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Topic: don:review (Read 328 times)
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bharath
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don:review
« on: October 27, 2006, 02:34:25 AM »
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don reviews here
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bharath
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Re:don:review
« Reply #1 on: October 27, 2006, 02:34:59 AM »
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Remaking a yesteryear hit can be an arduous task. Especially if it happens to be the Amitabh Bachchan starrer DON. One film people remember vividly for various reasons, right from Big B's towering performance to the popular tracks to its gripping story and sharp execution.
A remake comes with its share of plusses and minuses, advantages and disadvantages. The advantages first…
Perhaps, the new generation might not have watched the classic starring Bachchan. That makes the 2006 adaptation a novel cinematic experience. The present version also arouses tremendous interest since SRK steps into Bachchan's shoes.
DON was made in the 1970s and a new version, with appropriate updates, is always .
Most importantly, every director has his/her style of interpreting a story. Chandra Barot had his way of narrating a story, Farhan Akhtar has his own unique style.
Book Don movie tickets online
Now, the sole disadvantage…
Since the Bachchan starrer remains etched in the memory of a section of moviegoers, the SRK starrer carries a massive responsibility on its shoulders. The comparisons, therefore, are inevitable. Every character, song and the impact of several vital portions will be viewed minutely.
Write your own movie review of Don
Unfortunately, the new DON fails on several counts…
The original script [Salim-Javed] had the power to keep you involved and mesmerized for the next 2.30 hours. The new version lacks it.
The sequence of events in the earlier DON unraveled at a feverish pace, which the entertainment-hungry viewer lapped up with glee and excitement. The new version moves at a sluggish pace at regular intervals and that indeed is bad news for a thriller. In fact, boredom sets in after a point and it also gets difficult to comprehend what's going on. Things could have been simpler for sure.
Every character in the earlier DON was well etched out. That's not the case with the new version. Barring SRK and to an extent Priyanka, the remaining characters appear as mere caricatures.
The songs in the first version were merged beautifully with the script. Somehow, in the new version, barring the Kareena track, the songs don't take the story forward. Even the terrific 'Khaike Paan Banaraswala' comes across as an unwanted guest.
Any area where the new version works? Of course, it's far more glossy, far more stylish and far more visually appealing. Let's just say, the new DON is body beautiful, minus soul. The original version had simplistic execution, but it hit you like a ton of bricks. The new version is a hundred times more stylish, but how about a riveting script, Mr. Director?
The one question you want to ask Farhan Akhtar is, What happened? His directorial debut DIL CHAHTA HAI told a novel story. His second attempt, LAKSHYA, stood on a slippery wicket. But DON, his new endeavor, is his weakest attempt as a storyteller. Agreed, Farhan has climbed the ladder as far as craftsmanship is concerned [every frame is well decorated and makes a spellbinding impact], but, despite a readymade classic at his disposal, the storyteller just doesn't get it right this time.
Farhan makes a sincere effort to shock the viewer in the end and you are startled for a minute, but the moment the focus shifts to the flashback and how he managed to pull a fast one, the impact evaporates into thin air. Farhan also ends the film with some scope for a sequel. Nothing wrong with that, but how one wishes Farhan had a hit a boundary in this interpretation of the classic first.
Now, the storyline:
The drug trade is booming. Trafficking between Asia and Europe is at an all-time high. There are rumors that a dreaded gang has moved their operational headquarters to Kuala Lumpur. The cartel is headed by Singhania [Rajesh Khattar], but the business is managed by his lieutenant Don [Shah Rukh Khan].
An Indian officer Desilva [Boman Irani] has sworn to put an end to the nexus. He knows that in capturing Don lies the key to unlock this puzzle. And he succeeds one day. Don is captured and Desilva puts his plan into action. Unknown to even his own department, Desilva recruits and trains a man who is a splitting image of Don. His name is Vijay.
Vijay infiltrates the cartel and manages to give Desilva all the information he needs to bring it down. But in a bizarre twist of fate, Desilva is killed during a raid and the secret that Don is in fact Vijay is buried with him. The only people who realize that he's an imposter are the members of Don's cartel [Pawan Malhotra and Shakeel Khan] and they want their revenge.
Vijay manages to escape and is now on the lookout for the one last piece of evidence that can get him out of the mess. Helping him on this quest are two people: Roma [Priyanka Chopra] and Jasjit [Arjun Rampal].
