| Revisiting Don | |
| By Chanakya Dhanda (IndiaFM News Bureau), October 18, 2006 - 12:20 IST | |
Don. A film that made Amitabh Bachchan one of the most stylish actors.
Don, a film that made Zeenat Aman one of the most sought after actors.
Don, a film that made Pran every child's hero.
Don, a film that gave many reasons to the audience to be loved.
Don is back and back with nothing short of all old memories. It has the same story with a little twist to the script. Same characters as the old Don. A few similar songs too. But here is a time to refresh your memory and take you through a journey where we will compare the old Don characters, their part in the film along with the characters in the new Don. Also for people who have not seen Don, this will be an insight as to what you can expect in Don.
Let us start with the main character Don
Played initially by Amitabh Bachchan and now by Shahrukh Khan, the title role of Don is about a smuggler who is wanted by the Police of 11 nations. But in one Chor-Police incident, Don is killed and replaced by his look alike Vijay. He has now to bust the whole smuggling gang without disclosing his identity. But the twist of fate is such that he has to prove to the police officers that he is not Don and is actually Vijay.
Don Factoid
Farhan Akthar's Don is not the first remake of 'Don'. It was first done by Kawal Sharma in his film Dav Pech (1989) starring Jeetendra. The film bombed.
Roma
Roma was earlier played by Zeenat Aman and now by Priyanka Chopra. Roma is the sister of Don's henchman Ramesh, who wants to improve and leave the criminal world. Don gets to know his intention and kills him. Roma wants to avenge his death by killing Don and so she enters their gang. But Don is already dead and she thinks Vijay is Don. So she is after him. When she comes to know the truth, she is in love with Vijay and helps him prove that he is not Don to the world.
Jasjit a.k.a JJ
JJ was played by Pran and now Arjun Rampal is playing the same role. He works in the circus as a trapeze artist. He has a past of a criminal but is now a changed man. He has to go back to the path of crime because his wife is ill and he needs money for her operation. But as fate would have it, his wife dies and he is caught by the police, leaving his children all alone. Vijay takes care of his children. Later on JJ searches for his kids but finds a friend in Vijay.
Don Factoid
Producer Nariman Irani was a cameraman who was in deep debt of around Rs 12 lakhs after his first film Zindagi Zindagi with Sunil Dutt that flopped miserably. So to get out of this financial mess he was advised by Amitabh Bachchan, Zeenat Aman, Chandra Barot and Manoj Kumar to make another film which subsequently turned out to be Don.
Writers Salim-Javed were not able to sell the script for a long time until director Chandra Barot and producer Nariman Irani bought it. It was rejected by Dev Anand, Prakash Mehra and Jeetendra.
Kamini
Kamini, played by Helen in the original and now by Kareena Kapoor, is Ramesh's girlfriend. She too, like Roma wants to avenge Ramesh's death but gets killed by Don. Roma also wants to avenge her death.
Anita
Anita in the original was played by Arpana Choudhry and now by Isha Koppikar. In the old Don, Anita was relegated to the back seat while in the new Don, Anita is being sensationalized and she has a meaty role unlike the old Don. Many people are also under the belief that Anita never existed in the original Don. Well the fact is she was there and she kept getting jealous of Roma in the original. Anita played one of Don's girlfriends in the original.
Don Factoid
'Yeh Mera Dil Pyar Ka Deewana' is considered to be one of Helen's best dances. An unbelievable fact was that she was over 40 years old when she danced to it.
DCP D'Silva
DCP D'Silva was played by Iftekhar and now by Boman Irani. He is an honest cop who wants to get Don no matter what finally gets him, but Don is killed in the encounter. So he replaces Don with his look alike Vijay and sends him to the smugglers gang. He is the only one who knows Vijay's true identity. But D'Silva is killed in a shootout.
Interpol Officer Malik
Interpol Officer Malik in the original was played by Om Shivpuri and now it is being played by an actor who shares an identical name and plays the same character. Om Puri. This is a big coincidence. Malik in the original was the villain. He was actually Wardhan. He had kidnapped the original Interpol officer and replaced himself as Malik. He gathered all police information and helped the smugglers. Life was perfect for him until Vijay knew his true identity.
Don Factoid
The script did not even have a name. It was a script pertaining to a character called Don. When Nariman Irani approached Salim, he said, 'Humare paas ek breakfast script padi hai jo koi nahi le raha hai.' And Nariman said 'chalega'. So that is how 'Don' was made.
Narang
Narang in the original Don was played by Kamal Kapoor and now by Pawan Malhotra. Narang was Don's left hand and he planned everything along with Don. He too like everyone wanted Vijay to die as he knew a little too much about him.
Apart from these there are a few characters that never existed in Don. One such is Sushma Reddy who plays JJ's wife. She was only mentioned in the old Don but never had any screen time. So this is one addition. Another addition is Chunky Pandey. What is his character? Well for that you will have to watch the movie.
Don Factoid
The song 'Paan Banareswala' was immortalized by Amitabh Bachchan. However, he howled in pain during the filming of the song because he cut his tongue while chewing over 40 paans for the song. The chuna in the paan burnt his tongue.
Director Chandra Barot got the idea of making Amitabh eat 40 paans from Anandji (of Kalyanji-Anandji fame). He used to eat a lot of paan and so got a red film on his lips.
Apart from the characters, all the songs of Don have the same situation. Let us list them for you.
Title track of old Don and New Don have the same situation. Shahrukh sings in new while Amitabh sings in old.
Morya Re (new) and Bambai Nagariya (old) have the same situation, introduction of Vijay.
Aaj Ki Raat (new) and Jiska Mujhe Tha Intezaar (old) have the same situation. Priyanka and Isha dance on the new number while Zeenat danced on the old song where Aparna is shown getting jealous of her.
The situations and characters of Khaike Paan Banaraswala and Yeh Mera Dil have been retained. These two are the only songs which have been retained from the original.
Well guys, now you seem to have some clue as to what Don is all about. Curtains unfold 20th October. So watch the new modernized version Don with a little twists here and there and have fun. The Chase Begins again.
Don Factoid
While rendering the song 'Paan Banareswala', Kishore Kumar actually chewed on paan and spat it on a plastic sheet on the floor to get a natural effect.
Amitabh's look was inspired from a character played by Sanjeev Kumar in his film Naya Din Nayi Raat. Sanjeev plays 9 characters in the film and one of them is the role of a masterji where he eats paan and has oily hair.
http://indiafm.com/slideshow/2006/10/18/53/index.html
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