E Chamaram-lhe Don

This is another classic movie by Bachchan. The range of acting that he shows in this movie is amazing. I have seen no other actor do that without changing the look extensively. Basically he portrays three different characters in the movie. One is stylish and loathsome Don, second is endearing beatle-chewing street singer, and third of the goofy impostor of Don. AB proves he is the best actor ever. The music rocks. And Zeenat looked the coolest ever. The whole plot is interesting and entertaining. Every character has an important part. Don is the cult movie today just because of Amitabh and its music. The opening scene with Amitabh wearing yellow shades is too cool and the casting music outstanding.

Don is a true classic thriller of the 1970s, and it surpasses the usual fare of the times in both story and execution. The film is extremely well shot, and Chandra Barot's direction is very good. The film gave me Bond vibes as I was watching it - everything about it from very early in the film is really stylish, the camera work is great, the sets, decorations, costumes, score, sound - everything boasts of very high production values. What makes the magic in the end is the script, which is tense and twisted and really well etched out, and, guess what else, oh, well, who else if not Mr. Amitabh Bachchan, who is excellent in his dual roles, and his presence alone does much to captivate the viewers. What almost takes away from the magic is the ending, which turns the film into a sort of slapstick comedy, unintentionally I guess, but it is forgivable because most films of the genre end on similar notes. The film has many other great things going for it, including great music, a lovely leading lady in Zeenat Aman, and impressive turns from the famous character actors Pran and Iftekhar. There's hardly a dull moment in this film. It's nostalgic and highly entertaining.

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 storyline for the 70s 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. Easily said, Hindi films are generally made up of lots of coincidences and this film is no exception. This is one movie where the female lead is not just used to provide sexual and love interest but Zeenat Aman gets plenty of footage with her martial arts and action scenes. The remake of Don by Farhan Akhtar in 2006 is bound to collect some brickbats, but I believe his movie will be a high-tech thriller compared to the old retro version.

"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.

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!