E Chamaram-lhe Don

"Don" is a film about a mobster called the Don (Amitabh Bachchan). He's a cold and dangerous man and specializes in blowing up his enemies. And, the guy is also very slippery and the police keep missing him. However, eventually, DSP D'Silva manages to kill the Don--but he has the guy buried in secret. Neither the police nor the criminals realize the Don is dead because D'Silva knows someone who looks exactly like the Don* and plans on substituting him. So, he creates a plausible story--that the Don was hurt so badly that his memory is temporarily impaired. However, Vijay doesn't realize that his impersonating the Don has two major problems--a woman in the mob is planning on killing the Don and what would happen if D'Silva was killed and they couldn't prove that Vijay WASN'T the Don! Tune in to see what's next.

The story is interesting and worth seeing up until the end. Unfortunately, the end is terrible--and almost slapstick. Seeing the disabled guy fighting so ably was silly as was the use of slide-whistles whenever folks did flips--and they did MORE flips than you'd see in the Summer Olympics! Badly choreographed and silly--it makes the film slip from a 9 to a 7.

This movie is one of the earliest blockbusters of the 1970s that firmly launched Amitabh Bachchan in the superstar orbit.

In an oft-repeated cop-robber plot, director Chandra Barot makes a film about a gangster don (no particular reference to any Mumbai underworld figure nor any sneaky take on a Hollywood film) who has eluded cops for a long time. "Don ko pakadna itna aasan nahin", says DCP D'Silva in an ominous tone that still resonates among the current duels between crime bosses and superstar cops like Daya Nayak.

The essence of Don's charisma goes beyond the methodical framing of its central characters in what is a rather straightforward plot. Cleverly written dialogs that inspired an entire generation of moviegoers, shots and scenes that (at the time) defied the boundaries of all conventional wisdom, fabulous acting by the main and supporting cast, and a musical score by Kalyanji Anandji that is evergreen to this day -- those are of course what made Don such a memorable movie in the minds of many.

Best thing is to go see it even if its your first or fifth time. Great movies such as this are way beyond Bollywood now, and it is doubtful if the current crap -- oops sorry, crop! of directors can ever concoct a compelling story such as this one.

Don is the movie, that I am in love with after 'Sholay', so much so that I still remember most of the dialogs, characters, scenes and good performance by many contributors in this movie apart from legendary, one and only, Amitabh Bachhan.

Almost all of the main characters in this movie, though they are doing a typical "bollywood" act, are too good and have given a life to the role, like Pran, Jinat Aman, Om Shivpuri, Iftekhar, Kamal Kapoor, Helen and Shetty.

Every scene keeps you thinking what is next; the suspense, the thrill - it's very exciting, very well played. Add to it, few good songs like "Khaike-Pan-Banaras-Wala", "E-he-Bambai-Nagaraia", and "Mai-hoon-Don" are too good and evergreen. Even the background music is one thing that I love and remember, the one that is there when DON (duplicate) is running to save himself from the police. Dialogues were too good and are still popular all these years - "Don-ka-intezar-to-gyarah-mulkon-ki-police-kar-rahi-hai", "magar-Don-ko-pakadna-mushkil-hi-nahi-namumkin-hai".

No wonder – the re-make version is under production this year (2006) where Shahrukh Khan is playing the DON, and it will be a hit, because the name of the movie itself is famous enough to blow up the box office.

This movie has to be one of the best thrillers of the 70's and it still packs a punch today. The reason is simple, you think you know the whole story then suddenly the plot twists leaving you all shaken up. The script by Salim Javed was absolutely superb. Amitabh excelled in a role he was born to play. Zeenat Aman provided good support as his love interest. Even Pran lent fantastic support.This film isn't the greatest to ever hit Bollywood, nor it is a path breaking film for the industry. Don is a genuine entertainer with an interesting story line for the 70"s era. They could have spent half the film showing the notorious don but instead the character dies soon, and later is replaced by a look-a-like. Which is where we get plenty of laughter and light moments. Towards the end when he is discovered by the police to be a fake Don, he is in a big soup. It is interesting how he manages to prove himself innocent, and how he find the father of the kids he was taking care of. mega hit songs by Kishore Kumar & Asha Bhosle with the powerful music done by Kalyanji Anandji :) one of the best movie I have ever seen in the vintage era 70's with greatest night view camera work used in this mega hit film Don :)

There's not much to explain about the story of "Don", which probably EVERYONE knows about by now, right? It may not be a GREAT story...but none the less the movie is just totally entertaining ~ you watch Amitabh perform from a totally COOL-evil bad guy to a goofy paan-eating guy and trust me, it's impossible not to adore the man. He's just so COOL! His stunts rock too.

Though I usually can't stand Zeenat Aman, in this movie she got such awesome clothing, and an awesome hairstyle topped with a really COOL role. Pran is also the regular COOL guy, about just as COOL as Amitabh, which is why it rocks to see them together on screen as usual.

Pretty much everyone else in the movie played their roles well.

And I have to mention Kalyanji-Anandji who were behind all of the totally COOL music throughout the movie. The background music and songs are made to match the COOLNESS of the movie :-D. Lata, Kishore, and Asha at their ultimate COOL.

So watch this COOL movie so I can stop using the word COOL so much hehe. Khaike Paan Banaras Wala!