Don: The Chase Begins Again

Director: Farhan Akhtar

Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Priyanka Chopra, Ishaa Koppikar, Kareena Kapoor, Boman Irani, Arjun Rampal, Naeim Ghalili, Pavan Malhotra, Chunky Pandey, Diwakar Pundir, Om Puri, Sushama Reddy

6/10

First, the good news. Farhan Akhtar has really tried to make his Don go one up on the original. He has revved up the songs, speeded up the tempo, ratcheted up the glam quotient — indeed, given it every kind of 21st century sass he could think of to turn it into a thriller nonpareil. Shot in Paris, Kuala Lumpur and also a bit in poor old India, it’s a hi-tech, hi-velocity rollercoaster ride that is geared to blow your mind.

The bad news is that it does not. You can marvel at the slick credits, the Hollywood style scenes reminiscent of Con Air and Eraser (were they a ‘tribute’ too, Mr Akhtar?), you can gawk at Shah Rukh Khan’s designer togs or Priyanka Chopra’s sexy martial moves, but this Don is too much style statement, with too little heart in it.

It’s also a bit of a hodge-podge — a mix of those memorable lines and songs that will inevitably remind you of Amitabh Bachchan and the 1978 movie, and new situations and twists in the plot that scream — ‘we are similar but different’! Now that’s what is called being confused. Moreover, the final ‘surprise’ seems totally gratuitous and pretty much blows the bottom off the story. But it has one advantage — Don: The Chase Begins Again Part II may soon be coming to a theatre near you.

While comparisons are odious and all that, it has to be said that Shah Rukh is but a poor shadow of Amitabh — both as a sophisticated super-criminal as well as a rustic good guy who learns to impersonate Don but succumbs to the occasional Banarasi paan. Still, Shah Rukh’s bagful of mannerisms is pleasantly in check here and that’s a huge plus.

Akhtar extracts a decent performance from Priyanka as well, but Boman Irani seems slightly below his potential here as the good cop who turns out to be awfully bad. And someone please teach Kareena Kapoor how to dance better. Forget coming anywhere near Helen, when she dances the Yeh mera dil number, she is about as alluring as a gyrating kathputli.

Go see the movie if you must. But be warned: it’s a case of new bottle spoiling old wine.

Shuma Raha