Don, starring Amitabh Bachchan, was released in 1978 and should not be confused with the remake released in 2006 starring Shahrukh Khan. It's a Hindi language film also known as Bollywood film.
STORY BASICS
Don is an international gangster, respected yet feared by his own people and hated by the police who are determined to track him down. Unfortunately Don is killed in a police encounter which leaves one of the most senior police officers on his tail somewhat stumped as he wants to bring down the rest of the gang and their associates too. He knows a likeable but very common street performer called Vijay who is the spitting image of Don and he persuades him to go into training to be replaced into the gang as Don. This takes a lot of hard work but eventually Vijay is sent back into Don’s gang as Don.
Things seem to be going well until the only person who knows of Vijay’s real identity - the senior police officer, is killed and now “Don” is at risk from the police, his fellow gang members as they get more and more suspicious of him and his beautiful sidekick Roma (Zeenat Aman) who also wants him dead as the original Don was responsible for her brother’s death.
Can Vijay get out of this mess alive and bring down the gang? Can he ever persuade the police that he’s in fact a double of the real Don who was killed?
CAST/CREW/ANALYSIS
Don was released in 1978 and stars Bollywood legend Amitabh Bachchan in a double role with Zeenat Aman and Pran in major supporting roles. The film also stars Iftekhar, Om Shivpuri, Helen, Arpana Choudhary and Mac Mohan.
Don was directed by Chandra Barot (his debut as a director, previously he had only assisted as a director), and the story, screenplay and dialogue for the film was by Javed Akhtar and Salim Khan (who as a team also wrote Sholay, Trishul, Deewaar, Shaan, Kranti and many other popular Bollywood films of the 70s and 80s). The film runs for about 165 minutes and was produced by Nariman A Irani (who incidentally died in an accident on set whilst the movie was being filmed). Don has a PG certificate and is a Hindi language film (aka Bollywood). It was filmed in various studios in Bombay in India.
To me this was one of Amitabh Bachchan’s best roles during the 70s. He was in his element playing the gangster bad guy, then the paan* chewing scruffy oily haired street performer, then that same humble but sharp-witted street performer developing into and convincing gangster bad boy character. It was the 70s and flares were still in, Amitabh Bachchan (AB) is a very tall man, well over 6 feet tall and only he could pull off those huge flares and still look super cool. At the start of the film we see Don shoot one of his own men purely because he didn’t like the shoes the guy was wearing. We see this callous character played superbly by AB and then he switches so very easily to the all singing all dancing loveable rogue spitting out his paan all over the place who gets persuaded to take on the role of ruthless gangster. Not a small achievement by any means but we see the transformation take place and it’s quite convincing how he changes his speech, his style of walking, his mannerisms, etc. All the time you’re watching him in his new role of Don; knowing that he’s really a mild-mannered guy acting like a tough guy and you’re rooting for him not to get caught. AB played his role so well he very deservingly won the 1979 Filmfare Awards for Best Actor for this role. The film’s success was evident by the fact that it was a box office hit and in 2006 a remake was made of Don with Shahrukh Khan in the lead role. I’ve also seen the remake and thoroughly enjoyed it especially as it wasn’t exactly a carbon copy of this – the ending was changed to really freak out first time viewers – it certainly shocked me! If you’re wondering what the character of Vijay’s motive is to undertake the role of gangster, it’s basically because the police officer who recruits him says that he will ensure the 2 young children Vijay has taken under his wing and who he loves as his own will have a stable upbringing and good education which Vijay himself can ill afford as a street performer.
Zeenat Aman was the Bollywood darling of the 70s. She was stunning to look at, had a figure to die for and a pretty good actress to boot. She plays the cool but somewhat crazy karate-kicking avenger of her brother excellently and looked stunning throughout the film. Some people might say this was her best film ever but personally I thought her best acting was in Satyam Shivam Sundaram where she plays the lead. Her role in Don is that of a supporting actress but she gives it her best and no one can say that she was just there to look stunning and not fully get involved in the story.
