Raj Kumar Santoshi’s new dacoit film is a tribute to Akira Kurosawa’s "Seven Samurai".

The movie breaks the trend of monotonous love stories, love triangles and revenge dramas. It requires lot of guts and dedication to break the rules of mainstream commercial cinema. Raj Kumar Santoshi has shown that by making one of the costliest action films to be made in India.

Though inspired by "Seven Samurai" and Ramesh Sippy’s "Sholay" to some extent, China Gate has a very well crafted script written by Raj Kumar Santoshi and Anjum Rajabali of "Ghulam" fame and K.K.Raina. The script flows in its tight narrative structure through out the film. Dialogues are also good in the film. Though there is no comedy in the movie there are some light sequences among the ten main characters of the film. The love and hate relationship among these ten characters which keeps them united has been shown pretty well. The film has fabulous sets designed by Sameer Chandra. Shot largely in the vintage and raw locales of Gangavati near Hampi, Karnataka.

The beauty of this simple story lies in its approach. Santoshi chose best ten character artists, studied their strengths and made proper use of their talent. All the characters have a distinct identity and each artist has got enough space to display his talent.

Naseerudin Shah emerges as the star of China Gate with his terrific acting. Om Puri and Danny Dengzongapa have given good support. Debutant Mukesh Tiwari as Jageera the dreaded dacoit has given a stupendous performance. His mere presence evokes terror and hatred. His make up and presentation is excellent. Paresh Rawal is outstanding as the corrupt cop. Mamta Kulkarni has a non-glamorous role and done a good job. With Piyush Shah’s excellent cinematography, China Gate is thoroughly enjoyable.