Don - The Chase Begins Again

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Don - The Chase Begins Again
Directed by Farhan Akhtar
Produced by Farhan Akhtar
Ritesh Sidhwani
Written by Farhan Akhtar
Karan Kashyap
Starring Shahrukh Khan
Priyanka Chopra
Arjun Rampal
Isha Koppikar
Boman Irani
Music by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy
Cinematography K.U. Mohanan
Editing by Neil Sadwelkar
Anand Subaya
Distributed by Excel Entertainment
Release date(s) 20 October 2006
Running time 178 mins
Country India
Language Hindi
IMDb profile

Don - The Chase Begins Again, directed by Farhan Akhtar, is a remake of the blockbuster 1978 film, Don. The film was released in India on October 20, 2006 and it was also simultaneously released internationally. It received a very good response worldwide, and collected over Rs. 30 crores in India in its first week itself. The script of the previous film was written by Akhtar's father, Javed Akhtar and Salim Khan (father of Salman Khan).

The film stars Shahrukh Khan, Priyanka Chopra, Arjun Rampal, Ishaa Koppikar and Kareena Kapoor in a guest appearance. 80% of the movie was shot in Malaysia, and was filmed around the tropical Langkawi island as well as the Petronas Twin Towers and the Jalan Masjid India area, which is the 'little India' of Kuala Lumpur. Akshay Kumar was offered for the role of Jasjit but he rejected saying he might have accepted if he was offered the part of Don.[1] Shahrukh Khan and Priyanka Chopra underwent special martial arts training for their roles in the movie.

The film was selected to be screened at the Berlin Film Festival.[2] Critical reaction was mixed, with Variety stating that the film "could have been much better."[3]

Contents

[edit] Synopsis

In 2006, the drug trade is booming. The Malaysian Intelligence and Anti-Narcotic Department are called upon for assistance by their Indian counterparts. There are rumours that a drug gang has recently moved their headquarters to Kuala Lumpur.

Kareena Kapoor as Kamini
Kareena Kapoor as Kamini

The Indian team is headed by DCP DeSilva (Boman Irani) who wants to break the back of the drug operations of a drug lord named Singhania. Also helping him is Malik (Om Puri). He believes that capturing Singania's dangerous and elusive lieutenant, Don, (Shahrukh Khan), will be the most effective way of accomplishing this. Don's gang consist of Narang (Pawan Malhotra) and Anita (Ishaa Koppikar). Soon, Roma (Priyanka Chopra) joins them but she has other plans - kill Don. Don was responsible for killing her brother Ramesh as well as his fiancee, Kamini (Kareena Kapoor).

During a chase with the police the real Don is seriously injured and is captured by DeSilva. He keeps it a secret that he has captured Don, even from his fellow officers, and tracks down a look-alike called Vijay, a lowly singer (also played by Shah Rukh Khan). He asks Vijay to infiltrate Don's gang by pretending to be Don. In return he will make sure that the child Vijay found and adopted, Deepu (who is the son of Jasjit played by Arjun Rampal) gets a proper education. Meanwhile Jasjit who has just been released from prison sets out in search for his son, Deepu, and to get his revenge on DCP DeSilva who arrested him and prevented him from rescuing his wife and child from black mailers, this in turn killed his wife and left his son missing.

Ishaa Koppikar and Priyanka Chopra {l-r} in the song Aaj Ki Raat.
Ishaa Koppikar and Priyanka Chopra {l-r} in the song Aaj Ki Raat.

DeSilva trains Vijay and admits him in a hospital (in which Don is also admitted and supposedly in coma) to surgically give him all the scars and birthmarks the real Don has on his body. However Don dies of heart failure suddenly in front of DeSilva and the doctors, who are unable to save him. While Vijay is infiltrating Don's gang, DeSilva is captured and killed in a fire blast; and Vijay is forced to run from the police as well as Don's gang members -- pursuing the last piece of evidence (a disc) which has all of Don's criminal activities loaded on it, a disc which can get him out of this mess.

Through various plot twists, Vijay recovers the disc. Eventually, it surfaces that DeSilva is alive and is actually Vardhan, a notorious underground criminal with a grudge against Singhania, Don's boss, and eventually ends up killing him. Vijay arranges a meeting with Vardhan and assists in his capture.

