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| My rating for Don 2 is 4 out of 5 stars! |
It's time for the SRK fans to go weak in the knees
again. The superstar's back with a bang.
Don 2, the sequel starts off almost from where the
earlier episode ended and while it attempts to maintain some continuity with
the last installment. Here comes the Don, his spectacular entry on a speed boat
across a meandering Thai river defines his cool attitude. Smoke twirls around
his face in a circular motion, he lazily twists the ‘D’ tattoo on his biceps,
his dreadlocks blow in the wind and the piercing eyes peek above the RayBans.
It’s an entry that sets the tone, and raises the expectations for the rest of
the film. I’ve never seen such an amazing entry sequence ever in a Bollywood
movie.
Don emerges in Malaysia and gets himself arrested only
to get the convicted Vardhan (Boman Irani) out of jail. Vardhan has keys to a
video footage which they use to blackmail a bank vice president (Alyy Khan) to
get access to a German bank's security systems. The big plan is about of
robbery of the currency printing plates from the bank. The plotting and
scheming starts in the second half with an easy induction of a hacker (Kunal
Kapoor) who can not only barge into the security systems of the vault but also
seems to have blueprints of the bank building.
The plot has been finely crafted, with every twist and
turn. With Don 2, Farhan Akhtar reasserts himself as one of Hindi cinema's
stylish storytellers. Farhan Akhtar yet again shows his brilliance as a
director. Barring few loopholes which can be neglected like Vardhan despite in
the hit list of police gets an easy entry into the bank is highly indigestible,
Don 2 impresses at various stages. The breath taking prison-break sequence,
where Don escapes with his old foe Vardhan. The car chase sequence between
Priyanka and Shahrukh. The theft sequence is amazingly shot
especially the way Don escapes the inside chamber with plates in his bag. The
chases, the fights, the demolition, destruction, break-ins, escapes have all
been done with a polish like best of Hollywood.
The plus point of the movie is none other than Shahrukh
himself. His portrayal of the character of the Don is flawless. The acror
interprets him as an arrogant, agile, wicked and wild dare-devil person. Don 2
marks Shahrukh's return to anti-hero roles after acting out such roles with
boom so early in his career. Recall Baazigar, Darr and Anjaam. Don’s entry and
exit on the pressure-controlled floor in the vault is a homage to the iconic
scene in the first Mission Imposible film.
Priyanka revisits her character of Roma in Don 2. Not
only is the character more evolved, even her performance is of a high order. In
fact, she enacts the role of an angry, tough lady. Priyanka Chopra kicks ass
with some well-shot action sequences and shares crackling chemistry with
Shahrukh. Lara Dutta only used to molls up the glam quotient is simply a
substitute for Isha Koppikar from the prequel and is hardly there for a few
scenes. Boman Irani is effectively evil.
Kunal Kapoor is decent, though he doesn't really get the scenes to prove
his credentials. Om Puri, Alyy Khan and Sahil Shroff are plain functional.
Hrithik Roshan is looking dapper in an unintentionally hilarious cameo.
The cinematography captures the virgin locales of
Berlin, Thailand, Malaysia and Zurich is a pleasure to watch. However
Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy's musical score doesn't leave a mark this time and the
background score has to repeatedly resort to the theme-piece from the original
for some impact. Farhan Akhtar's punch-lines in dialogues are initially amusing
but with a Don-ism in every second line.
On the whole Don 2 rides on star power, brand value
and a classic action crime thriller that doesn’t let go, even for a moment. The
plot has been finely crafted, with every twist and turn.
Don 2 ends with the promise of Don 3 (that's what the
number-plate of Don's bike reads) and the trademark dialogue 'Don ko pakadna
mushkil hi nahi, namumkin hai'. But we would surely want to catch up with a
more worthy sequel to this. Ye to namumkin nahi hai! Is'nt it guys?