There are glaring loopholes in the screenplay and you just can't overlook them. Like, for instance, how does SRK kill Kareena when the fact remains that he himself admits that there aren't any bullets in his gun? Here's another one: SRK, the Don, arrives in India for a major drug deal, but why isn't he arrested by Boman Irani and his team of cops when he must've presumably boarded an aircraft from KL? Why chase him on a secluded beach somewhere near Mumbai?
In the second hour, the murder of Rajesh Khattar [Don's boss] gives an impression that it's child's play to eliminate a drug baron. Moreover, what happens to Don's gang, also being held captive and being chartered to another destination [just before Don escapes from the aircraft]? Also, Arjun Rampal's exit from the story could've been properly defined. Also, where does his kid disappear suddenly? And what is Om Puri doing in this film? A junior police officer [aiding Boman Irani] has a meatier role than Puri here. It's a screenplay of convenience. Frankly, this looks like a desi James Bond saga, with the protagonist behaving like one mighty guy who can outsmart just about anyone and everyone.
Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy's music is strictly functional. The only track that's worth a mention is 'Ye Mera Dil Pyaar Ka Diwana' and S-E-L cannot get credit for it because it's not their composition. Mohanan's cinematography is of international quality. The opulent look and sets are well captured by the lensman and so are the eye-catching locations of Malaysia.
Action scenes are superb. Take the fight between SRK and Chunkey Pandey at the very start of the film or the chase on a secluded beach and the lanes of a town before Don is captured by the cops -- it's jaw-dropping. The sync sound is not coherent at times and this will pose a major problem, especially at single screens where the sound system isn't of standard.
SRK carries a massive responsibility on his shoulders since direct comparisons with Bachchan are foreseeable. SRK does very well as Don. He enacts the evil character with flourish. But he fails to carry off the other role [Vijay] with conviction. It looks made up, it doesn't come natural to him at all. Priyanka Chopra carries off her part with élan. The stunt [when she rescues SRK] is bound to win her laurels.
Arjun Rampal's character could've been better developed. Despite the shortcomings, he makes a sincere attempt. Kareena Kapoor looks alluring in a miniscule role. Isha Koppikar is alright. Boman Irani is fantastic yet again. He enacts the conniving and calculating villain with gusto. A remarkable actor like Om Puri is completely wasted here. Pawan Malhotra does very well. Why doesn't one see more of his talented actor in films?
Diwakar Pundir [as Kareena's fiancé], Shakeel Khan and Rajesh Khattar are adequate.
On the whole, DON does not meet the expectations as a film. BUT the film will be a different story altogether at the box-office. The tremendous craze for the film, the fabulous hype of the film, the presence of SRK in the central role and also the credibility of its makers [Farhan Akhtar] will ensure a fabulous start at the ticket window. The Diwali and Idd period will only give a big boost to the business, making its distributors jump with joy.
In short, sometimes a weak film weaves magic at the box-office. DON is one of those!
***
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bharath
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Re:don:review
« Reply #2 on: October 27, 2006, 02:35:59 AM »
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Subhash K Jha's take on Don
By Subhash K. Jha, October 23, 2006 - 04:18 IST
Don: The Chase Begins
Starring: Amitabh Bachchan…. oops Shah Rukh Khan & Shah Rukh Khan, Priyanka Chopra, Isha Koppiker, Boman Irani, Om Puri, Arjun Rampal
Director: Farhan Akhtar
"Don ko pakadna mushqil hi nahin, namumkin bhi hai".(it's not just difficult to catch Don, it's impossible). You could say that again! Farhan Akhtar who once upon a time made one of Indian cinema's prevalent pathbreakers Dil Chahta Hai, slips into a gamine groove to recreate Salim-Javed's script from the original 1978 film of the same name.
Let's not play the blame game. But whoever thought a slicker version….no, make that a much much slicker version of the clever wheels-within-wheels 1978 script would work better when packaged in gallons of gloss, has gall…and a vision that just stops short of being audacious.
This is a cheeky and chic homage to the earlier Don. It goes into places that the earlier film couldn't have dreamt of. Farhan Akhtar's feisty feast of muted fury film opens in Paris (totally unnecessary) and quickly moves to Kuala Lampur where the narrative stays put as Farah Akhar tries to put across the story of Don, his doppelganger Vijay, the vendetta-oriented Roma (Priyanka Chopra) and Jasjeet (Arjun Rampal).
Roma fumes as though she had taken lessons in feminine fury from Zeenat Aman in the earlier Don. Rampal frets and limps (in tandem) as though he had watched Pran in the original Don hard enough to know , if you can't beat 'em, zonk em.
