Mein hoon Don

The phrase that best sums up the new Don is from one of my fav Amitabh Bachchan, movies, Chupke Chupke "Joh hai - woh nahin hai - aur joh nahin hai, woh toh ho hi nahin sakta" (what seems - isin't. and what isin't - cant happen)

To begin with - I am one of those few who hasn't seen the old Amitabh Bachchan 'Don'. Therefore this one comes on a fresh slate to me. And I quite like it. No, I'm not an SRK fan (heart beats for Sallu and of late Abhishek Bachchan) nor a big fan of re-makes.

To start of, the plot is full of twists and turns almost in the Jewel Thief genre. The movie begins on an established template - that the real Don is injured badly and the DCP sends in a look-alike in his place to get more information on the workings of the gang. So far so good. And then almost character changes colors - down to the Don.

However, most of the twists happen in the second half of the movie. By the end your head is kinda spinning - wondering - exactly who is who. And just when you think every thing's all wrapped up - there comes this huge surprise in the end.

For a Hindi movie, its a good effort at mystery. And yet, at some places, motive is a little difficult to establish. At some places, story seems to be a little far-fetched. There is a lost child - who is old enough to be able to count up to 3000 - but not old enough to remember his address (and is hence lost).

They do have 3 songs flicked from the old Don - and if you've had a liking for the older version - these will sound like a bad techno re-mix. If you listen to them afresh - they don't sound all that bad. Of the 2 new songs - I cant even remember the lyrics of the song picturised at the Ganpati procession - so unremarkable. The other song "Aaj ki raat" is fairly ok and peppy.

For the cast, Priyanka Chopra I thought was ok in her role as the revenge seeking Roma. SRK, I felt was a let-down. The mean-ness, ruthlessness, sarcasm just wasn't there. Style - yes, sharpness - no! SRK also really looks like he needs to loose weight - especially in the aforementioned ganpati song and Khai Ke Paan song. Not so much on the face - but around the waist he sure looks chubby. Speaking of chubby, Kareena Kapoor's arms, legs, thighs sure had a life of their own - they jiggled and wriggled to the beats of 'Yeh mera dil' completely to their own beat. I felt she just couldnt touch Helen in the original song.
And poor Isha Koppikar - such bad costumes and such bad hair-dos - especially in the 'Aaj ki Raat' song. Its like they intentionally wanted her to look bad - so she would'nt overshadow Priyanka Chopra. Its not her fault she has more screen presence than the ex-Miss World does.

And talking of clothes - whats with the paisley printed shirts and lil flowery motifs on SRKs clothes. Don't tell me - these things are making a come-back again. Whats worse - they may have (notice may have - not necessarily they did) looked good on Salman Khan in the 1990s - but they don't look good on SRK.

Boman Irani - is good - as usual. Arjun Rampal - deadpans again - as usual.

Rest of the movie - is fairly good. I was hoping to see more Matrix-like action sequences - so was disappointed there.

All in all - worth a watch!