Another article bashing don

Don(e) to death

Subhash K Jha

Arrogant cinema is one where the filmmaker assumes a position of superiority over the given work.

Don isn't just a revisionist version of a blandly-directed film. It tries to create a new ethos and a new spirit for the original source material. It's not a remake but a remix, where the artiste doesn't recreate a work of art as a tribute, but tells you, 'This is the way it ought to have been. Now just see what I've done.'

The spirit of a chic but clinical remix persists throughout the film, from Frame First to Frame Blast, even in the song 'Khaike paas Banaraswala' where Javed Akhtar has changed the entire opening prelude written originally by Anjaan. Since poor Anjaan is no more, I've no clue what he'd have thought of 'Khaike paan Banaraswala' with a brand new preamble.

More alarming is the end-twist that turns Javed Akhtar's original 1978 screenplay on its head… But leaves many questions unanswered. If the hero was Don posing as Vijay why and how was he able to do such a spirited take on 'Khaike paan Banaraswala'?

Isn't that carrying the masquerade a bit too far?

I feel betrayed by Farhan Akhtar. He promised me a fun film. Don is, if anything, a seriously humourless tribute, that takes away the fun element from the original, and that takes itself far more seriously than the original material suggested or warranted.

I rate Farhan among the most accomplished filmmakers of the post-Mukul Anand era. I see the technician at his polished pinnacle in Don. But the storyteller is too busy measuring his steps to enjoy the journey from trigger to rigour.

In its arrogance, I'd rate Don right up there with Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut and Mira Nair's Vanity Fair… films that played around with traditional narrative devices in the spirit of arrogance rather than fun.

Sure, there were problems in Farhan's second nobly-intended anti-war film Lakshya. But his cinematic debut Dil Chahta Hai is as close to a perfect coming-of-age film as I've seen.

Tera kya hoga, Ramu? Will the remakes of Sholay, Amar Akbar Anthony, Guide, Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam and only-gawd-knows-what-else work? For now the burden of transposition falls on J P Dutta.

Umrao Jaan is the next remake. Will it be another arrogant journey back into a 'classic'? Let's face it, the original Don was an average film lifted by a grand central performance. Umrao Jaan is a different matter altogether. The original boasted of a fabulous central performance. Plus it contained a whole lot of acutely aesthetic qualities, including a timeless music score, and more.

Take away the central performance and it would be relatively easy to equal the original Don. But Umrao Jaan? Trouble, serious trouble.

I think J P Dutta is equal to the task. Though known as a men's director he has come up with a gallery of performances by a slew of heroines… Shabana Azmi, Aishwarya Rai, Divya Dutta, Ayesha Jhulka.

If Don is a re-mixed, cocky and arrogant version of the original, Umrao Jaan is a sepia-toned, endearingly romantic ode, not to Muzaffar Ali but to an entire era gone by.

No, we don't need to lose heart. There's hope for the remakes yet. I'd like to see what Sanjay Leela Bhansali would do with a Kagaz Ke Phool, or a Rituparno Ghosh would do to a Guide.

It's not the cult of remakes that worries me. It's the remixes that bother me limitlessly.

Sunidhi Chauhan's version of 'Yeh mera dil' is fine. But I think Asha Bhosle was trying to tell us something else.

VERY FEW REMAKES GO HIT. COZ THERE IS NOTHING LIKE ORIGINAL.

AS FOR SHOLAY WHERE WILL YOU FIND AMJAD KHAN (GABBAR)WHO WAS THE BEST OF ALL,
JAI (AMITABH), VEERU (DHARMENDAR) AND MOST OF ALL BASANTI (HEMA MALINI). THEY ARE THE TIMELESS CHARACTERS ANYWAYS LETS SEE HOW RAMU WILL SHAPE THESE CHARACTERS.

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i think all remakes shud be viewed with clear mind without comparing it with the original..just as old don has been very good during late 70's whereas new don fit this new generation ..if not compared both are verryyyy gooodddddddddd respectively... 👏 👏 👏
For others coming remakes ..just wait n c

remakes should be viewed with an open mind only if they deliver the message with a lot of novelty and originality keepign the main storlyline intactl. It should not convey the feeling of being too repetitive. The reason why SRK gave all the critics and the public a reason to BASH him was because he used 70% of the dialogues from the original which put him in direct comparison with AB, where he felt distinclty short (in the literal sense also 😆 ). Had FA come up with a new screenplay, dialogues, keeping the original storyline intact, he would't have been murdered like this. Besides, the comparisons are inevitable if you are going to remake the film of the best actor of Indian cinema. SRK hams supreme, eats into the dialogues of other characters, and tries to give his own interpretation of the chracter Don. His performance is certainly over the top.

When SLB made Devadas, he was very careful in bringing a lot of novelty in the remmke, which left the audience satisfied in the end.

It is the dexterity with which the subject of a remake is handled. If u are trying to be arrogant (as Subhash Jha rightly puts it) which is how FA and SRK coem across, u will be slaughtered, and bashed till the end.

tfs

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gosh, can't they just view the movie and bash less!!!

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Too many topics bashing Don have opened

-Chandni 😉