After remixes, it is remakes which is becoming the IN thing in bollywood. First it was Mughal-e-azam and now the movie whose original or prequel brought the two sides of the Big-B coin in one movie, I mean the angry young man and the comedy man. That movie was one of the initial flicks which gave Big-B his current fame. The remake, on the other hand, is being made in a later stage in King-K's life, when he is sitting on the throne of bollywood at present. The story basically starts off with the same theme but a new dressing. The shooting abroad gives a different touch to the movie, though Farhan could have done it even in India, as he had done in DCH, a fresh new look to the Indian youth. He has done one chasing scene in India, which has been shot really nicely. Even the dialogues having been taken from the older version, leave alone the songs. Kareena is too fat in the song, and is totally untalented. I am sure Helen would have felt like murdering her. I need to say this that one of my friends performed better and more gracefully in UC-ISA’s annual show “Deepotsav” than her. Priyanka is good but has a loooot to improve. Boman is a very apt person for the role, as is Om Puri.
King-K is getting slimmer by the day and he surely looked much much better in Swades (I didn’t mention KANK, coz, hulllooo, it’s a movie not even worth spending a few bytes). His hair is very bad in Don which makes him look bad. Acting is his usual self, however I feel that his comic role was not upto Chamatkar’s Sunderlal Shrivastav mark, though the character was almost similar. This is his comeback in a villainous role, as I had expected years back, that he would do it, and he still has some of that acting left in him, though not as terrifying as in Darr and Anjaam.
The main part is the story which actually unfolds a little later after which you come to know the difference in the two movies, and then the comparison stops. You start to think “What will happen next” which takes you to the end. The team has done a good work in that aspect. Music is fresh for the 3 new songs, my favorite being “Aaj ki raat”, since the rest are ‘DJ Luv exclusive’ remixes. Its good to hear Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy back with some good numbers after boring KANK. Udit Narayan doesn’t match Kishorda, ofcourse, but doesn't have even his own touch to “khaike pan banaraswala”.
All in all, the movie is a good remake, though it actually isn’t one. The slick touch to the movie makes you feel it’s a movie of this era. At the same time, I felt like saluting the team of the original Don, for the amazing story they could think of and Kalyanji-Anandji for the excellent music scores, which make you tap your feet even now. Still, I feel Lage raho was made better than this one and deserves the best film and best director filmfare award for this year, considering the movies made uptil now in this year. But there’s no harm in watching a good movie like this and enjoy the fresh performances and scenes and remembering the Lord of Bollywood, Big-B and rest of the team of the original one, esp. Pran and Zeenat.
