Not really caring about the quality of the movie, I bought a low priced copy of China Gate mainly for the dance Chamma Chamma featuring Urmilla Matondkar. This outdoor dirt-dance featuring Urmilla is most excellent and most of the stars get into the act. For this reason alone I am happy with the purchase.
I read somewhere that Indians have a saying that the better the music and dance the worse the movie. While I don't necessarily agree with that, it sure seems true in this case because the movie is just awful.
The movie is kind of like the Magnificent Seven plus the Three Amigos meet a never ending supply of banditos that are led by a guy so crazy that Charles Manson would cringe. The odd part for me is that this crazy megalomaniac, because of his eyes and some facial expressions, looks like a slightly overweight Andy Kaufman with long wild hair and a beard. You really want this guy to die and boy does that take a long time.
Bad guys are all on horseback but you can call a cab. Later in the movie some of the good guys are on horseback because there are a lot of extra horses due to bad guys being shot. I think they run out of ammo several times shooting bad guys. Apparently, crazy leaders can go down to the local Indian unemployment office and hire these loyal-to-the-death guys cheap. At one point the press shows up with cameras. It makes me laugh just thinking about it but the movie seemed dead serious. Oh, almost forgot, the movie has nothing to do with China other than a failed mission in the past where the heroes were branded as cowards.
Alright, in my opinion the story is a 4 except for where it digressed and slid to a 2. Acting by the all star cast including actors such as Om Puri, Amrish Puri, Naseeruddin Shah, Paresh Rawal, Kulbhushan Kharbanda and Jagdeep (just to name a few) is very good - 5 ish. Celebration dance featuring Urmilla is a 5. I must be leaving something out because I feel like I'm rouding up to a 3.
