Arrogance or ignorance?. Review on The Don - Malayalam Movie

Unfortunately , I happened to watch the latest Malayalam movie, called “The Don” directed by ‘ace ’director Shaji Kailas. I don’t know what did force the people behind it to make such a ridiculous film. Is it Dileep’s arrogance or Shaji Kailas’s ignorance(about the Malayali audience)?

The DON

Language : Malayalam

Director: Shaji Kailas

Cast : Dileep, Bheeman Raghu, Raju, Sai Kumar,Laal,Shammy Tilakan,Gopika,Augustine,Harisree Asokan,Lalu Alex etc.

The Plot

Unnikrishnan the ten-year old witnesses his parents’ brutal murder. He grabs the pistol from the killer (his own relative) and shoots him. After many years in Juvenile home, prison and underworld, he (Dileep) is now hunting a job (!). One day, ‘Kasim Baba’(Laal) , the ‘God Father’ of the harbour is saved by him from some hired killers. The rest is so predictable. Baba invites Unni to his palace. He becomes the darling there. One of the inmates, Sulaiman (Shammy Tilakan) hates both Baba and our hero.Baba’s daughter (Gopika) falls in love. The enemies like an EX-MLA (Raju), one DYSP (Sphatikam George) and the criminal lawyer Subrahmanya Swamy (Saikumar) brainwash Sulaiman and forces him to kill Baba. Our hero gets framed for the murder and he goes to jail to find his old friends (Harisree Asokan etc.) (Now thieves- only to offer us some comedy). One day Sulaiman gets angry and reveals that he was the real killer. Now Baba’s people like Raghu, Babu Raj and Augustine helps our hero to escape from the jail for taking revenge.

The film

The script by Joy.Palasery. is pandemonium. Shaji Kailas is too repetitive with the Sanskrit Mantras as BGM, time freeze shots, slow motion walks etc. etc.(everything is overdone too) The characters of Baba and Swamy are copied from Ram Gopal Varma’s “Sarkar” .The mannerisms of Baba are the same as that of Amitabh Bachchan. Many scenes are mere rip-offs. The way our hero takes revenge is illogical and the climax is rubbish.

Dileep is not a macho hero. He should understand it at least now. Besides, his poor diction makes his dialogue-delivery very much an irritation. He utters certain words like KG kids do. His gestures and movements, nothing suits a rough and tough hero.

There were many actors in the past who tried to imitate super stars and failed (like Raghavan, Vincent etc. tried to follow Prem Nazir and Raghu , Ratish etc .tried to imitate Jayan and failed miserably.) . Here Dileep is trying to follow Mohan Lal and I am sure he lacks quality and will reach nowhere near the veteran.

So---avoid the film.