DON(NING) A NEW AVATAR

As I rushed into Sanjaynagar's Vaibhav theatre first day first show to watch "Don" my mind ran amok with thoughts,among them were "Will SRK do justice to the role portrayed and brought to life so brilliantly by the Big B or will this movie turn out to be another also-ran in the list of remakes".

I was already 5 mins late and by the time I entered someone told me India's has-been and Bangladesh's superstar Chunky Pandey had come and gone.The first scene I saw was SRK playing golf(the poise in his pose would have made Tiger skip a heartbeat :)) and kills the guy whom he suspects is the spy and as it turns out he is on the button.The auditorium at this point in time is engulfed by whistles and all sort of animal sounds because DON has smelt blood and they have too.

I have seen the old DON atleast 5 times till last count and with each scene,till date, I wonder why the director Chandra Barot couldnt carve out another classic movie post DON.It was rivetting with a thrill- a-minute theme and boredom was as rare as a Federer loss.As I began to follow Farhan Akhtar's version I couldnt but observe the comparisons my mind was making.

The focus shifts to Kareena and her boyfriend and his sister Priyanka.My dil went "hmmm" at this point.Lucky boy I said.But was he really lucky? SRK kills him and throws his body into a "was-that-a-swimming-pool".

Kareena then tries to dance to the classic "Yeh mera dil pyar ka deewana".Is that a remix, Shankar? Listening to this rehashed version Kalyanjibhai would have turned in his grave.
I heard a couple of friends yell "Hey she is obeseeeeeeeee da!!!!!" and they were dead right.Helenji was a dancer par excellence and the comparison was glaring.

After 2 mins,DON does the thing I was waiting for most,he kills Kareena's character and with it the audience breathes a sigh of relief.

Then begin the twists and the turns.Boman chases SRK and SRK becomes Vijay paan eater,Priyanka shows that she too can fight and the audience is fully into the movie.I am too.
The first half ends and when you have the wordings "INTERVAL" on the screen,there is a crucial twist to the tale and everybody is in love with the movie.With bated breath all await the second half.

When I saw that twist I said to myself "This will either make or mar this film.No two ways about it" and I hoped it would be the former.

But what follows after the interval is utmost disappointing fare.Farhan,for all his talent from DCH,shreds Barot's DON to pieces and tries to go his own route.I am sure even the biggest of SRK's fans must have felt let down by on-goings in the second half. Why Farhan why? No one would have blamed you for making a scene to scene remake.We had paid our money wanting it to be a good film,not necessarily a I-will-try-hatke-but-may-fail second half.

As I walked out of the theatre I felt that this was a movie which was right up there but disintegrated in front of our eyes in the second half.

Boman Irani as the inspector is brilliant.He matches the role played by Iftikhar in the original and dare I say it rises a notch above.

What one of India's finest actors Om Puri was doing in a tum-chor-ko-pakdo-main-dekhta-hoon kinda role I cant fathom.

Priyanka is good but Zeenat was better in the original and Helen's trance was streets ahead of Kareena's treadmill dance.

Now coming to the DON.

SRK,India's biggest superstar(not the best actor!!) tries his best to be the DON and succeeds to an extent.He tries to chew paan and dance to the "Khaike paan banaras" number but looks as clueless as Greg Chappell has been with the Indian team in the past 5 months.

When I begin to drive back home I realise why everyone idolises Amitabh Bachhan.I am one of his very ardent trillion fans and this film sorely misses him.SRK--well tried, but dude, there is no shame in coming second to India's greatest actor,he with the magnificent screen presence and the enchanting voice.


Don lives on and he is Amitji.