Pran was a major Bollywood player in the 60s and 80s. He often played the kindly father figure or a gangster type and could carry off either type of role and have you easily believe he’s a nice paternal type who you’d love to have as an uncle and just as easily switch to the devilish criminal type that you really want to see put behind bars. He had a certain way about him that you could not ignore him in any role that he played; he had a very unique voice and manner about him.
I can’t not mention Helen in a review of this classic Bollywood film. Helen was famous back then for being an “item number” in many films. An “item number” is someone who performs in a song very scantily clad, usually only appearing in song and dance scenes as a seductress. She is famous for her song and dance routine in this film to the song “Yeh Mera Dil Pyaar Ka Deewana” – a dance song which has been played at Indian discos and parties since the 70s without losing its charm. Incidentally, Helen married Salim Khan, one of the writers of the Don story and is stepmother to Bollywood actors Salman, Sohail and Arbaz Khan.
I don’t know if the 1978 Don’s story was copied from somewhere else but I have to admit that when I saw the Nick Cage/John Travolta starrer Face Off many years later, the story somewhat reminded me of the Don story. Could it be that the inspiration for Face Off came from this Bollywood hit film of the 70s? Could it be that I’m seeing similarities that are not really there?! You’d have to watch both films to see…
Don is a very enjoyable film. The fight sequences are so over the top that you’ll laugh. The baddies are so panto-like that you’ll laugh even harder.
Some of the fight scenes could have been cut to shorten the length of the film but if you consider that Bollywood films are usually quite lengthy mainly because the cinema-going audience enjoy the whole experience of going to the cinema for several hours as it’s a social event. Many Bollywood fans in India do not have social venues to meet friends such as pubs and clubs so historically they went to the cinema. That is decreasing more and more with the advent of DVDs and India becoming more and more western and nightclubs popping up in urban areas. When Don first came out in 1978 the film had a huge captive audience. When the remake of Don was released last year in 2006 I wonder if it got even a fraction of the audience that the original did. The biggest difference these days to the Bollywood film industry is that you can watch Bollywood films in cinemas across the UK and other countries where there are people who want to watch them. 30 years ago you rarely had the chance to watch an Indian film down the local Odeon cinema hall!
THE MUSIC
“Yeh Mera Dil Pyaar Ka Deewana” (meaning my heart is a fool to love) is undoubtedly one of the best songs in this film. The lyrics for this song were by Indivar. It is a timeless song sung by Asha Bhosle and deservedly won a Filmfare Award for Best Playback Singer – Female. It had a real disco beat to it and will always be known as a great dance number to generations of Indian film-goers.
Another very famous song from this film is “O Khaike Paan Banaraswala” (the guy from Banares eating paan), which was sung by Kishore Kumar who also deservedly won the Filmfare Award for Best Playback Singer – Male in 1979.
Both the aforementioned songs are known by many Indians who’ve ever listened to Indian songs or watched Bollywood films as they’ve been used in other films since this film was released late in the 70s. There have been various versions made of both songs too, with different beats to suit different occasions.
“Main Hoon Don” (meaning I am Don) was also a very catch tune from the film and was sung by Kishore Kumar. The two other songs in the film were “Bombay Nagaria” and “Jiska Mujhe Tha Intezar”. The lyrics for all bar Yeh Mera Dil Pyaar Ka Deewana were by Anjaan.
WHERE TO GET IT
You can buy the DVD of Don from Amazon for £19.99 or from audiorec.co.uk for £4.95. Play.com are offering the DVD for £16.99 or you could always try renting it from your usual DVD rental source.
OVERALL
Overall I’d give Don a strong 8.5 out of 10. I watched it as a kid in India, didn’t really pay much attention back then, watched it during the 80s on video in the UK and watched it again more recently as I wanted to compare it to the remake which I’ve also seen. It’s stood the test of time well and I can honestly rate this as one of the top films to have come out of Bollywood in the 70s!
* paan – is a betel leaf, a type of digestive, filled with various spices, fruits and sugar chewed by Indians as a palate cleanser and breath freshener, commonly known for making the inside of your mouth very red. Tobacco is also used sometimes as a filling. Chewing paan is generally looked down on in urban areas in India as people tend to spit the chewed paan remains out on the street.
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