All the action setpieces are oddly thanda, and resolve themselves in a far too convenient, filmi fashion. In Don, watching Shah Rukh Khan and Boman Irani in a long car chase leaves you quite cold. And while it's fine to have a Hollywood hangover - Akhtar obviously owns Kill Bill, Face/Off, Scarface and Con Air on DVD - the end result is oddly tacky, despite being expensive.Дhoom is filler, but manages to click because the action grips you. The thrills too are served cold, as if Farhan is eager to skim over them to get to memorable lines or his own alterations. Khan wears his neckties under his shirts, and that's as fashionably groundbreaking as this movie gets. So is it all about the style, the slickness? An insubstantial story supplemented by sophisticated visuals and affluent gadgets? Not quite, because it isn't stylish enough. We can see them coming, and each newly contrived turn brings with it another bagful of loopholes, turning the end product into a pretty silly film. As the film goes on, twist over twist is plastered on, and none of it is remotely innovative. By interval point, we're already kinda wary of the young director's attempt at changing the plot. The greatness of the film lies in the fact that it shows nearly all its cards to the audience - from the death of Don to the death of DCP D'Silva - and yet manages to stay thrilling - giving you a twist but sticking to a good, straight story with great characters.ДЇarhan, on the other hand, writes a far more amateurish story, a cop-and-robber tale that suffers from way too many plot twists. Herein lies the fundamental error: Don was based on a very tight Salim-Javed script, one about an innocent lookalike and how he was trapped by circumstances. The real catastrophe unfolds in the second half, as Farhan goes all-out in desperate attempts to surprise his audience. But while the inclusion of an unimaginably plush hotel room might not do much for the film, the first half makes it clear how earnest both Farhan and Khan are, with the latter shining almost every time he gets room for his own little thing.

Lazily, it picks up sequences and arranges them in a disappointingly linear narrative, usually adding nothing more than backdrop. So coasts along the first half, smug in the assurance that audiences must have seen the old Don. 'It's mine.' The moment has both edge and humour, and it's authentically Shah Rukh. Then his cell (Don uses a remarkably lo-tech model, by the way) rings and Kamini asks if she should get it.

It is a classic moment modernised, and it takes awhile to get used to him saying Bachchan's wordsВ - in fact, the performance stays rooted in tribute, and you always see an overwhelmed actor uttering timeless lines. With Kareena Kapoor, the new (and adequate) Kamini on his armrest, Khan deftly tosses us words we've heard before: The bit about not liking women who take too much, or too little, time to come to him. Plus, SRK manages to balance out Don by occasionally tossing us something new, and much fun. So then this, considering it is the first film Farhan remembers ever watching, is a complete fanboy tribute, and we should look on it with empathetic indulgence.

Khan's visibly a tremendous worshipper of the original, and every time he says a line Amitabh made immortal, there is a quiver of awe in his voice. Given the script, that isВ - but we get to that in a bit. It is the ones in whom you have unflagging faith who end up letting you down. The usual suspects in Don, the people you expect to screw it up, are actually quite impressive, no question. If you were afraid of what Khan would do with Bachchan's dialogues, lets just say that the director has tossed us allВ - I'm a purist who can quote the first film verbatimВ - a bit of a googly. While there has been both cold cynicism and feverish excitement about the Shah Rukh Khan take on Amitabh Bachchan's cult classic, Farhan Akhtar manages to surprise both camps. No, this icon for cocaine trafficking across Asia says his name into the phone, snaps on designer sunglasses and walks out leaving a heavy tipВ - and the restaurant unharmed. It kicks off with a dramatic shot of a swanky Paris bistro: Shah Rukh Khan's flat cellphone rings singsongedly, he flips it open and we look at his lips up close as one of the most wanted men alive answers his mobile with a 'Don.' There is no conversation, no drugs-money-murder order.

Don 2006 movie review