Don

So last night - on the eve of what promises to be a very cold sunny Diwali here in North GA ,
I went to see DON . Now this particular plan had been in motion for months ..almost a year to be precise . Eat Sev Puri for dinner and DON for dessert.

I wasnt disappointed. Not even a little bit.

Let me start by saying that I love DON .I've watched it at least over 25 times easily. In every city that I've lived in the past few years ..including Delhi.
I think theres two types of AB fans - ones who swear by DON ..the others who swear by DEEWAR.
Now the DEEWAR groupies are in two buckets . Ones who say "
..Dabur Saab ..Kuch Saal pehele aap race khela karte the..Mai aaj bhi pheke hua paise nahi uthata " ....and others who say "Mere Paas Maan Hai"..(The latter dialgoue moves me so much when I still see it that I'm going to teach my kids to say it as soon as they can learn to talk ..)

But for me ..the AB moment ..in my childhood was a different moment in DEEWAR. A very sombre Iftakar asks AB .."Vijay ..ek taraf tumhare peeche sawant ke admi honge ...aur doosri taraf tumhare peeche ..police hogi .." ...and Vijay looks at him straight in the eye and says ..
"Mere peeche to sirf meri kismat hogi "
.............The rest is History . He could do no wrong .

I loved DON.From the drinking..the car chasing ..the suits ...its awesome ..when Helen pours him a drink ..He looks at her and says "Good " ..only AB and only AB could say one word and make someone feel sleazy ..what can we say ..when he said "Mere paas sirf dus minute hain ..pehle paanch mintue mai tumhari piatai karunga ..and baki ke paach minute mai tumse sawaal karoonga .." ..we also wanted ten minutes ..of mostly sawaals with him and were in laymans terms pretty institutionalized.

I think for the 70's ..shot in the year that I was born ..this movie is a very progressive forward thinking movie . The best part is how compact and gripping the story is. You cant even blink . Waqt hi kaha hai ?! ....before you know ..there is action , romance , lust , love , gut , instinct , strategy, risk , betrayal , redemption , revenge , faith and justice ! ..

Circa 2006.Present Day .

I think when you are a kid - you watch a movie and you love it so much ..that everything around you seems like a part of the movie . For example - when you see a car chase in fast and the furious ..and immediately step on the interstate after that ..you feel like speeding and imagine a complete alternate sequence of things unfolding in slow motion .

The new DON - is the depiction of all those feelings and more . Its brilliant at times , funny at others and faithful to the original mostly *wink*
I think everyone was absulutely fab in the movie .

I went in thinking this was more of Farhan Aktars film ..than SRK's and it was classic Akthar all over . It was a DON set in Akthars mind ..10 years ago ..and what a creative imaginative mind it must have been .

Without giving anything away ..Here are the 10 things I liked teh most about the movie

1. SRK . ..he was funny , sharp ..witty and very SRK.
I still think they should have named him Raj .I cannot see him being called Vijay on screen .
Its in the eyes I think. He doesnt have that hard look about him . But yesterday ..he was very good .Lets bloody face it - If you have to imagine a Desi Hero in Paris ..managing a drug business wearing an armani suit who jumps into the hottest hard top Merc Convertible ever ..and does a top of the line car chase ...it has to be someone who can be a complete bad ass .

2. I love the new shiny mean techy gizmo look of desi cops , chors , vamps , heroines and sidekicks .
I love it when the guns are smaller , the bombs are timed , the cars are slick , the graphics , the leather ....all of it ! ....gone are the days when the villain was some 2nd rate by the way cast to the hero . I love the new dark side to hindi movies . Vey Hot .
From the old fashioned slide show that Vijay was shown in 1978 ...to the power point presentation Desilva shows the 11 mulkon ke cops ...Progress has happened !

3.The clothes - Its soo awesome ...so if you watch the movie carefully you will see how SRK weras stuff thats taken from AB's wardrobe ..so in Khaike paan banaras wala ..AB is wearing this purple bloka dotted vest on his suit shirt ...SRK wears a purple polka dotted shirt
I loved the Bruce Lee shirt and the Bruce Lee ..snakes in the monkeys shadow hand action sequence ...Hilarious !!! ....

4. The twists - I think this was the best part . Took the movie to whole new mean level.

5. All the corny dialogues . They even tried so hard to be corny in some places ...from Roma's head toss when she sayd .."Aaaj kal ke zamane mein .." ..
I think Filmi dialogues are best served in the most fimli over the top cheesy way possible !

6. The theme - the medivial punditz revived theme ...was outstanding ...very in your face but subtle ..stylish and totally international in a music sense

7.Boman Irani - I love him ! He is the best thing thats happened to Bollywood in a lonnngg time and yesterday he was very very good.

8. Yeh Mera Dil - I loved the dance , the clothes , SRK was very high on the H factor ..and I was very very happliy surprised to see the kick ass song . Ladies and Gentlemen ..welcome to 2006 ....the illicit rendezvous is even better when its a penthouse suite with a illuminated KL skyline and SRK and Kareena with the petronos towers in the backing right !
Love it ! Completely ! .....we have bamboos and stylish lights instead of photographs and wall hangings ...we are the new contemporary indians ..lol ! ..Full Marks on this one

9.The hot silver mercedes convertible . ... smitten !
When Kishore Kumar sang in the rain with a very beautiful madhubala ..can we imagine the same song if he was fixing a porsche , merce or a ferrari .
Go Figure .

10. Classic Akthar - from the small parachute scene ..the chacha chaudhary references , the tumhara pyaar mujhe yaha khicch ke le aya hai scene ...this was one heck of a well made film .


I think as a movie going movie watching audience - we are fairly intelligent . This is why its easier to sell an Omkara to us than sell a Gangster . A Swades ..over a Salaam Namaste .
But to go back and make one of the all time iconic movies in Indian Cinema ..and change it ..like an artist paiting a van gogh years after ...and maybe not exceed the orginial ..but in no way diminish or tarnish it - while adding your creative touch ..is not a small undertaking in any way .

So for whatever reasons Farhan made the film ..I loved it ! ...like Don would say .."Kuch baatein faydein ya nuksaan ke liye nahi ki jaati ..bas ki jaati hai "