I would really really not like to compare the 78’s Don and 2006 Don- The chase begins again but then the movie was promoted as a remake and comparission between the two was obvious. While Chandra Barot directed the 78’s Don based on the screenplay by Salim-Javed, 2006’s Don is directed by Farhan Akhtar re-written but based on Salim-Javed’s original screenplay.
The story is almost the same. Singhania is a top drug smuggler. Don is the chief henchman working for Singhania. He sets up his base in Malaysia. A police Officer D’Silva is working to destroy Singhania’s empire. To do that he has to catch Don. During a chase, he is able to kill Don but then to catch the rest of his gang, he plants a look-alike, Vijay in the smuggler’s gang. Vijay spies for D’Silva and helps him catch the whole gang but in the raid, D’Silva is killed.
Now Don a.k.a Vijay is caught and accused of being Don. His gang knows that he is not Don and they are ready to kill him. The story here is similar to the 78’s Don. The second half has been re-written and changed to a large extent. Compared to the earlier Don, this has a lot of twist and turns. The end is not the same as the original Don. For a moment, the end had me surprised but then it’s not a typical Hindi Movie climax.
The original Don was a fast paced thriller which did not leave the audience to think about the logic. The situation and sequence and the story ran at such a pace that it was a fun to watch as the events unfolded in front of you and you did not think about the logic. It was entertainment.
The new Don fails in the main aspect of being a thriller. A thriller has to be fast paced and gripping. Don slacks, slows and sometimes even is boring. You cannot help but compare the scenes and dialog with the original and then you end up comparing the two Don, Shahrukh and Amitabh. While Amitabh made minimum efforts to be cool and savvy, Shahrukh has to resort to his trademark gimmicks to be cool. Being Don for Amitabh was using his body language to be a sign of authority and confidence. Shahrukh falls short in this category. He does try and does succeed to a large extent but he needs lots of efforts.
The movie starts slowly with slow camera moments. At a certain time, the movie gets too slow. As the first part is similar to the original, you know the scenes even if the location is different. Even the dialogs are same. The editing had to be a little tighter. Slow thriller makes for boring viewing.
Shahrukh is good to some extent. He does nothing new than his many earlier movies. He tries to portray the cool guy he is. But Don is a criminal, almost like a evil James Bond with a lot of style. What Amitabh did with ease, Shahrukh does with much fanfare and a lot of efforts.
Priyanka Chopra is Zeenat Aman a.k.a Roma. She is shown to be training martial art before her brother is killed. Her character is true to the original character and she takes less efforts to slip into the sexy Roma.
Isha Khopikar plays Anita who becomes an important character here. She hardly has any scenes. If not for the climax, she would not have been even noticed.
Farhan Akhtar messes after these two characters. Narang, an important character played by Kamal Kapoor in the original is played by Pavan Malhotra in the new one and is totally wasted, and so is Mac’s role and most importantly Kamini’s role played by Kareena Kapoor. She does not sizzle as much as Helen did in the original. It ends up being just another item number.
Coming to the next three important characters, Jasjit played by Arjun Rampal. JJ is now a computer engineer. How does a computer engineer climb high rises is not explained. The climax has him disappearing without any reason. Arjun Rampal sleeps through his role. Unimpressed.
Om Puri plays Malik, the interpol officer. Now that is one character that played a significant part in the original. Here he is just another officer. He could have been anybody. Even his characterization does not make him rise above other characters.
Boman Irani surprisingly plays a more important character, DCP D’Silva. His character changes here being a better strategist. He does a Ok job with the role.
The main problem with Farhan’s Don is, its more about Shahrukh Khan, the star instead of Don. He was so keen in giving Don the larger than life image that he forgot the story and other characters. He wanted Don to be stylish, dangerous and all that Bond stuff but he forgot that it has to be a thriller where the audience has to be thrilled. Shooting at exotic location, having new daring stunts and making the lead character more stylish does not mean having a hold on the story. The story slips to slow.
The music which played an important role in the original is unimpressive here. “Yeh mera dil” does not sizzle at all. The “Khaike Paan Banaraswala” does not impresses. Other songs I don’t even remember.
If I look at Farhan’s Don as a new film without comparing with the original, then its impressive. The treatment of the film is terms of look and feel and the second part with the twists and turns could be a decent effort. But if I compare it with Original Don, the original still rocks. The only thing similar between the two is like the original lot of illogical things happen here too.The idea of keeping an open ending means that there are now chances of Don 2.
