Don: The Chase Begins Again

Don - The Chase Begins Again
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Farhan Akhtar
Produced by	Farhan Akhtar Ritesh Sidhwani
Screenplay by	Farhan Akhtar Javed Akhtar
Story by	Farhan Akhtar Javed Akhtar Salim Khan
Starring	Shahrukh Khan Priyanka Chopra Arjun Rampal Isha Koppikar Boman Irani
Music by	Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy Midival Punditz DJ Randolf
Cinematography	Mohanan
Editing by	Neil Sadwelkar Anand Subaya
Studio	Excel Entertainment
Distributed by	Excel Entertainment
Release date(s)	October 20, 2006
Running time	178 minutes
Country	India
Language	Hindi
Budget	35 crore (US$7.1 million)[1]
Box office	104.66 crore (US$21.23 million)[2]

Don: The Chase Begins Again is a 2006 Indian action film directed by Farhan Akhtar. It is a remake of the 1978 film Don. The film is produced by Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani under their home banner Excel Entertainment. The film stars Shahrukh Khan, Priyanka Chopra, Arjun Rampal, Ishaa Koppikar, Boman Irani and Kareena Kapoor in a guest appearance. The film was selected to be screened at the Berlin Film Festival.^[3] and was released in India and internationally on 20 October 2006. The film was the fifth highest grossing film of 2006 in India, grossing over 104 crores worldwide.

Plot

In 2006, the drug trade is booming. The Malaysian Intelligence and Anti-Narcotic Department are called upon for assistance by their Indian counterparts. The Indian team is headed by DCP D'Silva (Boman Irani), who wants to break the drug operations of a drug lord named Singhania. Helping him along the way is Malik (Om Puri). He believes that capturing Singania's most dangerous and elusive lieutenant, Don, (Shahrukh Khan), will be the most effective way of accomplishing this. Don's gang consists of Anita (Ishaa Koppikar), his girlfriend, and Narang (Pawan Malhotra). Soon, Roma (Priyanka Chopra) joins them, but she has other plans - kill Don; Don was responsible for killing her brother Ramesh, as well as his fiancee, Kamini (Kareena Kapoor in a special appearance).

During a police chase, Don is fatally injured and captured by D'Silva. D'Silva keeps it a secret that he has captured Don and proceeds to track down a Don look-alike, a singer named Vijay (also played by Shahrukh Khan). He asks Vijay to infiltrate Don's gang by pretending to be Don. In return, he will make sure that the child Vijay found and adopted, Deepu (Tanay Chheda), gets a proper education. Meanwhile, Deepu's real father Jasjit (Arjun Rampal), who has just been released from prison, sets out in search for his son and to get his revenge on DCP D'Silva, who had arrested him and prevented him from rescuing his wife and child from blackmailers.

Ishaa Koppikar and Priyanka Chopra in the song "Aaj Ki Raat".

D'Silva trains Vijay and admits him to the same hospital Don is in, supposedly in a coma. He surgically gives Vijay all the scars and birthmarks the real Don has on his body. Don suddenly dies of heart failure in front of D'Silva and the doctors. While Vijay infiltrates Don's gang, D'Silva is killed in a fire blast. Vijay is forced to run from the police, and pursues a disc that is the last piece of evidence of Don's criminal activities, a disc which can get Vijay out of this mess and prove to the police that he is Don's lookalike, not Don himself.

Vijay convinces Roma that he is not Don and the two fall in love. Through various plot twists, Vijay recovers the disc. Eventually, it surfaces that D'Silva is alive and had staged his death. He is actually Vardhan, a notorious underground criminal with a grudge against Singhania, who he eventually ends up killing. Vijay then arranges a meeting with Vardhan and assists in his capture.

In a final twist, it emerges that the real Don is still alive, and was pretending to be Vijay. He had killed and replaced Vijay while in the hospital and took his place; it was actually Vijay who had died of heart failure in front of Vardhan (DCP D'Silva), not Don. He had also been acting out his "love" for Roma as Vijay, which Roma realizes too late. In the end, Don escapes with Anita, bewildering both police and Roma.^[4]

Cast

• Shahrukh Khan as Don / Vijay
• Ishaa Koppikar as Anita
• Boman Irani as DCP D'Silva / Vardhaan
• Priyanka Chopra as Roma
• Arjun Rampal as Jasjit
• Om Puri as Malik
• Pawan Malhotra as Narang
• Diwakar Pundir as Ramesh
• Rajesh Khattar as Singhania
• Kareena Kapoor as Kamini
• Tanay Chheda as Dipu
• Sushma Reddy as Geeta (Special appearance)
• Chunkey Pandey as Teja aka TJ (Special appearance)

Production

Eighty percent of the movie was shot in Malaysia, and was filmed around the tropical Langkawi island as well as the Petronas Twin Towers and the Jalan Masjid India area, which is the "little India" of Kuala Lumpur. Akshay Kumar was offered the role of Jasjit but he rejected it saying he might have accepted if he had been offered the part of Don.^[5] Shahrukh Khan and Priyanka Chopra underwent special martial arts training for their roles in the movie.

