem more interested in entertaining the viewer with its comic scenes instead of any serious focus being on the police solving the case. It would be unfair to call this a suspense/muder-mystery only as the movie is a masala film with everything packed into it.
The film starts out well but the pace starts to slacken upto interval point with the entrance of Akshaye Khanna. The pace picks up a little only to slacken again. The biggest excitement about a suspense/murder-mystery is the identity of the killer and in 36 CHINATOWN the identity of the killer comes across as a false ending and leaves the viewer feeling ripped off. The killers were infact so obvious that you think " It can't be them..that would be too easy"!
Director Abbas-Mustan have earlier handled the thriller genre and murder-mystery genre superbly with films like KHILADI, BAAZIGAR, DARAAR, and HUMRAAZ. All the films mentioned too have ample doses of comedy but once the movie got serious-it stayed seirous! In that retrospect 36 CHINATOWN starts out as a comedy...turns into a romance....then a bit of suspense only to turn into a comic/thriller through the rest of the duration. Abbas-Mustan are known for their intense dramatic scenes, action packed fight sequences and thrilling suspense however 36 CHINATOWN doesn't provide the viewer with any of the three things mentioned. It maybe a case of wrong advertising as the promos indicated that the movie was a suspense when infact it isn't. The comic portions of the movie are handled well however the love story between Kareena and Shahid falls flat. The investigation scenes are executed well too and saved by the presence and performance of Akshaye Khanna. In saying that Abbas-Mustan have done a fairly decent job at directing a film that gives the viewer his moneys worth. I was amused and often entertaining by the movie and not once did I feel bored although at times I did think the movie was kinda stupid. Given the boxoffice status of the movie it appears that Abbas-Mustan still have their fingers on the audiences pulse.
Dialogues by Anurag Prappan were no great shakes and sometimes came across as rather cliched. Khannas characters needed more one-liners and crowdpleaisng lines and the dialogues for Lever/Rawal too could've been funnier.
In terms of performances the movie has a range of actors...
Akshaye Khanna makes his midway through the movie and delivers a great performance. As the chilled back, sharp and intelligent Police Officer Khanna is very efficient and has fun with his role. The role doesn't require any histronics but his mere presence with this tongue-in-cheek presence elevates the movie to a huge extent. However given that this is Akshaye Khannas first movie with Abbas-Mustan since his great role in HUMRAAZ...one expected more!
Kareena Kapoor and Shahid Kapoor don't really have much to do in the movie and they merely fall into the background as character actors. Shahid tends to overract here tho does impress in a few of the comic scenes. Kareena literally has nothing to do here and this is a role that she sleepwalks through. Their romantic scenes come across cold and don't excite the viewer either.
Upen Patel makes a confident and imrpressive debut. He has screen presence and presents himself superbly onscreen. His dancing is superb and has charm. In terms of acting he definetly needs to work on his delivery which comes across as flat/monotone at times and also his facial expressions(or lack of should I say). However as a playboy he was spoton! With the right choice in roles he can come up.
Paresh Rawal and Johnny Lever are good in their comic roles. Both manage to evoke laughter in their scenes yet one can deifnetly say this isn't their finest performance. This is the kind of role both actors can sleep-walk through.
B-Grade queen Payal Rohatgi is surprisingly decent here and looks good too showing ample clevage(shes famous for that). Tanaaz Currim too looks gorgeous. Viveh Shauq falls flat in his part as Akshaye Khannas sidekick and I find him terribly irritating. Isha Kopikkar is gorgeous and acts well too-one wishes she had more scenes. Vivek Vaswani, Dinyaa Contractor don't leave much of a mark.
Tanushree Dutta is sizzling in her song and dance appearence with Shahid. Priyanka spots a cameo at the end too and barely has a few lines similar to TAXI NO.9211.
Technically the film is a slick product and the look and feel of the movie is keeping in mind the genre of the movie. Ravi Yadavs camerawork is glossy and he captures the mood of a suspense film perfectly as well as the bright colours of a comedy film. At this stage I would also like to mention the "look" of the movie...Akshaye Khanna spotting a oldschool trendcoat and a top hat....the old mansion 36 Chinatown all had trappings of a great suspense flick-and its a pity that such tremendous potential was wasted in the genre.
Himesh Reshammiyas music rocks! The man can do no wrong however the songs could've been placed a LOT better. AASHIQUI MERI rocks! The movie is deifnetly foot tapping and very very addictive. The remix which comes at the end credits is even better. The second song with Shahid-Tanushree is forgettable and comes too soon after the first song.BADI DILCHASPI is well picturised and comes at the right moment. 24/7 is catchy too but once again needed better timing.
Salim-Sulaimans background score is apt for the genre-this is their forte after all!
All up 36 CHINATOWN doesn't live upto expectations at all as a suspense/thriller/murder-mystery and it appears the movie has been wrongly publicised. However the movie is worth a dekkho once as it is a fairly entertaining as dumb popcorn film and intermittently watchable entertaininer.....above all Akshaye Khanna rocks and makes the movie worthwhile!
Final Rating: * * *
