A government-backed Indian-Chinese film starring Jackie Chan is bombing thanks to its absurd quantity of racial stereotypes.
Kung Fu Yoga, an action film jointly produced by Indian and Chinese film studios, has outraged much of India by featuring a parade of elephants, snake charmers and B-list Bollywood stars.
Almost every Indian review of Kung Fu Yoga has been negative, mainly focusing on the retrograde and insulting view of the country.
The film was meant to be a landmark cultural partnership – announced during Chinese president Xi Jinping’s state visit to New Delhi – but has essentially backfired.
The Wire called Stanley Tong’s movie an “overdose of cultural stereotypes.” The Indian Express said it was all “old guys doing rope tricks and sadhus levitating. This, in 2017. I kid you not.”
In the trailer alone, combatants appear to throw fireballs while two women speculate from the sidelines about “Indian magic”.
Hot-headed Royal baddy Randall, played by reasonably minor Bollywood actor Sonu Sood (more on this point later), rides through the desert with a falcon on his wrist.
Almost every review complained about the number of snake charmers.
Mid-Day said it was “the sort of desi exotica… that you would imagine featuring in a film with the Brit James Bond, or the American Indiana Jones, back in the ’80s/’90s. Except, this is a joint Indo-Chinese production”.
One is indeed reminded of James Bond. Specifically Octopussy, which features Roger Moore, pushing 60 and cracking terrible curry jokes in Rajasthan.
Here, 62-year-old Jackie Chan, playing a version of himself who is also somehow the greatest archaeologist in China, teams up with his Indian counterpart, Ashmita, played by 24-year old actress Disha Patani.
Together they are supposed to locate Indian treasures that were taken to China thousands of years ago, so they trek around Tibet and race Lambos through Dubai with lions in the back seat. That is, of course, when they’re not travelling by elephant.
This, when the point of the co-production treaty was, according to Viacom18 COO Ajit Andhare, to “develop strong cultural experiences and exchange of talent”.
And the exchange of money, of course. It would allow the the two most populous nations on Earth to benefit from a pooled mega-audience of 2.5 billion.
Indo-Chinese co-productions also exist outside of the strict quota restrictions that allow only 34 overseas titles to be released in China per year, thereby granting India extra access to a lucrative market.
But joint Indian and US company Viacom18 withdrew their backing from Kung Fu Yoga in 2015, saying only that they “couldn’t agree on the terms”.
A source told the Wall Street Journal this was because they were given far less creative control over the film’s vision than their Chinese counterparts, including not having a say in which Indian actors got cast. They weren’t happy in particular with 43-year-old Bollywood actor Sonu Sood, known mainly for supporting roles, being cast as villain of the piece.
This imbalance even seems to be reflected in one of the promo images. Chan and two young actors from Hong Kong and China occupy the foreground, while four Indians are in the back row. Even the lion goes ahead of them.
India’s Daily O also noted that adverts for President Xi’s policies are given incongruous airtime: “when a Chinese archaeologist official urges his colleague, played by Chan, to carry out an ‘archaeological cooperation’ with India ‘to help the Belt and Road Initiative’.”
But at least this got a laugh when the film was screened at Beijing. In the meantime, audiences elsewhere may have to brush up on their Octopussy.
