Don - Movie Review

I saw Don, finally.

Let me start with Farhan Akhtar, rather than writing in a straightforward movie review. Farhan Akhtar for me is among the two most exciting filmakers in Hindi Movies today, the other being Vishal Bhardwaj(dir: Omkara). On a tangential note, this list also used to have the likes of Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Karan Johar, who lost favors with me at some point or the other. But that matter enough for a separate post, which I have no intentions as of now to write.

Coming back to Farhan Akhtar, I, like most folks my age thought his debut with 'Dil Chahta Hai' was magical. I simply loved every single frame the way he shot it in DCH. It wasnt really about telling a novel story, but really about the novel approach to story telling. It had a very patient approach to tell its story and I loved the way not every frame was shouting to add something significant to the story. I dont know if the last line makes sense, but I do love it when the screen play isnt just a copy of the story. Guess what, the last one line is equally abstract.

With Lakshya, Farhan had the unenviable task of matching upto DCH, which commercially he couldnt. I thought Lakshya was well made but it lacked the spirit that inhabited DCH. But you could see the strong style of story telling he still used. Another point, he miscasted Amitabh Bachchan very very badly. On the whole, I enjoyed watching Lakshya, though at the end of it, I did feel something missing.

With Don, you could see he wanted to re-tell the 1978 classic his own way. So far so good. Don, was probably the most exciting Amitabh Bachchan movie I saw growing up. (OK, along with Amar Akbar Anothony) I simply loved DON and could watch it as many times as I could. It was every boys dream, what with, AB in a double bonanza, lotsa action and Don kinda style and all. Moreover, it was a tremendous thriller, with several threads running parallel. If not a masterpiece I would still call it a Masala-classic, whatever that means.

I was pretty eager to watch Don, as I wrote here, maybe just a shade less than Jaan-e-mann, for obvious reasons. And I did manage to see Farhan's version this Saturday. It started of with lot of style and a suave (but really old looking) Shah Rukh Khan playing the don pretty much his own way. Thats both good and bad. The good is he didnt try copy Amitabh, the original. The bad part is he was more Shah Rukh than don, as usual. What with his smooth neck twirls and the works. But lets just put it this way that it wasnt distracting enough to ruin the experience. The only times I thought about the SRK-Amitabh comparisons were when SRK plays Vijay. So you get the point?

The first half of the movie rolls pretty much predictably, along the same lines as the older one. Casting is pretty strong. I thought Pawan Malhotra (old time Nukkad guy) was pretty good as Narang. Boman Irani (playing DCP DeSilva) is good in any role we all know. Isha Kopikkar as Anita was perfect too. Though, I thought, SRK playing Vijay wasnt just as convincing. He lacks the rustic touch to play Vijay well enough. BTW, did anyone notice an expensive looking watch (Rolex, anyone??) on Vijay's wrist just after he has danced his butt-off at the Ganpati festival. Priyanka Chopra is quite ok as Roma.

Actually, thats one point I want to make here. I thought, Priyanka was pretty adequate and decent in Don, with Farhan at the helm of affairs. So was Arjun Rampal (as Jasjeet). Now both of these are pretty (below) average actors, who can turn into a nightmare with a bad director calling the shots. Both of them manage a decent performance here, restrained and controlled. Interestingly, I thought, Boman Irani, though strong in his portrayal of DCP DeSilva (with the twist, wink!!) was just about strong and adequate here. If you have seen Being Cyrus, Khosla ka ghosla and Munnabhai I/ II, you know what I mean. He literally elevated his simpler and more straightforward characters and even the movies as a whole with his acting. Not so here. Maybe its the leeway and flexibility he could manage with lesser directors (not really discounting Raj Kumar Hirani here..). With Farhan, I think Boman was bound with the processes and his director's vision to be able to really throw himself wild into his portrayal. To be honest, I thought his character became quite cliched and tended towards boring. So, thats the pluses and minuses of working with a top director.

Farhan remains very loyal to the original script throughout the first half. Only, the setting changes appropriately to modern times. I wish to make one more remark here. I thought, the scenes with the Don making Cocaine deliveries first in Paris and later in India seemed quite unrealistic. These deliveries seemed routine enough, and didnt warrant for the top man to do it. Lets just put these in the cinematic liberties bucket, though I expected better from Farhan.

Just at the interval, Farhan really decides to play with the script. Without giving anything away of the movie and the twists, I can imagine Farhan sitting with the script in the drafting stage and deciding he needed to give his own twist to the otherwise straightforward original. Doing so was not only difficult in itself, but he wanted to retain the exact same screenplay until the half-time, thus aggravating his effort. And that is my friends, where he went wrong.

He didnt adulterate anything with the story till the half-way mark, though theoritically, the story changes somewhere much earlier than that point. So he lets the story un-roll as if its a faithful adaptation, and than starts to unleash the twists. Actually the first one is quite intelligent, though a bit predictable, with atleast two scenes providing solid hints in that direction. The second 'twister' that Farhan saves for the very end, according to me is the film's undoing. It just doesnt add up. Atleast not if you slip in the character's shoes and imagine the proceedings in retrospect.

Also, with the added twists, some other stuff which was better in the older version takes a beating. The Vijay-Roma romance track is half-cooked and quite forced upon. Certain scenes of Anita are manipulative, specially viewed in retrospect ( w.r.t. the twists). The Don's goons story isnt tied up properly, but then maybe thats left for a sequel (which I desperately hope never comes!!).

So much for the story and the twists. I thought the music wasnt fun at all. I loved DCH tremendously for its music. Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy really invented a new genre for Hindi music with it. They were all new sounds and we hear soo much music that is unconsciously borrowed from it. Even Laksya had a very solid musical score. It had the most breath-taking instrumental piece that I can remember in the last few years, for its Lakshya war theme, or whatever it was called. With Don, Farhan and S-E-L restrict themselves to the older DON's music. Adapting a couple of songs might be a greast idea to pay homage, but its nothing to talk about. It actually reminded me of the endless remixes you watch (more than listen) on MTV and Co. I really misses a genuinely new album from Farhan and SEL collaborating again.

The Cinematography is great, but thats old news. Every other movie nowadays boasts of nice visuals, and Don is really not in the stunning category either. Editing is top grade. I dint really complaint of a slow narrative. I thought the screenplay/ story is where Farhan missed the bus. This time I would call it just that, unlike Lakshya. I missed the Farhan touch in the proceedings. DCH and Lakshya both had it, and I thought I could tell a Farhan frame from a set, until I saw Don.

Concluding, go and watch the movie if you loved the original Don. And if you have been a Farhan fan, I would still say, go ahead and watch it. Guess what, Farhan isnt in top form.. but then he does deserve another chance, unless offcourse its a sequal to this one.