~It's almost there and then gone~. Review on Don: The Chase Begins Again

"Bachpan mein Maa ki baat sun li hoti toh aaj yeh din dekhna nahi padta"....."Aisa kya boli tumri maa"........"arre maa ki baat suni hi nahi to kaise bolein ki kya boli". The convo had the audience laughing and there were claps all around. Except that I guess Don doesn't cheer the audience in terms of entertaining.

A preview show and here I am reviewing it. Just for the recall. Don is a dreadful gangster. He has 11 countries' police running behind him and he undertakes operations for his boss 'Singhania' in Malaysia. Singhania has his enemy in 'Vardhaan'. Vardhaan has no police record and not even a photo so no one knows who he is. Things go haywire over a disk that Don has. Police officers De Silva (Boman Irani) and Om Puri are after Don and inturn both Singhania and Vardhaan. Things take a U turn when THE DON dies and we have a new <police informer> Don for replacing him.

For all the twists and turns. Watch the Chase which begins again from 20th Oct 2006.

I think I expected more from this movie but in a way it has been a mixed bag of sorts. Primary reasons for this are supposedly lethargic pace at which the film moves. But as I said Farhan has actually tried to infuse a time bound story into modern dynamics. Am I making sense ? Well I think I am. The old Don was a 70s revelation and I really felt the twist and turns and the action and especially the Brief case bomb looked wow at that time but the new Don gave me rather "been there done that" kind of a feeling.

Let's for instance take the start of the movie. The sequence with Chunky Pandey was pretty much 007 and MI series kinds. The action followed by title credits...umm seemed a little unimpressive and I thought it could have started in a more original manner. For most of the first half I was just watching moving images and I wasn't involved in the movie much. That speaks for some incompetence in the editing part by Anand Subaya.

As I said earlied that Don might not be an entertainer. It is more mind consuming film for the twists that it has in store for viewers. There are sequences that really interests you like the whole replacing Vijay with Don thing. Watch out the sequence when they rescue Don from the malaysian police and I give 10/10 to the action there esp. Priyanka, looked good :).

The 2nd half is quite a plus considering the twists it has. The climax is something that will take you by surprise and I think it was mixed bag for the audience whom I watched the movie with. For me and my mom it was a good end and something surprising for others climax recieved reactions like "Kuch bhi ending hai".

Well the movie promised a lot of action. Like the SRK plane escape sequence is done really well. His rescue scene was the hi point of the entire film. Apart from that i would say the action was a little routine especially the fight sequences.

Coming down to Cinematography by Mohanan i think it was nice. The split frames were used well along with Insat showing minute things that generally viewer has in his mind. For instance in a sequence where Boman Irani opens his briefcase and a general viewer will ofcourse think of 'a revolver' in it. So it is actually shown as an insat to help us further, good work.

The placement of songs is erred and I felt at times it was forced. Having said that the "Main Hoo Don" and "Yeh Mera Dil" along with "Aaj ki Raat" are good but I thought "Khaike" is disappointing not even as song but also as in execution and choreography.

Let's come down to performances.The vital aspect of this DON.

I think SRK is has made an effort to get his aura into the Don and to take it away from ABsr.'s, having said that I felt it was an ok to good performance and I felt he was just ok as Vijay with his bhaiyya kind of dialect but he was good as Don. He has looked good in all those classy shirts and suits. I think you might have seen this mannerisms earlier probably more resembling to "One Two ka Four" SRK plus a little hint of evil Duplicate. So he didnt move anyfurther I guess with this. His stunt sequence in plane rescue and the Main hoo Don song was done with passion and the much needed attitude which was brought on well by him.

Priyanka looks all good and ravishing plus her stunts are enough for enjoying my coke without a blurp. Isha Kopikarhas a significant bit to add to the climax so watch out else she is just alright. Kareenahas got a massy song to her credit and she delivers well in it looking all good, else she's gone in 7 minutes and 40 seconds from the movie.

Boman Iraniis good and he actually turns out quite a change considering his earlier light performances in movies like LRM and others. Watch out for the climax scene and his dialogue delivery. Om Puri supports well and thats about it for him.

Arjun Rampalgets some meaty portions and he does well as in appearance and action but I was hoping to see little more expressions on that otherwise wooden face of his.

Other support bench includes Pawan Malhotra, and it was after a long time I saw him doing something on the big screen, be it Don's right hand.

The original Screenplay is adapted from Salim-Javed and its actually enhanced to suit the modern sensabilities with more sleek gadgets, super tech surroundings, cars, classy modern gals and ofcourse the branded SRK. I have seen this happening before and hence there is a sense of unimpressive Deja Vu. But the twists and the climax worked for me atleast.

DirectorFarhan Akhtar hasn't traversed a new path this time. May be coz its a remake and he isn't conceiving something new and was just adapting. I guess it was unlike him to err with the sequences like Arjun Rampal portions plus few others scenes were bit over done. There was too much Malaysia in your face branding going on. I criticized Rakesh Roshan earlier for forcing us Singapore in Krissh and I will do the same with FA to do it in this movie. I guess its an ok attempt and he gets 7/10 for his efforts.

Don has a deja vu feel to it. At times you might feel its a lengthy movie and can surely be trimmed and I think a song would be deleted in process. I felt there was lack of entertainment in it but action was good and for the general audiences the twists and the classy nature of the movie might be more confusing then helping. I would say Don is a one time watch coz the cards are open after that and once you know the twist, who would flip for 2nd time. There weren't any confrontation scenes or dialogue driven sequences which would have really allowed SRK to dominate. In fact what we a dirth of them in this movie.

Cticize's Quote:"I would say go for Don once. It might even bore you at times and not involve you completely as an audience and twists might confuse you. Having said that 2nd half holds much promise and if you can see SRK reinventing his style then Don is yours."

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PS:: Next in line is Jaaneman. PS2: Good to return to MS after a long while.