Caution: Please watch the movie before you read this. I'm revealing plots all over the place.
In a way, Farhan and Shah Rukh have attained one of their objectives in remaking the classic because someone like me who didn't even know the existence of Amitji's Don has bought the CD just so I can compare SRK's version to the original. I watched SRK's Don first so I didn't have a problem with the way he portrayed Don since I was not affected by the impression Amitji made like a lot of the critics were whose reviews I read.
Don't kick the Complaint Box
Note: Pls don't mind my complaints. I have a lot of complaints about the Spiderman, X-Men, and James Bond franchises too. It doesn't mean that I like the movies any less.
I'm afraid I have to turn into a wannabe critic for this movie because other than Shah Rukh, I was not impressed with any of the other characters. And after watching Zeenat Aman's Roma, I became quite disappointed with the way Priyanka has carried this role. Isha Koppikar was the only one who managed to catch my fancy. I like her intensity and the way she laughs at the end of the golf-by-the-beach scene. It compliments Don's otherwise ridiculous line asking Narang to check the shoes of the people he wants to recruit. Priyanka played it too cool and her Roma looks rather self-conscious, unsure of herself, and as if she had suffered so much and in such pain. Roma's supposed to be a tough, passionate girl who gets into the business of organized crime to carry out her revenge. Her entire focus should have been on Don and her revenge, not on herself.
I think what I really dislike about Farhan's screenplay would be the way he jumps from scene to scene expecting the audience to know what the characters have tried or are trying to do. These are usually scenes lifted from the original (where every move the character is going to do is explained clearly), esp when Vijay comes into the picture. He should know that since he's targeting the young generation who's never watched the old Don and would be bored to tears or yawn every 2 seconds (like I did, sorry) at the 70s version of what a cool and stylish criminal outfit should be, he should still provide a bit of the background. I really didn't appreciate that the jump from the bumbling, never-drive-a-car-in-his-life Vijay to the skilled-with-a-gun, speed-freak Vijay/Don was explained by a single line he said to DeSilva: "You taught me well." I was like... Farhan, you've got to be kidding me, man.
Can I say this? The main police officer dudes are so wooden! They have only one expression stuck on their faces the entire duration of the movie, be it Boman Irani or Om Puri. I'm like... guys, I know you're playing civil servants who are nearing the age of retirement, but can't you at least make us believe you're excited that an infamous criminal is within your grasp? And what's with all the pouches? Did the casting director want us to believe that these beer-bellied old men who can't even walk a mile without wheezing, let alone run after crooks, are the best people Malaysia and India can provide to catch someone as dangerous as Don?
This complaint is inconsequential but I have to write it anyway... Don as Don has too little screen time! Don as Vijay is like a tiger that has one of his legs strapped. I could read the restraint in his face every time he wants to pounce Roma, whether to kill her or mess around with her... I dunno XD
What I love about Farhan's Don
The gadgets! O yes.
I love how the watch is connected to the bomb. That was awesomely done. Although I could do with a few more... like micro-bugs or some rather violent computer virus attacks (and where's the GPS Navigation System?? That should provide some nice tracking sequence... huh), the understanding of high-tech gadgetry in this movie is quite good although I do think they should have put some interesting gadgets in his car too. Don would be someone who'd equip his car with KITT-type techno frills, ehem ehem. For Don 2, I would like them to incorporate a coupla gadgets that're yet to be available on the market but could have already been made and sold to the very rich as I'm typing this. You know, sci-fi stuff. Like... I dunno... satellite video-conferencing via mobile phones? Oh, oh... a touch-sensitive, interactive holographic projection of building blueprints or location maps with online connectivity!
I also love the martial arts choreography. The fact that they used a shaolin monk to design the fight scenes is an inspired move. Don has a very nice opening scene. I like the way Shah Rukh fights in Don. The precise, fast and technical moves suit him. It's much better than those choreography he's subjected to in his previous action movies where all he had to do was swing his fists and legs about. Taking a detour to prove a point, I like his sword fight scenes (this one, and this one) in Asoka. If he still wants to do action movies (is Ra-1 an action movie?), this type of choreography is the way for him to go.
I like it everytime Don kills people. My most favourite is that golf missile scene. He's so cheerful before and after he swings that club ("Narang~ This is a good shot!" LOL). I also like the method he uses to murder Ramesh and I argued with my sister that he must have used a small dose of a type of anesthetic that won't be detectable on post mortem. The cause of death would be drowning, rather than being poisoned. IMO, he should have killed a couple more characters, you know... those annoying ones like DeSilva's useless assistant and the incompetent Narang. Farhan should take Hong Kong triad movies as the inspiration for his 2nd Don. The Hong Kong writers are masters at scripting organized crime stories.
Brief comparison with the original
To save my poor fingers, let me call Amitji's Don as Don A and Shah Rukh's Don as Don B.
Don A:
To me, Don A is quite a boring character. He's like a workaholic type who goes ploddingly about trying to get his jobs done... totally devoid of a sense of humour or interesting quirks that can make me go, "hey, that's cool". I don't remember any particular lines or moves he does that made an impact on me. Well, except when he dies while holding that gun... I thought that was nicely done. Vijay is the more interesting character, although it did get quite disconcerting when I couldn't connect the carefree, likely uneducated, kain pelekat-wearing Vijay with the formal-looking, smooth-talking, vest-wearing Vijay. I like the dance scene with Roma where he starts to dance like Vijay, then looks around, and corrects himself XD. And I have to say this, I like all the original picturization of the songs much better (sorry Farah Khan, Saroj Khan, Ganesh Hegde and Rajeev Surti). I don't like the smooth transition from a street performer to a criminal mastermind that Amitji shows right from the start though. I want him to have some vulnerable/funny moments where we're shown that Vijay is feeling out of sort in Don's setting. He looks entirely too at home with his mafia buddies.
