Well Begun, Half DON

The most exciting part when I watched Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna was the trailer of Don and Dhoom-2. The Dhoom franchise is a great example of savvy marketing, more speed, more cars, more babes and pure adrenalin with a great cast starting with Abhishek at its helm. It is also one instance of maturity shown by the czars of candy floss.

Coming back to Don. I completely share Farhan's enthusiasm for the original Don. For a movie of its time, it had amazing pace and style except for the scene where Pran does the toughest trapeze act in history. It is also arguably Amitabh's best performance as a star where he digs his teeth into an extremely well-written role both as the bhaiyya and the suave don. Some dialogues like ' Don ko pakadna mushkil hi nahi, namumkin hai'... his paan-filled talk with Iftekhar pronouncing Don as Daaaan were memorable. And Kalyanji Anandji dished out superhit songs and Kishore raised Khaike Banaras to great heights. Even the background score by Babla was pulsating right from the first scene at the hotel.

Welcome to the new Don: King Khan. Well for the superstar this is going to be his true test. He managed to do superbly in Main Hoo Naa. Can he pull this off without hamming too much and given a spectacular style as the suave Don. Well he is looking a bit old especially near his temples but the visuals are stunning, especially the scenes shot at the Kaula Lumpur airport. SRK's last attempt playing a true don was in Duplicate where he was pretty bad. For the original Don's sake I hope Farhan pulls this off.

The music is spot on. The remix 'Don revisited' is excellent. If this is theme song and the background score then you already have a winner. Lyrics of 2 original songs Khaike paan banaras and Ye mera dil have been kept the same with some musical enhancements whereas Main Hoon Don comes with new lyrics. Although Main Hoon Don Remix is better on the listening quotient with its distinctive sound which epitomizes the adrenalin in the movie. Somehow the Khaike paan banaras lacks the energy of the original or maybe the makers wanted to improvise without hampering the original flow and just could not. But if the song is picturised well you could have a winner. But the real treat is Sunidhi Chauhan's rendition of Ye Mera Dil and I am just imagining this as the first song of the movie picturized on Kareena Kapoor and I can already a sense of madness in the front bench. This is going to be scorching. Farhan will have his audience captivated in the first 15 minutes but the trick would be retaining that tempo.

The track also comes with Morya a Ganpati song, which is a smart move rather than great music. Its been years since we had a street style raw Ganpati song and this song will deliver with Shahrukh in a white shirt and orange pheta. There is another song Aaj ki raat which has a clear ' Raat baaki, baat baaki' hangover. But since it has to be the climax song , something better was expected.

Overall Don's music is a good mix of nostalgia and club/groove feel. Well begun half DON.