Rating: 6/10
On a lighter note “Don bakwaas he nahi, ghatiya bhi hai”
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More review at Passion For Cinema
Historcally it has been proved that sequels and remakes rarely do as well as the original. In any case, Shahrukh khan is no match for
Amitabh Bachchan and the original was already there as a benchmark. Its true that had it been the first Don, it would have been more impressive. Ram Gopal Verma is likely tio fare worse with a remake of Sholay. Certain films should never be remade just as some songs should not be messed around with.
Arey bhai mere, paisaaa jyaada huaa hein kyaa jo SRK ka movie dekhtaa hein ? As if the female juntaaa isn’t doing their bit to fill the coffers of this ham, we now have level headed guys like you queing up for 1st day 1st shows of SRKs movies !! Sudher jaa .. Sudher jaa..
IW
Problem nahi na! Yahan Amsterdam main scheme hai jahan ek card lo aur mahina bhar jitne chaho utne movies free. Unlimited movies! So the more we watch the more paisa vasool. Hum sab picture dekhte hai, chahe aacha ho ya na ho
Hiren
Well the first sequel is off to a bad start. I have no hope of Sholay as the reports indicate RGV has changed a lot in the story and it looks like a miscast in many roles.
Punds
Watched Don on a Sunday. Fairly crowded.
Movie got off to a good start, trying to portray itself as a new age movie with effects and so on. Then came the scene with Kareena which was a let down, the dance was pretty unimpressive, somehow did not excite. Was just trying to figure out how and when she would die (problem with watching a remake, you try and do a scene by scene compare)
Second half was like a mess, there were so many characters involved, trying to solve all the various sub-plots and get them meshed into the same final plot took quite some effort, and somewhere the movie suffered.
Never did understand how a computer sleuth could suddenly behave like Bond, and could not figure out the scene where the Don chases after the kid and Arjun Ramphal. If it was the replacement don, then would understand, but the original had no reason to chase the kid since he had no connection with him.
Excellent Movie And Shahrukh Khan acted very well.
don is a fantastic movie to watch …….i am a very big fan of the king khan and apart from that new don has got great ……..its a nice movie to watch every one should watch this movie once in lifetime….
Good Review Don was a great watch.
I have watched Amitabh’s don and reckon it was designed for audience of those times and this Don is more for this generation. I agree about the slow pace and all but
So much critcism is wrong and manipulative work of media.
SRK is the next best thing to have happened to Indian Cinema after Amitabh and they are both of different era’s altogether.They are both Great actors
Shahrukh has brought Indian cinema on world platform, bollywood owes it to him He is not called king khan for no reason Stay away from malicious media and enjoy movies for what they are - time pass
Shahrukh khan is the todays star, do not compare him to Amitabh.
But he is the god for the young generation.
Look at the energy he oozes, that is inimitable.
He is an ideal human being, perfect, hardworking and selfmade.
A person with so many qualities is rare to find.
Don (new) is a movie to be taken on its own, watch old don I am sure one can pick so many flaws in that too. but human nature is past is always glorious (remember good olden days) we all do that.
Watch it free of prejudices and you will like it.
Its a decent movie with a ultra slick technical finesse you will only understand if you have an eye to it.
When you pull someone down, realise you are stooping low to do it.
Sorry I forgot to add, your review was perfect.
Liked your analysis too, well analysed.
Got too carried away defending shahrukh
Ashish
Yes good point with the kid theory. When SRK comes to meet the kid with Priyanka, he looks a little surprised to see the kid and does not recognise him first. But I guess we call it Cinematic liberty.
Himanshu
I would have really liked to see it as a independent movie without the comparission of the original. But I think there were a lot of shortcomings and certainly not worth the hype.
Karan/Priya
I am not against SRK. I watch movies for the story and entertainment rather than stars. It does not matter who is acting if they can keep me entertained. A small movie like “Main Meri patni aur woh” was good in spite of no big stars.
The review is not about SRK but about DON. The whole idea about DON was that he was a alpha male with I-don’t-care attitude. SRK just makes him stylish. The problem here is he tries hard to be cute and cool. This was not a romantic role but an action role. The earlier DON was cool!
If the producers and director tell me that this is going to be a new DON and then expect me not to compare, its not fair. I will compare the scenes, the songs, the situations.
I am not pulling SRK down, I am pulling the movie down. Again not worth the hype! As you said, its a decent movie and that is just it is Decent hence it gets a rating of 6/10
If you think I am against SRK, read my Swadesh review!
Priya
Thank you.
plz send me this movies link
i dont know
Shahrukh khan …………………………. amazing
I like him sooooooooooooomuch
ma naim is ani