And Shah Rukh is the twin-faced imp/ogre…He snarls, sneers, jeers and taunts the whole cult of superstardom by taking the role as away from Bachchan's star-turn as humanly possible. It isn't a performance. It's a bouquet of over-the-top expressions designed to showcase the star's ability to get the better of his character, rather than let the character get better than what it was when it was last seen almost 30 years ago. But we're straying…a crime that this film never commits. The narrative is so ram-rod straight and razor-sharp you wonder which came first: the remake or the remix. Or are they the one and the same?
The confusion of identity goes well with the delicious ambiguity that is given a psychological twist in this re-interpreted tale of the good, the bad and the agli kadi in the karmic cycle of remakes that seems to have overtaken our cinema.
In terms of content and treatment, how much further has Farhan Akhtar taken the Bachchan flick? There's no easy answer to that. Outwardly this revisionist version of Chandra Barot's Don is slicker than anything Farhan or his chic ilk have ever attempted.
But at times you feel the slickness (and full marks to D.O.P Mohanan for creating timbres of grey, light-blue and other pale hues suggesting a heady mix of sepia tones and futuristic ring-tones) is a sickness. The film's outstanding topographical and technical detailing hampers the audiences' journey towards the characters.
There's not one emotionally moving sequence in the whole chase-in-a-valium-daze scenario…not when the sizzling Kamini (Kareena Kapoor, doing a temporal take-over) dances before Don to avenge her fiance's murder…not when Roma (Priyanka Chopra) takes to martial arts and guns to avenge the death of her brother and his fiancé…not even when the little boy who links Don's lookalike to Jasjeet , facilitates a reunion between the two warring men.
A coldness grips the of this stylish motion picture. Purposely stripped of overt emotions, Farhan deconstructs the clever tale of glorified-gangsterism. The neo-Don increases the glam-quotient in crime beyond anything we've seen in Hindi cinema. Makes you wonder... what happened to the good old morality tale?
Don is dangerously revisionist in its tempting over-view of Good and Evil. Some of the fights are so -in-the-mouth you are left wondering if Farhan chose to do his take on this Bachchan classic only so that he could make Shah Rukh romance the rugged riskiness of the Malaysian hinterland.
Indeed there's no sexual frisson between Shah Rukh and Priyanka Chopra. They combat one another intellectually and physically without getting too close for comfort. Kareena in that one brief drizzle of sizzle singing Yeh mera dil pyar ka deewana drives you nuts with her radiant presence.
Ironically the film aims deliberately for a mood opposite to radiant. The back-ground score is minimalist, the sound design subsumes silences with as much reverence as the screech of rubber on the roads, and the elaborately choreographed songs and dances are done in the spirit of doomed desperation rather than masti.
And yes Khai ke paan benarawas wala which carried the original Don to another level of excitement, misses the point completely over here. No one can chew on a paan and jive the way Bachchan did in the earlier Don. Don't even look for that feeling here. Farhan Akhtar wants us to escape into a realm of repressed rage and ravishing violence
. No one here is apologizing about crime…not even the gangster D'Silva (Boman Irani, coolly cunning in his evil designs) masquerading as a cop. So where's the question of punishment?
Let's look at this way. The other Don was a rapidfire morality tale. This one is a slow-burn amorality tale, spiced up with mellow aromatic scents and flavours which suggest violent antecedents and a present tense in a mood that's distinctly and pungently futuristic.
Don gets full marks for packaging. So much so that the content defines itself through the sleek surface.
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vikash
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Re:don:review
« Reply #3 on: October 27, 2006, 02:51:07 AM »
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these reviews are false.
truly saying der r no positives in don.
i will give 0.5/5
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sunnny
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Re:don:review
« Reply #4 on: October 27, 2006, 03:19:50 AM »
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well i would give don 2/5
the rating is only for srk coz i luv him
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bharath
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Super Senior Fan
LYKES: +129/-493
Posts: 578
cool!
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Re:don:review
« Reply #5 on: October 27, 2006, 08:30:18 AM »
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i would give 2.5/5
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rushali
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Re:don:review
« Reply #6 on: October 28, 2006, 01:42:08 AM »
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IT WAS A GUD MOVIE.
IT HAS ALSO GOT A GUD OPENING.
I WILL GIVE A 3.5/5.
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lonelyangel
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Keep lus ever loyal,faithful
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Re:don:review
« Reply #7 on: November 05, 2006, 07:51:57 PM »
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i didnt like this movie at all especially when he kills kareena
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Fight the haters in Salman Zone
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