WHAT A DON!

While I'm at it - this business of raving and ranting, let me get down to my long overdue post of Don. It was triggered in part by a comment that came my way at a dance party a couple of winks ago. The minute Khaike Paan Banaras Wala came on, someone next to me went : "No, one likes the new Don."

Perfectly fine statement to make if there were no neo-Don lovers in sight. But I liked it and I said it. Then the statement changed to "only 5% of those who watched it liked it." I have no clue where that statistic came from, but I count myself fortunate to be a part of that 5%.

We'd finally made it Don after a long day. A bull run (ie a run featuring man and his best friend) meant I spent an hour in traffic in a vain bid to pick up Bala in time for a book launch. When Catherine Lim is launching a book, you want to be there to catch her unscripted speeches. Much to my dismay, I missed the launch and the speech and barely managed a couple of words with Catherine before she had to leave.

Then we spent several minutes toggling between which movie we'd like to watch. 'Good Year', 'Don'? 'Don', 'Good Year' - things finally swung in favour of Don. We made it to Shaw only to realise that the show was at midnight. But you know how it is, when the mind is set on a movie, the mind is set on a movie. With a two hour long wait before the movie, I even had time to nap and that's pretty much what I expected to do when we ended the theatre.

How wrong I was. Right from the start, the movie exceeded my expectations. Ok, I would have preferred to see a real item girl instead of Kareena, but no one seemed to mind. Shah Rukh was brilliant from the word go. The quiet evil Don chilling you to the very bone, then the tapori who emerges in the Ganpati Visarjan. The 9/11 bits didn't seem overtly contrived unlike in Naseerudin's directorial debut 'Yun Hota To Kya Hota'. The empire in Don unfolds smoothly as do the splits right at the top of the Evil Empire - so to speak.

Farhan Akhtar captures Malaysia in all its glory. Anyone, who has been to Genting will tell you it actually looks better through Farhan's lens. Then the Bollywood heroine emerges in a new avataar. No more grin and bear it kind of heroine here. Priyanka Chopra is all ready to kick butt and she sure does with some stunning results.

Boman Irani proves yet again, there is no role scripted or otherwise that he can't do. As DCP De Silva he gives no indication of the twists that were to follow in the movie. Twists that had me like the other 5% at the edge of my seat wondering if good will eventually win?

If there are a couple of late bloomers like me, who take forever to watch the movie, let me not spoil it for you.

The official reviews don't quite leave the right impression, having watched it, let me tell you 'Don' on the whole is enjoyable. Each actor has fleshed out his character superbly and Arjun Rampal deserves a special mention. As does the man who put it all together. Farhan, who make me so proud of Indian cinema. The music rocks, can we expect anything less from the magically lyrical Shankar, Ehsaan, Loy?

Yes, I am an unapologetic Don fan, no ifs, buts and likes about that.

Since I'm making it my business to dish out some popcorns, I'm going to give it a four out of the full five.