Revisiting Don (1978)

When I was a child, there weren’t any multiplexes. Actually our suburb only had one theatre and we did not visit till I was 15 – 16 years old. We didn’t have money to spare on theatres and I was not so crazy about movies at that time, at least not those which came every weekend. But I do remember when the people of our colony had poojas in the locality. Giant screens would be put right in the middle of the road. A projector would beam movies on the big screen and all the houses would shut down their lights including the street lights and the lights on the staircases of building.

The only light that came was the one on the screen and the stars would shine. The movies would be shown only on weekend maybe 7-10 times a year. I would fall asleep before I reach the end and dad would carry me home. He was not a movie fan either. I don’t recollect seeing many movies completely. I was overwhelmed by the screen itself to pay attention to the movies.

Sitting on my dad’s lap, i would doze up. I remember two scenes very distinctly. One was the climax scene of Jeetendra’s “Farz” where Jeetendra gets down from a speeding jeep and the jeep crashes into a plane just about to take off. I think the movie was “Farz”. The second scene is the start of “Don” where a big car drives through tall grass with the credits rolling in. Amitabh Bachchan gets down and says something and throws the bag toward three people. The bag explodes and Amitabh drives back, Incredible!

Years later, I saw Don again on a video with the tracking button working in full swing. I liked it very much. Many had seen it but I was seeing it with my mouth open.

“Abhi dekh, gaadi turn maaregi aur Amitabh mar jayega” (See now, the car will take a turn and Amitabh will die) My friend whispered from behind. The next moment the car turns and Amitabh dies. Shit the hero dies one hour into the movie. Amitabh dies in the movie. What now? I looked back at him. He smiled knowingly, “Aage dekh” (keep watching) and lo there was a double role. I smiled.

I never saw “Don” again until I found the DVD in local DVD shop in Amsterdam. Like my backlog, I had to watch the movie but I seem to buy DVDs which I want to see but don’t get time enough to see one, not until Shahrukh’s “Don” is scheduled to release this diwali.

Don is a thriller with thrills, good song and memorable characters.

The story is of a Don who is intelligent and cunning. He runs a gang of people who are into smuggling. The main job profile is never known. The police are after him. One day his luck runs out and he dies. The police Superintendent replace him with a look-alike who acts as a police mole. Everything goes according to the plan except that when the police rounds up all the bad guys, the only person who knows that the look-alike is not don is killed. Now the police think he is Don, Don’s gang knows he is not Don and both the sides are after him and want him dead. Then there is a mystery of the hidden boss of the smuggler’s gang. The second half is almost the look-alike trying to prove his innocence.

Don had many sub plots integrated to the main story. There was Pran playing Jasjit who wants revenge from Don and the police superintendent because of whom he had lost his wife and two children. There is Roma played by Zeenat Aman who wants revenge from Don for killing her brother. There is Kamini played by Helen in a very short role trying to kill Don for killing her fiancée. And of course there is the script and story by Salim-Javed which had a lot of twist and turns and a hell lot of coincidences, too many to be true.

Chandra Barot directs this minute-by-minute thriller. The sequences are planned in such a way that the viewer has no time to think. Many scenes are illogical but then we tend to ignore it because the next scene comes with equal force to totally ignore the illogical earlier one. Consider the scene when Vijay (Don’s look-alike) says he need reason to visit Iftekaar, he has a brilliant plan to enter his house from the terrace. He climbs a rope from below. Who ties the rope for him to climb up? No explanation. The next moment he coolly visits the children he takes care in their hostel without the fear of getting caught by his gang. So why was he afraid to visit Iftikaar?

The songs and the music works to the movie’s advantage. Music is by Kalyanji-Anandji was a craze when released. Years later too, when we saw the songs on the TV, we would go crazy, especially “Khaike Paan banaras wala” and “Main hoon Don”

Helen was reaching 40 when she danced to “Yeh mera dil” and the oomph she shows was too good.

Zeenat Aman was the sexy, karate kid, Roma with her stylish dress and cool attitude. Pran was Jasjit a.k.a JJ who was ridiculously dressed in black shirt and black pant with white belt. Iftikaar plays DSP D’Silva who trains and plants the look-alike in the gang. This may be one of his best remembered role. Though he mostly played a police officer, he had a significant part in the story. Each character like Kamal Kapoor as the right-hand man, Narang, Om Shivpuri as Interpol Officer Malik, Shetty as Shaakal and Arpana Choudhary as Anita played a significant part in the movie.

Finally Amitabh Bachchan as Don/and the look alike, Vijay was the best part of Don. He plays the cool, savvy Don with such easy, switching to the road side singer Vijay and trained to be a mole in the gang. He look, walks and talks Don. The story was rejected by many before finally being made with Amitabh Bachchan. Now its difficult to imagine anyone doing Don better than Amitabh Bachchan. No one can say this better than Amitabh

“Don ka intezar to baara mulko ki police kar rahi hai. Par ek baat samaj lo, Don ko pakadana mushkil he nahi namumkeen bhi hai”

And true to his words, he never gets caught. Will Shahrukh be as good as the next Don? We will see!

Rating: 8.5/10

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