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DON 2 - Movie Review : Its better we start making films around entertaining SCRIPTS and not STARS. (Review By Bobby Sing)

23 Dec, 2011 | Movie Reviews / 2011 Releases

In our part of the world, particularly in Bollywood, films are majorly made & seen just because of the STARS featuring in it and very few actually care about, who is the director and writer of any project. Though it has to be the other way round, but that’s how it happens here in Bollywood and DON-2 along with many recent films is just another perfect example of the fact. Walking on the same set parameters, DON-2 also remains a film specially written and conceived only for Shahrukh Khan alone in company with some excellent technical crew to bring it closer to the international standards.

Coming straight to the point, in true words the film has nothing to do with the cult name DON and its legacy. The writers deliberately link it to the previous remake of the original Don in the start and then later on move on to a completely different path of a planned crime. As a result, all that fun, masti and entertainment associated with the name DON goes simply missing.

In real terms, DON 2 is a heist film, in which the whole effort is made towards stealing some precious things from a safe vault. The brand of DON is forcibly included to add some extra zing to the project in commercial terms otherwise it could have been easily called anything close to Mission Impossible or other famous heist films. In fact, that seems to be the sole purpose of Farhan Akhtar to make an Indian film, similar to these world famous series in which a team goes on a mission like MI 1-4, Ocean Series, Bourne Series and more. So the name of DON has only been used to get some easy publicity without any expenditure and I do have my issues with the practice of these re-makes and sequels, explained later in the review.

Now coming to the film itself, it has only one merit to mention and that is its excellent production value which is hugely impressive and leaves a mark. Actions sequences like the opening one and the car-chase on the foreign roads are filmed brilliantly. Cinematography by Jason West is outstanding taking you on to a visually stunning tour of Germany, Switzerland, Malaysia and Thailand. And altogether we get a technically polished product competing with the world cinema films made in the similar genre.

But unfortunately content wise the film fails to make any kind of impact on the viewer in its more than 2 hours of duration. And the major blame goes to its first half which is too simple with nothing exciting or spellbinding happening on the screen against all expectations. Till intermission the film lacks hugely in the entertainment quotient and gives you nothing to cheer or enjoy. Wonder why they didn’t punch in some tightly written sequences in this first half or maybe they were too confident about their stuff shown in the second.

Post interval, its purely the execution of the planned heist which takes too much time to unfold leading to restlessness in the theater. As a typical Hindi film everything keeps happening so easily and nothing ever goes wrong. The codes are broken like a child’s play, the guards are fooled like mannequins standing on their duty and the bombs keep exploding perfectly right on their timings. Now its not that something should have happened wrong essentially but the missing point here is that one doesn’t feel any excitement and thrill while the team is working on their heist, which in fact has to be a key feature of any movie made in this particular genre.

Further, the most painful period of DON 2 comes in its final half an hour, where various un-required sequences keep following one after another as a never ending race and the viewer starts asking, When they are going to end it? In simple words, the concluding (dragging) part of DON 2 is sure going to hammer hard on its box office prospects severely. Such is the drastic impact of its final moments that one is bound to forget anything good watched before in the same movie. And this was really not expected from Farhan, a director, who is an actor, singer and writer himself known for his contribution in many recent famous movies hitting jackpot on the box-office.

So as it seems, DON-2 has been written and made only for one man and he is Shahrukh Khan. Truly speaking, I didn’t find Farhan Akhtar, the director anywhere in the entire movie and its just a Shahrukh’s product all the way which keeps focusing on him alone ignoring all the other important ingredients of a good movie. Shahrukh enters the film with an action sequence (which he does well) wearing a weird kind of getup which doesn’t match his own physical appearance. And then he goes on to deliver a worked upon but also an over the top performance trying to impress with some good one liners which even become repetitive after a point. Here I would like to mention that a well written script gives good one-liners to many of its characters to present a balance act, just like the recent “The Dirty Picture”. But here in DON 2 all the well written lines are exclusively kept for Shahrukh alone which does create a clearly visible imbalance among the performances.