Soundtrack

Main article: Don: The Chase Begins Again (soundtrack)

The music was released on 26 August 2006 by T-Series, at the Inorbit Mall, Malad, Mumbai. Over 30000 people attended the function.^[6] The film has seven songs composed by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy. Two of the original songs, "Khaike Paan Banaraswala" and "Yeh Mera Dil" were remade for the movie. The song "Aaj Ki Raat" was used in the 2008 film Slumdog Millionaire and is included in the Slumdog Millionaire soundtrack.

Release

Box office

Don: The Chase Begins Again was released worldwide on 20 October 2006. It became the fifth highest grossing film of 2006 in India, with revenues of 51 crores domestically. Box Office India declared it a hit.^[7] It also grossed $7 million in overseas territories and was declared a "blockbuster".^[8] The film grossed a total of 104 crores worldwide.^[9]

Critical reception

Reviews were generally positive. Mumbai Mirror's Mayank Shekhar gave it a rating of 4 out of 5. He did criticize the treatment of certain scenes in comparison to the original, though.^[10] The Times of India's Nikhat Kazmi gave it a rating of 3.5 out of 5. However, she did not like a few casting choices.^[11] Khalid Mohammed of the Daily News and Analysis rated it 2 on a scale of 5.^[12] Bollywood Hungama's Taran Adarsh gave it 3 out of 5.^[13] Variety stated that the film "could have been much better."^[4]

Awards

The film was nominated for the following awards:

2007 Filmfare Awards

• Best Film
• Best Actor - Shahrukh Khan
• Best Music - Shankar Mahadevan, Loy Mendonsa, Ehsaan Noorani

2007 International Indian Film Academy Awards

• Best Actor - Shahrukh Khan

2007 Asian Film Awards

• Best Actor - Shahrukh Khan

Sequel

The film's sequel Don 2: The Chase Continues is set to release on December 23, 2011. Shahrukh Khan and Priyanka Chopra will reprise their roles as Don and Roma. It will also star Lara Dutta, Boman Irani and Om Puri.

References

1. ^ "Don - The Chase Begin Again". http://www.catchindia.com/movies/movie-details/Don_-_The_Chase_Begin_Again. Retrieved 26 December 2010. 
2. ^ "Top Lifetime Grossers Worldwide". Boxofficeindia.com. http://www.boxofficeindia.com/showProd.php?itemCat=312&catName=TGlmZXRpbWU=. Retrieved 26 December 2010. 
3. ^ IndiaFM News Bureau (2006-12-22). "Don flies to Berlin Film Festival". http://indiafm.com/news/2006/12/22/8495/index.html. 
4. ^ ^{a b} Elley, Derek (3 January 2007). "Don". Variety. http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117932382.html?categoryid=31&cs=1&p=0. 
5. ^ "Akshay turns down the remake of ‘Don’ : Bollywood News". ApunKaChoice.Com. 2005-06-07. http://www.apunkachoice.com/scoop/bollywood/20050607-0.html. Retrieved 2011-06-30. 
6. ^ "Don music launch amongst 30000 people". Bollywoodhungama.com. 2006-08-23. http://www.bollywoodhungama.com/news/2006/08/23/7670/index.html. Retrieved 2011-06-24. 
7. ^ "Box Office 2006". Boxofficeindia.com accessdate= 2011-08-24. http://www.boxofficeindia.com/showProd.php?itemCat=212&catName=MjAwNg==. 
8. ^ "Top Lifetime Grossers OVERSEAS". Boxofficeindia.com. http://www.boxofficeindia.com/showProd.php?itemCat=308&catName=TGlmZXRpbWU=. Retrieved 2011-09-21. 
9. ^ "Top Lifetime Grossers Worldwide". Boxofficeindia.com. http://www.boxofficeindia.com/showProd.php?itemCat=312&catName=TGlmZXRpbWU=. Retrieved 26 December 2010. 
10. ^ Shekhar, Mayank (21 October 2006). "Cuts to the chase". Mumbai Mirror. http://www.mumbaimirror.com/index.aspx?Page=article&sectname=Entertainment%20-%20Bollywood&sectid=30&contentid=200610210559539532ea3e80a. Retrieved 2011-07-26. 
11. ^ Kazmi, Nikhat (21 October 2006). "Don". The Times of India. http://m.timesofindia.com/PDATOI/articleshow/2220076.cms. Retrieved 2011-07-26. 
12. ^ Mohamed, Khalid (20 October 2006). "Don? Don’t". Daily News and Analysis. http://www.dnaindia.com/entertainment/report_don-don-t_1059465. Retrieved 2011-07-26. 
13. ^ Adarsh, Taran (20 October 2006). "Don - The Chase Begins Again : Movie Review". Bollywood Hungama. http://www.bollywoodhungama.com/movies/review/12654/index.html. Retrieved 2011-07-26. 

External links

• Official Website
• Don: The Chase Begins Again at the Internet Movie Database