Don ko pakadna mushkil hi nahi , na mumkin hai !
The line above - is a Legend. And director Farhan Akhtar has attempted to do it once more, has he managed to do it ? The answer is YES. So how does this Don line up against the 1978 "AB's" Don ? Well.........
Story - The plot is simple - basically taken from the 1978 movie. A DCP hot on the trail of a dreaded criminal called Don, finally manages to shoot him but the Don does not survive. Now to get hold of the Don and his gang's secrets, the DCP trains and lets loose a duplicate Don (a hamshakal of the Don) in the gang. But just as the duplicate Don is about to get all the info, the DCP kicks the bucket , leaving Don between the devil and the deep sea to fend himself with both the police and his own cronies after him.
But it is here that Farhan excels, throws in a couple of twists in the tale - one comes bang in the middle and the other right at the end.
When the movie begins - you feel you are in a time wrap , the costumes and styling remind you of the old movie - you will tend to compare the going ons on the screen with the original and all the names will come rushing back to you - Ramesh, Narang, Don, D’silva.................but after a while you find that though the movie is a remake , its DIFFERENT. After you get through tthe initial feel , you watch it not as a remake but as a movie on its own and thats where Farhan scores.
The performances - SRK has a tough job to do filling into Big B’s shoes and he does that admirably as Don. Stylish, sauve and debonair , SRK carries off this act as Don beautifully. As Vijay , in my personal opinion SRK falls short of Big B. He cant do the bhaiyya act convincingly and its shows.
Priyanka - Frankly put I did not like her in the movie one bit. She lost weight for the movie and it does not go well with her thin and wiry frame. And her plot with Don hasnt got much importance.
Kareena - plays Helen's role and as much as I tried to put the comparision with Helen out of my head and review her performance , still she left me cold.
Boman Irani - He gets a meaty role and does full justice. People have told me they dont like Boman in the movie but I think that this is the 1st time Boman has got to play a normal character and maybe thats why people havent liked him. They expect a character that stays in the minds and beleive me Boman’s DCP will be there like Iftekar is always there in our minds.
Arjun Rampal - Playing Pran's role here is completely wasted. It would have made no difference if his character was not present as Pran's was in the old movie.
Rest of the cast - Om Puri is wasted and Pawan Malhotra gets meaty role after a while. Rest all are adequate. And what exactly was Isha Koppikar doing in the movie ?
Music - Frankly the music is dissapointing. The 2 songs retained from the original being the major culprits more so the Khaike Paan Banaraswala song. Of the rest the title track and the club song are nice, thats just about it.
Direction / Cinematography - Farhan excels again. As a director he has complete grip over the movie and his introducing the 2 twists works beautifully. Cinematography as I said - perfect. Paris, Malaysia, Mumbai - all captured nicely. The movie could have 15 minutes trimmed off easily from the 2nd half to make it more tighter.
Verdict - I say 3.5 / 5. So Don ko pakadna hai ?? Watch it. You wont regret it. But be warned , try not to compare it scene by scene to the original and you will enjoy more.
. The climax just fizzles out the whole good feeling of watching a good movie - it's too cheesy and filmy for my liking.