Priyanka Chopra continues with her character of DON and tries her best to deliver something better than the first. But the writers do not give her anything more than the usual. Lara Dutta on the other hand looks gorgeous and happy too being used as a show-piece. Kunal Kapoor plays it cool as a hacker but his character is more confused than confident. Both Boman Irani and Om Puri are simply wasted, but Nawab Shah emerges as a fine performer among these veterans. Hrithik Roshan makes a special appearance fulfilling his duty of a family friend of the producers and he is just ok in absence of any great build up. Besides the soundtrack of the movie is a big disappointment from Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy and may be that is the reason, Farhan has used only one song in the film. However he could have easily dropped that too.

In nutshell, DON 2 is a movie definitely written after finalizing its cast, keeping in mind all the inputs primarily needed in a STAR’s movie. Its not a meaningless film with many silly sequences. But the script could have been much enjoyable if added with more fun, entertainment and thrill. It is a heist movie in disguise, which sadly doesn’t fulfill the major requirements of the genre. For me it was more a Farhan movie than a Shahrukh film, so maybe I was expecting a lot from the director. But the final outcome is sadly not even close to my expectations from the actor-director-singer-writer. Taking too much time on un-necessary things (like the sky jump without any purpose) is not a feature of a Farhan film. So I have my doubts of DON 2 being his film completely.

Further, I am really not in favour of making Re-makes and then even making a Sequel of a Re-make quite shamelessly. And here are my views on the subject:

As I see it, a Re-make of a HIT Classic Cult film with a Big Star of the current times is the easiest way of writing your name in the History Books of Cinema. It not only gives you a ready-made idea, an already Hit script and everything on the table to enhance, but at the same time it also associates you with one of the biggest Hit of Hindi Cinema just for only attempting a re-make. Because now whenever someone would say that Amitabh’s DON was a big hit and a great entertainer of the seventies, at the same time another person is sure going to add that this DON was also remade by Farhan Akhtar with Shahrukh in 2006, who then also made a sequel DON 2 in 2011. So, that simply gives you an easy entry into the History Books of Cinema without making any huge effort.

Now coming to making a sequel of a re-make. For me, its not only unethical but also a kind of theft of someone else’s creative property. In other words,
“A Re-make is like asking permission from a Land lord of a solid house to live there for a while on rent. Now that’s very fine if the owner gives anybody his permission readily.
But making a Sequel of that Re-make is like building a second floor on that rented house only, without even asking the actual landlord, which in one way is not only funny but can also be called creatively unethical theft.”

Its fine that you are making a Re-make after taking due permissions, but how can you go on making a sequel of that re-make claiming it to be your own creative property. Now for DON 2, I hope Farhan must have taken the same permission again from the Producer & Director of the original DON to make a sequel of their Cult film (or he may have got it at the time of making the re-make only). If yes then Farhan is a true flag bearer of experimental new-age cinema. But if he didn’t then I would like to call DON 2 – an illegal second floor made on a rented house by the tenant himself.

Ratings : 2 / 5

Tags : Don 2 Movie Review by Bobby Sing, Don2 Film Review By Bobby Sing, D2 Review, Bobby Sing's Hindi Films Reviews, New Hindi Films Reviews By Bobby Sing at bobbytalkscinema.com, Bollywood Movies Reviews at bobbytalkscinema.com, Bobby Sing Bollywood Reviews, New Bollywood Movies Reviews, New Bollywood Movies Released, New Hindi Films Reviews, New Hindi Movies Reviews, New Hindi Movies Released, New Bollywood Reviews, Bobby Talks Cinema Review, Reviews By Bobby Sing, New Hindi Films Reviews,

23 Dec 2011 / Comments ( 12 )

Daman

submitted on 23 December 2011

ONLY AMITABH IS THE REAL DON. Once again proved by this movie. Shahrukh should stop competing with Amit. It only brings out the large gap between the acting abilities of both. Also,no remakes should be allowed of any old movies. No one is capable enough of doing justice to them in terms of direction, acting, music and any other aspect you can think of.

Bobby Sing

submitted on 05 Jan,2012

Thanks Daman for your honest comment and Keep Visiting.
HIS BLESSINGS

Amit Joshi

submitted on 23 December 2011

Nice Review again.