I find that the characters talk too much. The only one who has such short lines and a shorter script is Don himself coz he dies at the beginning. But oh God, the rest of them just yap and yap and yap. The scriptwriters were really having a field day with this one. Or maybe that's just how movies were made in the old days. The supporting characters explain to us about anything and everything that's happening in the movie. The only script I can appreciate is Zeenat Aman's. Hers only says what's needed and no more. I like a girl who doesn't feel the need to nag or whine about her sad fate to all and sundry every 2 seconds. However, I do find that Don A is more real in terms of the way the story goes in the setting that it's found itself in. Except for the momentary lapses, like the one where Don seems to have jumped up a 20-storey building to stop Roma from running away after she's cut his rope, I find that I don't have to leave too many brain cells at the door to accept the movie.
Don B:
The same cannot be said about this one, I'm afraid. IMO, some of the scenes are a bit overdone esp the one where Don/Vijay is kidnapped by his gang. Don't tell me you couldn't devise an easier and less detectable way of taking Don away than a high-profile chase that ends with a chopper carrying off a bloody ambulance in broad daylight. Where do you land? How do you avoid police detection? Don is an international criminal and Interpol is involved, so his every movement is probably being monitored via satellite. There's no way the ambulance won't be tracked down in real time. In fact, it could have been bugged before it's left the hospital.
Can I say that I don't like the entire arc of Jasjit's background story? I think his history could have been spelt out in a coupla scenes tops, no need to go all out with the family stuff and the robbery stuff and the oh... entire bleeding sequence. I generally skip this bit whenever I watch my DVD. I don't mind the story after Jasjit exits the prison coz it's needed by the storyline. Farhan, IMO, wasted so many film reels just to build up a story of a guy who's not the 2nd hero or the main villain. If he doesn't appear in Don 2, I'd probably go... so why the bloody hell should I care so much about this bleeding useless git that I had to spend nearly an hour of my life being subjected to the filmakers' explanation of how he got his prison record??
The scene in the airplane also gets on my nerves. Mostly coz the policeman was portrayed as a moron who can't even keep a door shut. Leaving your cell coz you want to pee is like OMG the cheapest trick in the universe and they should have provided a toilet INSIDE the bleeding jail instead of allowing the prisoners to go outside, opening their cuffs in the bargain. What if 3 of them are all desperate to go at the same time, huh?? These are not your average 7-11 robbers. I want to scream in frustration during that scene... seriously. The parachute sequence calmed me down though. I dunno why some people pooh-poohed it, but I thought it's cool. The compositing is well done and the actions are believable. Please don't compare it to what it could have been in a standard Hollywood fare. They have a bigger budget and can afford better VFX facilities.
I don't like the Don-as-Vijay character because I fell in love with the evil Don B from the first boom. I wanted to see more of him. I do regret knowing that it's Vijay, and not Don, who dies at the hospital before I even watched the movie but even then, watching the flashback still made me go, "No! How could the good guy die!" Needless to say, I was traumatized for a few days afterwards. Yeah, I'm so melodramatic. Having said that, I like watching Shah Rukh playing Don playing Vijay. It makes the suave 'Vijay' more believable when you knew that it's actually the evil guy playing the part. Don B does surface a few times when he's angry at something or when he suddenly displays skills that Vijay shouldn't have known. I bet Don B the international criminal has done an awful lot of acting stint to fool the police in the course of his career, but it's probably the first time he's tried to act the part of a double who's trying very hard to be convincing as Don... which is himself. It's so confounding that it must have amused him so much every time he looks at the poor fools who believe in his Vijay or his Vijay-turns-Don avatar. I imagine Don B snickering in front of the mirror in his bathroom while he's practicing some of his moves.
Despite some moments when I went... Shah Bhai, don't look that intense lah... I like the characterization of Don B. Shah Rukh has instilled some character traits in him that can easily be recalled. The curtsy he does for the ballerina, the cheerful way he exclaims, "Narang!" while putting up a dainty palm to greet his subordinate, the "I've also always liked me" and "oh I am the king!" lines, the way smoke chimneys out of his mouth, the dressing style, the way he stalks smoothly towards people (Shah Rukh said in an interview that it's his take on how a man woud have walked had he been a female model walking the ramp XD), and the cartoon freak who can switch off his laugh in a blink, look ahead with a blank expression and spout, "Poor Ramesh" as the only indication that the poor guy is gonna be murdered later. Whether he annoys you, gets on your nerves, makes you want to throw pointy things or flying kisses at your TV monitor or 70mm film screen ...Don B in unforgettable.
Which is why I'm overjoyed that there's gonna be Don 2 from Farhan's stable next year. All you people who didn't like the first movie and have been whining at how much you hate it and how much you don't care about having a sequel made after it, you can all keep away from the cinema hall come next year. But you'll be missing out on a VERY BIG movie coz with the actual Don (no more soft-hearted Vijay in the picture yeay!) running amok in Germany and God knows what other countries, I think the movie's gonna be the awesomest movie of the decade. I do hope they're not gonna pull some 'good always triumphs over evil' corny script on us or try to appeal to our conscience that we should accept the possibility of a repenting evil guy (eeek! Don't turn the Don into a wannabe priest fella, please!). Will Shah Rukh do another Baazigar-type death scene? I hope the lines are not as long though. I get nervous and edgy when a character I like takes too much time to die.
One thing I would like explained in the sequel is what Don B means when he says that the disc everyone is chasing after is actually not that important. I've been mulling over some possibilities, but I would like to know the 'real' reason from the writers themselves.
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