Don - mushkil hi nahi, namumkin

Watched Don yesterday with my film buddy P (FBP) - we're specialists at catching the early morning show at INOX which means paying just about Rs89-Rs100 for a movie.

Had heard a lot of bad things about the movie but then a movie is made to be watched, hai na, so there we were. I sauntered into the hall and was shocked to see the entire hall full of people sitting patiently, waiting for the movie to begin after all the advertisements - this was the first time I've seen INOX so crowded on a morning show! Theres always something about walking into a cinema hall when everyone is already seated - hehe, you feel like a celebrity with almost everyone looking at you;-)

So anyway, the celebrity seated himself and shooed off an intruder from FBP's seat (please note: FBP always makes it a point to miss the first 20 minutes of any movie - in case of Don, she was plain unlucky - the first 20 minutes were advertisements so she was relegated to watching the movie from the begining).

Don left me stone-cold for the first hour and half. Shahrukh Khan was a horrible choice for someone to play Don. And I hated him smiling cockily through the early action scenes - instead of putting jaan into the scenes, there he was, smirking away while beating the lesser baddies to pulp. He was like a little squirt trying to look uber cool.

And then the dance sequence with Kareena Kapoor - gosh! Please notice Kareena's epileptic gyrations in the begining of the dance. Although to her credit, she looked pretty good in her close ups (FBP hated her hairstyle). In a scene when Shahrukh throws her on the bed, her thighs are quite jiggledy...hehe, I found that pretty ummm...enjoyable;-D Thank god Kareena was limited to just one item number, though.

Coming to Priyanka Chopra - I found the one scene where she was training - presumably doing a kata quite hilarious. The scene started from nowhere and ended as abruptly in 1 minute - and this was how the movie was through the first hour - made up of little bits and pieces which refused to merge seamlessly.

The movie became somewhat interesting after the Director had established all the links and gotten the bumpkin Don in - it was much smoother after that. To his credit, Farhan Akhtar managed not to lose the threads - and there were many threads in the movie - so the audience had a good handle on the different situations within the movie at all times.

I did not quite agree with being true to the original movie - many songs were totally out of place but had been put in just to gel with the original movie. They could have totally done away with Kareena's number, the Ganapati song and the 'Khaike paan' song (FBP liked the lyrics) and the movie would have been much tighter and interesting.

Can someone also please ask Shahrukh Khan to emote differently for different scenes? Although I quite enjoyed the look on his face when Kareena was all over him (heck, any guy would have that look on his face in such a situation), he carried the same look through most of the movie. Why did they get Shahrukh to play the Don in the first place? It should have been someone with a more manly presence like Abhishek Bachchan.

I loved the theme song/tune playing through the movie - it was very nice and very appropriate wherever it happened. Boman Irani was average - his role was'nt meant to bring out any brilliant acting anyway. Arjun Rampal was ok - though I dont agree with the concept of a geek who can also rappel down highrises with the effortless ease of an MI6 spy - it should have been more convincing.

I'm planning on catching the original movie now - was kind of missing Amitabh Bachchan's intensity throughout the movie.