Don & Don 2
 
    
Don
Director: Farhan Akhtar
Year:  2006
Music: Shankar-Loy-Ehsaan
Duration: 171 minutes
Rating: 7.0


If you haven't seen the original Don from 1978 with Amitabh Bachchan, Zeenat Aman and Helen, you owe it to yourself to do so. It is a wonderful crazy absurd film full of highlights, martial arts and Amitabh at his most appealing. It is much beloved by Indians and if you ask one for a recommendation the odds are decent they will name Don (or Sholay). Not because Don is a great piece of filmmaking or broke new ground but just because it is so much fun. All these years later they come with a remake - always a dangerous thing to do with a classic film. They even have probably the second biggest Bollywood star after Amitabh take on the same role. Shah Rukh Khan. And they make a good film - probably better if you have not seen the original. But as you might expect this version is slicker, glossier, sexier, more glamorous but not as much fun. More serious. To change things up they add a few twists that upon reflection make no sense at all. It is that just that cinematic need to have audiences go oh shit I didn't see that coming.  And I didn't.



Don is a vicious gang leader who kills with no mercy. But he has style and charisma to spare. He always looks cool. Has something smart to say to those he kills. Two of those he murders are one of the men in his gang who was trying to leave with his fiancée (Kareena Kapoor in a cameo and one item number). The sister of the dead man infiltrates his gang in order to kill Don. This is Roma played by Priyanka Chopra. Don also has his enemies trying to kill him - especially a gang rival named Vardhaan whose identity is secret.




Before Roma gets a chance to kill him he gets into a car chase with the cops and injures himself. Inspector De Silva (Boman Irani) comes up with an ingenious plan. Hide him in a secure location and tell no one. Then find a duplicate to replace him and have him help him bust up the gang. This is Vijay - also Shah Rukh of course. He is a betel nut chewing lower class fellow who is taking care of a boy whose father is in prison. He agrees and with some training, a little surgery and a plan he replaces Don pretending to have lost his memory. There is a fair amount of action, a few songs (two taken from the original), some major eye candy in Pryanka and Isha Koppikar as Don's moll and Kareena for her short stay and a well-made visually beautiful film with much of it shot in Malaysia. Mainly though it made me want to re-visit the original. It has been years.

Don 2
Director: Farhan Akhtar
Year:  2011
Music: Shankar-Loy-Ehsaan
Duration: 148 minutes
Rating: 7.0


I need to be a bit elliptical here as not to give spoilers for the previous Don in 2006. Don (Shah Rukh Khan) has escaped the clutches of the police and set himself up as the premier drug kingpin in Asia. He has also traded in his moll from five years ago (Isha Koppikar) for a new model (Lara Dutta). An even trade I would venture. And Roma (Pryanka Chopra) who was seeking to kill him before still is but now as an agent of Interpol. And his hair has gotten longer and scruffier - to look I guess more like a drug kingpin. In an opening scene similar to that in the first film, Don gets betrayed in a drug deal and has a bunch of weapons pointed at him with intent to kill. He asks if they know of a good Italian restaurant in Bangkok. Why? I plan on eating there tonight. And proceeds to kill them all. I wish he had waited till he got that recommendation. I could use it.




With the fake Don out of this film, Don becomes the protagonist and I daresay hero of this film. So the filmmakers need to soften him up a bit. Crooked and a sometime killer still but we see chinks of humanity there. He has a sense of humor and good taste in woman. He only kills when really needs to. None of this killing someone with a golf ball. Or laughing as he shoots someone in cold blood. He has mellowed a bit. It happens as we get older. The European drug dealers want him dead before he moves into their territory. But the Don as always has a plan. A super complicated plan that can only work in the movies. First he turns himself into Roma and is sent to prison where he meets up with Vardhaan who had been his gang rival in the first film. Vardhaan of course tries to kill him but then Don convinces him to listen - he has a plan - to escape and then break into a bank. Not just any bank but a Swiss bank that keeps the plates to the Euro. And thankfully he cuts his hair and is Cool Don again.




Basically it becomes Mission Impossible or Oceans Bollywood. Lots of techie goobly-gook, a few strong armed men and a plan that has built in betrayals. Don even has the old facial mask thing - a Hrithik Roshan mask (a cameo from Hrithik) - Shah Rukh should disguise himself as Hrithik for all his dance numbers (Hrithik is a much better dancer). Needless to say Roma shows up and has a good car chase trying to catch him - but no one catches the Don unless it is part of the plan. At some point you begin to wonder if all of this is just so he can meet her again. A little chemistry going on. But in the other film he did kill her brother. Tough to get past that.




Very slick, constantly in motion with enough holes to fill the Albert Hall - but for this sort of film that is par for the course. Just let your brain soak up the coolness, the action and silliness and it is fairly enjoyable. There is no beating heart within or an emotional investment on your part - it is all visual junk food - but I like junk food. The ending makes you wonder if yet another sequel was being thought of but as of yet the Don has not appeared again. Directed by Farhan Akhtar who also directed the first one and the big hit Dil Chata Hai before either. Farhan has only directed four films but has branched into producing a number of films and acting as well. A busy guy but come on - one more Don film in which he and Roma have to team up to save the world.