Farhan Akhtar's Don - VI

The highlight for me were the (i) title track of the film "Main Hoon Don" which was very well sung by Shaan, (ii) two major twists in the plot of the film which were a major deviation from the original film and (iii) a very restrained Shahrukh Khan which automatically translated into a very bearable Shahrukh Khan. The title track “Main Hoon Don” is a very racy and peppy number and I must say that it’s picturised very well on Shahrukh Khan. It is in this song that Shahrukh Khan really comes onto his own while potraying the attitude of Don. The other supposedly highlight of the music of the film i.e., "Khaike Pan Banaraswala" was very disappointing. That's all I can say about this song.

So, for all you people who have a prejudiced mind against Farhan Akhtar's Don, I would highly recommend it as a must watch. If not for anything, purely for its thrill, fast paced action, extremely entertaining and jazzed up background score (which does remind you of the original Don).

An interesting trivia about this film is that Farhan Akhtar initially wanted to cast Hrithik Roshan as Don. However, after writing the character of Don, he thought he would need a more mature actor and hence he zeroed in on Shahrukh Khan. My limited knowledge of Hindi film industry says that Hrithik Roshan would have done better justice to this role than Shahrukh Khan. But then, these are my views and it is not a wonder that Farhan Akhtar and Shahrukh Khan have reached places in their respective careers which I can only dream of.

I also noticed a small blooper in the film. When Boman Irani escapes from the van by getting out of the van (before the van blows up) and then getting in the manhole which was under the van. After Boman Irani goes away into the manhole and when the van moves, the manhole is just not there. Seems like Boman Irani took away the manhole with him when he went underground :-)

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Farhan Akhtar's Don - V

Amongst the other star cast of the film, Priyanka Chopra (as Roma) and Isha Koppikar (as Anita) didn't have much to offer except just look good on screen which they did. Arjun Rampal (as Jasjit) is strictly okay. Kareena Kapoor (as Kamini) was okay though her gyrations on “Yeh Mera Dil” was very disappointing. Om Puri (as Interpol inspector Malik) was wasted. The only other person who had a meaty role was Boman Irani (as Inspector De'Silva). His role was almost parallel to that of Shahrukh Khan. Although I though Boman Irani was a bit disappointing, he was very earnest in his pursuit to potray Inspector D'Silva though. Personally, I thought Farhan Akhtar ought to have cast somebody who was more fit, lean and agile as opposed to Boman Irani who inspite of being a brilliant actor, did not fit the bill of an inspector who would run to chase a criminal. Frankly, I thought he was not convincing as Inspector De'Silva.

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Farhan Akhtar's Don - IV

All in all, very well made film even though it may not have had a phenomenal run at the box office. But it has done very well to ensure that it’s producers / distributors are laughing all the way to the bank. Although I am not a Shahrukh Khan fan, I thought he was decent. What I was impressed most was that Farhan Akhtar had managed to get Shahrukh Khan to not be his usual self. This according to me was Farhan Akhtar’s biggest accomplishment.

Had Shahrukh Khan been his usual self and acted the way he acts in almost all his films, then Farhan Akhtar’s Don would most definitely had been a disaster. Besides Farhan Akhtar, Ashutosh Gowariker is the only director who has managed to get a good performance out of Shahrukh Khan in Swades. However, he just doesn’t have the voice and dialogue delivery to pack the killer punch into the character of Don / Vijay which was so effortlessly done by Amitabh Bachchan.

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Farhan Akhtar's Don - III

And to be very honest, I wasn't disappointed after watching the Farhan Akhtar’s Don. Farhan Akhtar has adapted the story to his sensibilities and made the movie according to his interpretation. And he's come out with flying colours.

He has indeed managed to hold on to his own inspite of knowing very well that comparison of his Don with Chandra Barot's Don was absolutely inevitable. Farhan Akhtar has very cleverly made changes to the story line of Don and without revealing the twists, I was extremely impressed with two of the most important twists in the film, one of which comes in the last few seconds of the movie. Farhan Akhtar has managed to adapt his interpretation of Don into a fast paced and racy action thriller which was more in the mould of Bond flicks or like Mission Impossible kind of movies.

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Farhan Akhtar's Don - II

To be very honest, I was a little apprehensive before watching Farhan Akhtar’s Don the first time around because I was convinced that Shahrukh Khan just doesn't have the required ammunition in his arsenal (voice, attitude and most importantly dialogue delivery) to carry off the legendary and unforgettable dialogues of Don.

Secondly, the music of Farhan Akhtar’s Don by Shankar Ehsaan and Loy did not catch my fancy barring the very entertaining title track “Main Hoon Don” which has been very well rendered by Shaan.

Regarding my views on the other songs of Farhan Akhtar’s Don, I have already written about them in my earlier posts and hence am not repeating myself. However, I must say that with all these reservations, I went to see Farhan Akhtar's Don and the only reason for that is that I have tremendous respect for Farhan Akhtar as a film-maker and according to me, he's one of the leading filmmakers who will take Hindi film industry to greater heights.

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Farhan Akhtar's Don - I

Farhan Akhtar's Don, which is a remake of the cult 1978 Chandra Barot directed thriller Don with Amitabh Bachchan playing the Don. The original Don is a cult movie in more ways than one. Amitabh Bachchan's suave Don act as well as the bumbling idiot turned Don, Kalyanji Anandji's music and the hysteria the movie generated. Chandra Barot’s Don is truly a cult film and in many ways was quite ahead of its times. It was more in the mould of Bond flicks and not many films in those times had plots like Don.

Being such a huge fan of the original Don, I was very keen to watch Farhan Akhtar's Don. I have already seen it twice, once because I wanted to see it and second time when I was in one of the remote town of Gujarat on work and I had half a day to kill post lunch and Don was the only film that I could have watched.

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