Finally caught up with Don

Don - The Chase Begins Again, directed by Farhan Akhtar, is a remake of the 1978 film, Don. But I guess remake is not the exact term to explain it; 'adaptation' will go better. The two films are essential same in their storyline but are still different due to the tweaks in the plot by Farhan.

I will not get into the story or the details of the tweaks, maybe some of you are still planning to catch the DON. But I would love give my take of the movie. The 1978 superhit boasted of legends in its star cast - Amitabh Bachchan, Zeenat Aman, Pran, Iftekhar, Helen. The storyline and the charm of such greats was enough for it to be an excellent movie. And when talk about remaking such a movie; its bound to evoke lot of high expectations. And I would say it was clever on Farhan's part to change the plot a bit. He made changes in two fulcrum points of the plot which does brings out a total different aspect. In some ways though I find the new plot similar to Face/Off, a 1997 film directed by John Woo starring John Travolta and Nicolas Cage. Nevertheless Shahrukh and Priyanka did a great job, never easy to be in shoes of Amitabh Bachchan and Zeenat Aman.

Let me also tell why I chose to call it an 'adaptation'. The 1978 Don was setup in a time when underworld used to operate mostly inside the country and girls were not expected to be self-sustaining. Now we live in an era where everything is global, many things which happen in other countries do have a bearing on our lives. Girls are now more pro-active than before. Farhan has accordingly spread the plot on a larger canvas, where Don's gang operates between Malaysia and India. Also Priyanka doesnt needs go for a fight class before confronting the Don.

So on a whole its good remake ('adaptation') but somehow falls a bit short on the charm which Amitabh Bachchan's Don had, but you should complain on that. My advice take it as a new movie you will surely enjoy it; the moment you get into a comparision mode you will waste your money.