If the over-the-top Bollywood concoction Chandni Chowk To China were a food, it would be "fusion" -- in which flavours are mixed to create something utterly new.

But there's little "nouvelle" about this cuisine.

Director Nikhil Advani and action-comedy star Akshay Kumar have instead created more a series of homages -- a little Karate Kid "wash-on, wash-off" here, Kung Fu Hustle silliness there, some Kill Bill and some full-out Bollywood musical moments.

Oh yeah, and there's a "twin plot," a well-worn film cliche in Bollywood and the rest of the world.

But if Chandni Chowk To China is not exactly original, it steals wisely, resulting in a movie that moves and entertains (even if it's too long by at least a half-hour).

Partly inspired by Kumar's own journey from cook to martial arts-trained action star, Chandni Chowk To China stars Kumar as Sidhu, a luckless food-chopper in the robust blue-collar Chandni Chowk district of Delhi, dreaming of a better (and easier) life under the baleful eye of his disapproving guardian Dada (Mithum Chakraborty).

One day, two old Chinese men bring him news that he's the reincarnation of their mythic hero Liu Shengh, born to save their village from Hojo (Chia Hui Liu), a gangster who decapitates his victims with a hat he apparently stole from Goldfinger's Oddjob.

Not speaking Chinese, Sidhu relies on his unscrupulous friend Chopstick (Ranvir Shoey), who assures him it's all good.

Thus Sidhu has a date with a buttkicking, and becomes entwined in the plot of two separated twins -- both played by doelike Bollywood starlet Deepika Padukone -- one an Indian supermodel and the other a killer on Hojo's payroll (daughters of a kung fu "master" cop who has gone mad). Plot point piles on plot point, with balletic slapstick by Kumar making way for the straight-outta-Hong Kong cartoonish finale. It's silliness squared, although hardly revelatory.

(This film is rated PG)

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