REVIEW: DON 2

DON 2
More than two decades ago, we were regaled and entertained by the dialogues, real and imaginary, of the Bollywood villain of yester years, Ajit. And in the last five years or so, we have witnessed several versions of pithy sentences describing the Southern Super Star Rajnikant and his capabilities. And now in the last four weeks or so, in a novel attempt to promote DON 2, a few of its punch packed dialogues have been released to the media; these have been called DONISMS! But these very DONISMS fail to make the impact on the big screen because of their delivery on screen. This, however, is the least of the detractors of DON 2.
The remake of DON succeeded partly, only because of the original script, which the director Farhan Akthar tweaked to give it a modern touch and cleverly inserted the twist in the tail. For the likes of us, who had seen DON in its earlier avatar, as brilliantly portrayed by Amitabh, it was a letdown. In DON 2, the story is that of a heist and the associated crossings and double-crossings, and to be fair to Shah Rukh, doesn’t require emoting of any great degree. Shah Rukh, therefore sails through with a couple of wigs and his favourite postures. The script offers little room for the rest of the cast to display histrionics; therefore Priyanka, Lara Dutta, Om Puri and Kunal Kapoor sleep walk through their roles. The only exception is Boman Irani, who manages to infuse life and expressions in his character. Even the music directors, Shankar-Ehsan-Loy have managed to create some of their very forgettable compositions.
In such a context, the only sustainable point for a movie would have to be its relentless pace at which things happen on the screen to make sure that the audience glosses over all these shortcomings. Here again DON 2 fails not merely in comparison with the other thriller MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: GHOST PROTOCOL, released the previous week, but on its own too, fails to set the screen on fire. In fact, the first half plods rather slowly, and Farhan redeems himself partially in the second half. The much touted car chase scene is good but fails to create those edge of the seat moments. The photography and the technical aspects are excellent; that is something which we have all learnt to expect in glitzy ventures like these.
I am told that Shah Rukh has joined Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt in being only the third person to have been accorded shooting permission in Germany; in addition the German government has also funded nearly 3 million Euros for the shots in Berlin and has earned credit as a co-producer of this movie. That surely is the result of the marketing magic of Shah Rukh Khan at work.
Will Farhan, after this result do a further sequel of DON TWO? The answer is an anagram of DON TWO; WON’T DO!!
RATING: 2.5 out of 5
December 22, 2011

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