Wednesday, October 25, 2006

[Movie] Don

Well, I watched Don at City Pride-Kothrud (Pune) last Sunday, along with my brother and cousin brother. I had not seen any of its promos, still had some positive vibes, because this remake was being directed by Farhan Akhtar, whose earlier two movies Dil Chahta Hai and Lakshya are among my favourites.
...and he has indeed lived up to the expectations. His version of Don is as good as the original one. Here are my comments on the same....

Story/Script/Dialogues:Writing anything about the story would giving away the movie's USP. So suffice it to say that the story is different from the original one.
Most of famous dialogues from the original movie are retained: such as "Don ko pakaDna mushkil hi nahi, naamumkin hai" "yeh tum janti ho ki pistol khaali hai..." "Muze uske joote achche nahi lage...." etc.


Music/Songs:
Music is by Shankar-Ehsaaan-Loy and they have done a good turn by retaining the theme from the original. Songs have been kept to the bare minimum. "Main Hu Don" is rather good, and "Khaike Paan Banaaraswaala" has been made more zingy.
The song by Kareena Kapoor is more vulgar than sensuous. In fact, it is rather boring.


Cinematography:
Simply supperb! Almost entire movie is shot in Malaysia, and it is refreshing to see something other than the snow-clad mountains of Alps/Switzerland or the by-now familiar trio of Paris-London-New York. I guess this year more Indians would be visiting Malaysia than ever before.

Cast:
Apart from Shahrukh as Don, the star-cast consists of Boman Irani, Priyanka Chopra, Isha Koppikar and Arjun Rampal. Boman Irani is the best of the lot. It's a joy to watch his facial expressions and body language. He is certainly one of the most versatile actors we have today.
Priyanka Chopra seems to be modelling herself on Angelina-taai ( the one who was in Pune, not so long ago, along with Brad-bhau and Shiloh Nouvel-baaL).Isha Koppikar and Arjun Rampal do their roles rather well.
But, the movie rests squarely on the shoulders of Shahrukh.... and let's admit it, the King Khan has certainly done a good job. His Don is more flamboyant, more flirtatious and.... well, much more cunning and ruthless. Of course, Shahrukh is yet to overcome his typical mannerisms, but they don't affect the don's character to a great extent.

Direction:
Full Marks to Farhan Akhtar. He has interpreted the classic in his own way, without damaging the original. This Don is more sophisticated ( uses a Compaq laptop and drives nothing less than a Mercedes), the film is a polished work of art and is edited in such a way that it picks up the pace gradually and then never slows.]


Do watch this movie.... it's full-too paisa wasool.
I am aware that there would be some who want to spoil the mood by comparing the remake with original and whining about Big B's acting etc... IMO, Amitabh's movie is certainly a classic but Shahrukh's Don is as good in its own right.