I noticed one thing before becoming producer, SRK & Salman both were not interfering in Director\'s area and specially SRK delivered good movies but after opening their own production house they both started showing themselves larger than film, script whatever you call it and the result is in front of audience, not a single film of SRK production house could impress the audience.

I heard somewhere that SRK lost the role in 3 idiot just because he wanted Hirani to make film under his production house, it may be a rumor but if it is true, he was surely going to interfere and 3 idiot wouldn\'t be same movie then :)

Remake and Sequal of Remake......... very intelligent thought....I liked it, specially the line \"like building a second floor on that rented house only, without even asking the actual landlord\" :)

Bobby Sing

submitted on 05 Jan,2012

Thanks Amit for noticing and apprecaiting the important thought in the review.

Keep Visiting.
Cheers!

manish bhardwaj

submitted on 24 December 2011

one thing that i noticed everywhere n now in your review too.. even after 34 yrs it is amitabh\'s don.. but i still do not know that who is the director of original don.. that is why movies are made around stars (not a good idea)..people don\'t even say...starring amitabh...they say ..amitabh\'s don... i think producer and the director should have the right to call it their movie.. or the whole team(difficult to mention all of them)...other fact about don,..that i am aware of, is its writers...javed n saleem (if i m not wrong)..and that it was released in 1978... (not taking any credit away from amitabh the original DON)

Bobby Sing

submitted on 05 Jan,2012

Yes Manish, that is the wrong way of watching and appreciating movies, which is more evident in India.....yet it all depends upon the viewer that how he wishes to take the meidum of movies in his life.

The original director of DON was Chandra Barot which I delibrately didnt mention in my review because they had taken the rights from him for DON remake. But I am still clueless about the point of making a sequel of a remake.....and its due permissions????

However if you want to know more about the Original DON then do search for the word DON in the site and get some rare stuff to read.

Cheers!
HIS BLESSINGS

Vikas Saitya

submitted on 29 December 2011

Hi Bobby
It is high time we give script writer & director the required due which for long is denied to them. My criteria for watching a movie is primarly based on the name of director, but now on after Farhan (Don2) in future it have to be script writer+ director.

Bobby dear you should start such awareness( regarding neglected part filmmaking i.e of writer+director ) through your reach which will free us from stanglehold of star system in future & leads us to entertaining & meaningful cinema .(comment is copied from facebook wall)

Your review have the capability to be called as pure piece of Literature with such tender observations.

Rgds
Vikas

Bobby Sing

submitted on 05 Jan,2012

Thanks a lot Vikas for your kind appreciation.
The work is on from my side, the hard work is being put in.
Now lets see how far it takes my work from here.........

However I am neither much ambitious nor eager to make it big since the work itself and all the kind words of friends like yourself give me immesne satisfaction, energy and power.

Thanks once again and Keep Visiting.

Cheers!
HIS BLESSINGS

kuldeep sharma

submitted on 30 December 2011

The Original Don\'s director was Chandra Barot. Though I dont think that he played any creative role in the movie. The whole movie was copied from Hollywood, well! thats not the case only with Don. Most of the movies of 1970 era were copied from Hollywood, and not just movies, songs too. check this itwofs.com

Kuldeep

Bobby Sing

submitted on 30 Dec,2011

Hi Kuldeep Sharma,
Thanks for visiting and sharing your comment with us.

However I would like to inform that here at out site we have a complete section on only Inspired Movies and their original sources.
And for DON just have a look at this following link.

http://bobbytalkscinema.com/recentpost.php?postid=postid061309061503

Cheers!
HIS BLESSINGS

Sanusi

submitted on 04 August 2012

An objective review I must say.

SRK can never be AB, and honestly remake of hit films done in the same language does not make sense, It only means we are running out of ideas.

Cheers

Bobby Sing

submitted on 06 Aug,2012

Thanks Sanusi for your comment and yes you are very right in saying so.

Cheers!

DON 2 - Movie Review : Its better we start making films around entertaining SCRIPTS and not STARS. (Review By Bobby Sing)

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