Re: Don - All threads Merged
This is not your father’s Don. This Don is today’s Don. Today’s Don operates in a fast-paced internationally connected world, and so does the film. The style is slick, the locations are international, the gadgets are modern. As expected, the pacing is faster than the 1978 version Don, and will keep today’s audience attentive, yet it slows enough to let the intricacies of the film sink in enough that the audience can think back to them after the twist is revealed. This is definitely a different Don.
This Don is evil. He’s ambitious, and wouldn’t think twice about offing even his closest associate in order to get what he wants. He’s manipulative, cold hearted, and fully enjoys being Don. This film gets Don right and Shah Rukh’s performance is fantastic, as pointed out by smooth_guy since Dil Se. No one else could have been this Don. He also gives Vijay new life, though the role is smaller than I would have liked it to be.
In fact the smaller role of Vijay led to one of the minor disappointments I had about the film. I felt the film lacked some element of lightheartedness. In the original Don that element was Vijay. In this Don, with Vijay’s role being more limited, there needed to be something else to take over this aspect.
The dialogues were wonderful. The best lines of the former Don were mixed seamlessly with wonderful original dialogues. And Shah Rukh delivers them with flair. This Don knows he’s cool, and everything he says has a sense of showmanship attached to it. And when words don’t work, Don will use violence to get what he wants.
Although the gun he possesses is stylish and deadly like Don himself, in the film it is treated more like an accessory, instead preferring to concentrate on hand to hand fights. The fight scenes are well choreographed and well shot. The audience can feel they are right in the action. The action for the most part is thrilling, but there are several Bourne/Italian Job-style car chases scenes which could have been more exciting if there had been more shots to bring the viewer into them. There are too many long shots and not enough closeups in these sequences, and it keeps the viewer from feeling fully involved in the chase. An action sequence of positive note is that in which Don/Vijay falls from a plane and must fight another character for the single parachute...mid-air. This sequence was well done, and kudos to Shah Rukh for doing the stunt jump himself.
As for the other performances, Bowman Irani was good in his role as DCP DeSilva. Arjun Rampal gives a good performance as Jasjit, but at times his dialogue was too monotone, even as his face emoted well. Om Puri was underutilized. Isha was good in her small but pivotal role. And Kareena did her job of tantalizing the male audience in "Yeh Mera Dil." I’m still undecided about Priyanka Chopra’s performance. In parts it was good, but in others simply ordinary. My indecision could be due to the screenplay itself, which can’t decide whether to treat Roma as a wildcat or as windowdressing. Don enjoys a challenge, but Priyanka didn’t convince me that Roma was the wildcat Don thought her to be.
Overall, Don is a good film, and is definitely worth watching. Just don’t go in thinking this is the same old Don. This Don is the Don of today.
