Fails to meet Expectations. Review on Don: The Chase Begins Again

The biggest challenge while remaking old classics is to beat the nostalgia involved. But beating nostalgia is like capturing Don. And as the famous line goes…

Don ko pakadna mushkhil nahin, namunkin hai!

The Wild Expectations:

1. The 70’s classic is a refreshingly stylish film in its era. And the Farhan Akhtar remake being made in today’s era of sizzling gadgets and technical finesse is expected to entice today’s cinegoer. So loop-holes that were left in the original are expected to be covered up in the new version.

2 .In the 70’s era, the shot-making used in Don was almost a trend-setter. Mohanan’s cinematography in the remake is expected to set another trend in Bollywood shot-making.

1. The music of the original has been a rage not only for its contemporariness, but also for its perfect blend into the theme. Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, with all the new sound technology, should obviously impress the audience.

   
   




2. Director Chandra Barot, by holding a tight script and deft execution, made a classic out of low budget and an upcoming star-actor (Amitabh wasn’t fully a super-star by then). Farhan Akhtar, with a heavy budget and an already-stable superstar in his hands, is expected to deliver nothing short of perfection. Everyone was expecting a classic from this man.

   
   




3. But there was one suspect in the whole film-crew who, from the first day of the film’s production, was expected to spoil the film. With his romantic image as a super-star, he was never trusted to do justice to the role immortalized by Amitabh Bachchan. So the critics already had SRK as an obvious reason to quote if the film bombed.

   
   

Fails to meet any Expectations:

1. Though the climax was refreshing and left scope for further sequels, two things made it mediocre. One is that: it is a blatant rip-off from the climax of John Travolta’s Swordfish, and the other is that: this climax unfortunately makes the entire second-half utterly ambiguous. The loop-holes from the original remain obvious. Seventeen reels of this highly expected film keeps the audience waiting for one bit of sheer brilliance. And that moment hardly surfaces on the screen.

1. Cinematography, though precise at moments, fails to impress in key scenes; especially in the action sequences: the sky-jump scene could have been spectacular had Mohanan done more slick in his shot-making. The scene ends up being mediocre. Same with the chasing scenes! Anyway, I wouldn’t blame Mohanan completely for this; it is Farhan’s lackluster execution which spoilt most of the scenes.

   
   




2. Don’s theme music was the only piece that really went along the groove. It (especially the piano bit in the track) emphasized on Don’s cool outlook, even when a storm is raging within him. But rest of the tracks and BGMs sounded uninteresting. The re-recording seemed very ordinary. All those who have heard the theme music of the original Don, will understand what the remake has missed. It is the scary touch given to Don’s personality. The new Don, with respect to the BGM, is not at all frightening.

   
   




3. Farhan Akhtar obviously had the big-bucks and the reigning super-star at his doorstep, but he forgot the tautness in the script and deftness in execution on his kitchen shelf. DCH and Lakshya succeeded mostly in these two aspects. Probably Farhan over-worked his mind on the film and he unfortunately got mostly all the wrong things together this time. He wanted both: to keep the original plot alive and to infuse his own twists in it. And the blending between the two miserably failed. In today’s Bollywood, when gangster’s films are not new and the language of gangsters has become very inconspicuous, the words from the original like ‘kanoon’, ‘mujrim’, ‘puleese’ (police), etc give a very pretentious look about the director’s perspective. Most dialogues sound very out-dated. And it is this out-dated style of script that did not allow Farhan to dwell into a totally modernistic approach.

   
   




4. The man who was supposed to Destroy the film, also failed to meet the expectations (of the critics). Shah Rukh Khan surprisingly (for many) turns out to be the sole worth-watching factor of this film. All the frames which include him are filled with energy, passion and an amazing screen-presence; the audiences are sure to miss him in all the other frames where he is not seen. He is stylish, arrogant and wild as Don. On the other side, he is adorable as the on-the-Mumbai-streets Vijay. To expose the actor in Shah Rukh, Farhan’s script carries no essence. As Don, the punch dialogues are copied from the original film and the superstar delivers then with his own touch. I don’t know how many can really appreciate it, but the best thing Shah Rukh has done is that he nowhere tried to imitate Amitabh. He completely played Don like Shah Rukh, ie he has tried to give his own outlook to the character of Don. Just watch him utter: ‘don ko pakadna mushkil nahin, naamunkin hai’, while killing Chunkey Pandey. Now how much he has succeeded depends on how much the audience can control their nostalgic feeling and appreciate his effort. But as Vijay, the script falls flat and makes SRK look pale on many occasions. Anyway, even here SRK, with his able histrionics, tried his best to bring the character of Vijay come to life on screen. Most of the audiences have rejoiced the humorous expressions involved.

   
   

Recommendation: For all SRK fanatics (those who blindly believe that SRK is the best actor in the world) and SRK admirers (those who sensibly believe that SRK is one among the good actors in Bollywood), this film is a must-watch. But for the rest, there are better options than sadistically criticizing that SRK is the worst actor!!!!