In a final twist, it emerges that the real Don is still alive, and was pretending to be Vijay who he killed and replaced while in the hospital. It was actually Vijay who had died in the hospital of heart failure in front of Vardhan. In the end both Don and his girlfriend Anita (Ishaa Koppikar) escape, bewildering the police and Roma. Critics believe that this twist was done to setup a possible sequel.[4]

[edit] Differences with the original film Don

There were a number of changes introduced by Farhan Akhtar to differentiate this version from the original. These include fundamental changes in plot as well as some changes in characterization.

  • In the original, Malik is revealed to be Vardhan; in this film it is DeSilva.
  • In the original, Singhania does not exist.
  • In the original, Jasjeet had two children; in this film, Jasjeet has one son. Jasjeet's character was changed: -In the original he was a circus performer, in this film he is a computer engineer.
  • Settings-wise, the original took place only in India; this film is international, taking place in many countries including Malaysia and India.
  • In the new film, Don uses a UMD disc instead of a diary. Since discs didn't exist in 1978, the original film had a diary with the information on Vijay being Don.
  • In the original, Don dies and is replaced by Vijay, who at the end succeeds in proving himself not guilty. In the new film Don lives and spoils DeSilva's plan by switching himself with Vijay at the hospital and killing Vijay to show as if he, Don, has died.

In fact, many of the changes were made with the difference of years between the two films in mind.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Crew

[edit] Music

Don's walk-in vault in the movie houses The Scream, an invaluable expressionist painting created in 1893 by Norwegian artist Edvard Munch. The painting was stolen on August 22, 2004. It is interesting to note, that the stolen painting was declared as recovered by the Norwegian police on August 31, 2006 - barely 2 months before the movie released.
Don's walk-in vault in the movie houses The Scream, an invaluable expressionist painting created in 1893 by Norwegian artist Edvard Munch. The painting was stolen on August 22, 2004. It is interesting to note, that the stolen painting was declared as recovered by the Norwegian police on August 31, 2006 - barely 2 months before the movie released.

The film has seven songs composed by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy. Two of the original songs, "Khaike Paan Banaraswala" and "Yeh Mera Dil" were remade for the movie:

"Main Hoon Don (Normal/Fncinternational Mix)" has been in The Top 20 songs list compiled by Radio Mirchi 98.3 FM every week, on the basis of album sales, on-air requests and research since September 21, 2006 i.e for 47 weeks. It gained the #1 position on September 11, 2006 in its first entry and has been in the top 20 list ever since, except one case when it disappeared in just one of the compilations.

[edit] Critical reception

  • The Times of India gave it a rating of 3.5 out of 5.
  • The Hindustan Times rated it 3 on a scale of 5.
  • IMDb users have rated it as 7.1 out of 10. Its highest ever rating on IMDb has been up to 8.8.
  • Overall, the critical reception was mixed.

[edit] Box Office Reaction

  • The movie grossed 50 crores (13 million USD) in India and ranked 6th, classifying it as a hit.[5] It grossed 32 crores (8 million USD) overseas, which is the second highest for any Indian movie in 2006.[6]
  • In the UK, the film grossed GBP £537,000 (a little more than USD 1 million) in the opening five days along with the preview, which is the highest Diwali opening weekend ever for a Hindi film.[7]
  • In the US, the film grossed USD 1.2 million in the opening 5 days.[8]
  • In the period of just nine days, Don has grossed above 3.45 million Dirham in Gulf which is highest ever for a Hindi film.[9]
  • In Australia and South Africa, the week's collections were the highest ever for a Hindi film.[10]
  • Don - The Chase Begins Again opened in at least 1,200 screens worldwide, beating the opening of Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna.[11].

[edit] References

  1. ^ Akshay turns down the remake of ‘Don’ : Bollywood News : ApunKaChoice.Com
  2. ^ Don flies to Berlin Film Festival
  3. ^ Don Review - Film Reviews-Berlin, Entertainment - Variety
  4. ^ Don Review - Film Reviews-Berlin, Entertainment - Variety
  5. ^ [1]
  6. ^ [2]
  7. ^ Highest collection for Don with Rs 75 crores worldwide till date
  8. ^ Highest collection for Don with Rs 75 crores worldwide till date
  9. ^ Highest collection for Don with Rs 75 crores worldwide till date
  10. ^ Highest collection for Don with Rs 75 crores worldwide till date
  11. ^ Record prints for KANK, Don & Jaan-E-Mann - Sify.com

[edit] External links