Main Hoon DON...

Amitabh Bachchan gave every Indian male it's ultimate fantasy, DON. He was a dangerous hitman with women swirling around him. Every average joe wants to be like him even though they may never be able to become one, except one person, Vijay. Don is an ultimate cult movie to come out of Bollywood, although there can be no other cult movie like Sholay. A simple man gets entangled in the big bad world of women, wine and guns, and the only person who knows his identity, DCP D'Silva, dies in a shoot-out. It was a mark of genius from Salim Javed. 28 years later, son of Javed Akhtar directs the classic again but does he succeed?


Remaking DON was a high risk for Farhan and the expectations were high from him. I don't think Farhan delivered as expected because he delivered much more than what was expected of him. This is his most accomplished work till date. A film maker is judged from his second movie onwards because anyone can make his first one a good one because they live and breathe that movie all their life. Ignoring first two movies made by Ashutosh, Swades was a better movie than Lagaan in terms of maturity of story and acting, Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikander was a better fare than QSQT from Mansoor Khan, again from a film making point of view. On the other hand, Mohabattein was a crappy dish after DDLJ (which I believe was directed by Yash because I can recognize his direction with my closed eyes and no way director of Mohabattein can be the same one as DDLJ) and so was Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham after a decent Kuch Kuch Hota Hain from Karan. Farhan Akhtar's Lakshya was way more mature than Dil Chahta Hain, in terms of characterisation, direction, screenplay and acting. Don is better than the first two because its hard to stay true to the original movie, which was a classic, and yet make the movie which is Farhan's own.


These days when so many movies are inspired by Hollywood, Farhan Akhtar remakes a classic and yet transforms it into his own DON. He pays rich tribute to the old movie but turns the movie on its head to make it his own (spoiler ahead in next few lines). As an audience you see the movie through Vijay's eyes but the end jolts you hard because the movie was being played through Don's eyes instead. I had to watch the movie twice to notice how Vijay before dieing tries to tell the inspector that he is Vijay and not Don, through his eyes. Also, in the movie one gets surprised how Vijay becomes Don so easily but realises in the end that it was infact Don who becomes Vijay and because becoming Vijay was easier than being Don, the transformation is justifiable. I think one has to see the movie twice to understand these nitty gritties of Farhan's version. For e.g. when Vijay (disguised as Don) is on phone if you look in the TV, you can see Tom and Jerry being played and it was Don's favorite not Vijay's. Another scene where he and Priyanka goes to pick up Deepu but Vijay just looks around the school without approaching Deepu because he didn't knew what Deepu looks like in reality. Its a very intelligent movie, which itself is a rarity in Bollywood.


The movie has a connection with me too. No No, I am not like Don but the character of Arjun Rampal is named Jasjit, which is my name and very unusual for a character in a movie. Infact, I have hardly heard this name anywhere else.



Shah Rukh Khan after a while (infact after Swades) gave a restrained performance. Although, the movie required over-the-top performance because of Don's character but it was still very subtle. Recently, he has been doing lot of girly/loser performances, thanks to Karan but this movie brings the Baazigar kind of performance in him, which made him the star in the first place. Its hard to match Amitabh's footsteps but only SRK could have done this role because on one hand Amitabh is good at playing any role even that of ego-maniac Don, but to SRK it comes naturally. Farhan should also be credited for introducing a new style in the movie like in DCH with printed ties along with same print shirts. Priyanka was looking sultry as Roma although its no comparison to Zeenat Aman's of 70s. Although, the person that took the cake in this new movie was Boman Irani, who completely changed the character of Inspector D'Souza and made it his own.

Kareena tried her best to look sexy but she still could not match the moves of Helen and considering Helen was almost 40ish when she did that dance sequence, its remarkable.

The songs of the movie are groovy at its best. The remixed version of old ones are nicely done paying rich tribute to the classic esp. Khaye kee paan banaras waala, which is sung very well by SRK if not better than Amitabh's version. The action of the movie is truly international. The cinematography is world-class and the screenplay is crisp.

Amitabh Bachchan's Don started a whole genre of movies based on Underworld and although Farhan's won't do the same, it will certainly be remembered as the biggest tribute the original Don. No one can make the movie as good as the original because as Don says, "Don ko pakadna mushkil hee nahin..."