DON and the thinking Indian

So I finally managed to have my way with something as I caught the first day show of DON. Had been waiting for "DON-the chase begins" to hit the movie theaters for quite sometime now. Not that I had high expectations from the movie, but I sure was curious to see the movie- curious to see how SRK would measure up to the role immortalized by the biggest star of Indian Movie industry, curious to see if the hugely talented Farhan Akhtar could out stage the director whose only hindi movie (his only other movie was a super hit Bengali movie) was a colossal hit.

Just in time I was at the ticket counter for there were just six seats remaining and the guy standing behind me bought four of them. I had just about sufficient time at hand to have some golgappes and a plate of tikki chat before the movie. As soon as the movie started I heard the person to my right murmuring that SRK cannot give a performance akin to that of AB .The benchmark had been set. It was not just any other SRK movie. It was the SRK movie that would determine if he was actually anywhere near Big B.

The movie started with an action sequence that you are more likely to find in a James Bond movie. But then that was about it. The movie from then went downhill at a pace, as Sidhu would like to say, of "an Indian Taxi meter". There were some unexpected moments in the movie but it was largely the same old movie repackaged in a rather loud packaging to make it look spectacular. And spectacular it did look but then all the grandeur and spectacle turned it into a run of the mill Bollywood masala movie, a far cry from the subdued but highly gripping original.

So is the movie a dud? The thinking Indian (well those who like to use their mind while watching movie ;) ) will definitely not like this movie. But then superhit movies are hardly made keeping them in mind(KANK, K3G anyone?). This movie appeals to the common mass. It has action that any Hollywood movie bereft person will happily gulp down his throat, it has thrill, it has great music, it has an ending that no one expected and it has those amazing looking belles. Did I mention about them somewhere. How could I fail mentioning them?! Now look it is really not possible to appreciate the beauty of the lovely ladies appearing in the big screen when you have your better half sitting beside you (Don't tell me you thought I was watching the movie alone). But from whatever little I could appreciate (oops!) they sure were looking stunning.

After sitting through 3 and half hours of the movie and hearing a few million times that we wasted 300 bucks (my better half is a "thinking Indian" you see) and convinced that SRK is a great actor (and it was not exactly the movie that convinced me the same... it was more due to
someone telling me this a zillion times during the course of the movie) I got to know that that I still had a little space left in my tummy and so munch munch I went again. And this time it was the turn of Chocolate Sin(yum yum) and some fancy Chinese stuff... which obviously I did not order.

Finally it was time to come back to my hostel room and take some much needed rest. The first thing that I did after reaching my room was to find out what critics thought of the movie. Now "critics" are these amazing brand of people who have the incredible knack of getting things wrong almost all the while. The movies that get a 4 star rating generally run empty houses. So be wary of the critics!! They surely belong to the lot of thinking Indians.
I opened Rediff, opened the Review page and hit the Page Down button... Lo!! The movie had got a 2 star rating. Opened the 2nd review and here it was 1 1/2 star!!! Now now didn't the movie get a liberal dose of whistles (which I suppose generally means thumbs up) when it ended? But then the critics belong to the lot of "thinking Indians". So 2 star was the best the movie could manage. This made me wonder if there should be two sets of ratings. One for mass appeal and one for ingenuity that the movie brings. In case there are two sets of ratings then DON would probably get a 3 and half for mass appeal and a 2 star for the the ingenuity. Now only if the critics could do something of this sort. Hellllllllloooooo. You people listening?

Seems I have wasted too much time on this movie. 3 and 1/2 watching and another hour writing this post. 4 1/2 hours for such a movie is far far more than I would have wanted to spend for it. My one and only suggestion for this movie: Wait till you get a CD with good print and watch it on your comp. Certainly not worth watching it in the movie hall. Better wait for Dhoom2 and hope that it lives upto the hype.

Regards,
A "thinking Indian" ;)