Don (franchise)

Don
The poster of Don 2 (2011)
Directed by	Chandra Barot Farhan Akhtar
Written by	Javed Akhtar Salim Khan
Produced by	Nariman Films Excel Entertainment
Country	India
Language	Hindi

Don is an Indian action crime film series. The movies are centered around Don, a fictional mafia lord played by Amitabh Bachchan and Shahrukh Khan.

Overview

Chandra Barot's Original

Don (1978)

Main article: Don (1978 film)

Don was a 1978 Bollywood action film, produced by Nariman Irani and directed by Chandra Barot, with music by Kalyanji Anandji and lyrics by Anjaan. The film stars Amitabh Bachchan, Zeenat Aman, Pran, Iftekhar, Helen and Om Shivpuri, Satyen Kappu and Pinchoo Kapoor. It became a box office success. It has gained cult film status in India.

Don (Amitabh Bachchan) is the leader of an underworld gang until Police Officer D'Silva (Iftekhar) tracks him down and in an attempt to catch him ends up killing him. But Don's death is only known to D'Silva. So Officer D'Silva tracks down a lookalike of Don named Vijay (also Amitabh Bachchan). Vijay impersonates Don to take down the rest of Don's gang while the DSP promises him that he will give a proper education to his wards who are actually the children of Jasjit (Pran).

Meanwhile, Jasjit comes out of prison after serving his jail term, only to find Officer D'Silva having a red diary that would show Vijay's true identity. Officer D'Silva is killed by Malik who is introduced as the Interpol officer, but is in fact the real king of the underworld. It's now a race to retrieve the diary in which the DSP has documented the substitution of the real Don with the innocent Vijay. One famous dialogue of movie is "Don ko pakadna mushkil hi nahin namumkin hai" (it is not just difficult to catch Don, it is impossible).

Farhan Akhtar's Remake Series

Don - The Chase Begins Again (2006)

Main article: Don: The Chase Begins Again

Don: The Chase Begins Again, directed by Farhan Akhtar, is a remake of the blockbuster 1978 film, Don. The film was released in India on 20 October 2006 and it was also simultaneously released internationally. It starred Shahrukh Khan, Priyanka Chopra, Arjun Rampal, Boman Irani, Ishaa Koppikar and Kareena Kapoor in a guest appearance.

Don (Shahrukh Khan) is the leader of an underworld group. Roma (Priyanka Chopra) joins Don's group to avenge death of his brother Ramesh who was killed by Don. Don is tracked by Police Officer D'Silva (Boman Irani) and is heavily injured and admitted to hospital. D'Silva calls a man who is Don's look-alike, Vijay (again Khan). Don dies due to heart attack. Vijay is sent to Don's gang (D'Silva convinces him by giving good education to Vijay's adopted child Deepu). Meanwhile, Deepu is the son of Jasjit (Arjun Rampal) who was earlier captured by D'Silva. Jasjit was just trying to save his family who was captured by an underworld gang. While Deepu survives, Jasjit's wife and Deepu's mother could not. Vijay also convinces Roma about his identity. D'Silva dies in a car blast and Don a.k.a. Vijay is captured by Police. It is later revealed that D'Silva is alive and is actually Vardhan, an underworld criminal. Vijay arranges a meeting with Vardhan and Vardhan is captured by Police. Vijay finally proves his innocence. But movie ends with a twist that Don was alive and acted as Vijay. It was actually Vijay who died of heart attack.

Don 2 (2011)

Main article: Don 2

Don 2 is the sequel to the 2006 film, Don: The Chase Begins Again. The film released on 23 December 2011. It stars Shahrukh Khan, Priyanka Chopra, Boman Irani and Om Puri, reprising their roles from the previous film, with Lara Dutta and Kunal Kapoor playing new characters. Hrithik Roshan did a cameo appearance in the film.

Having conquered the Asian underworld, Don now has his sights set on European domination. In his way are the bosses of the existing European underworld and all law enforcement agencies.The action shifts from Kuala Lumpur to Berlin as Don must avoid assassination or arrest, whichever comes first, in order for his plan to succeed.

Future

Farhan Akhtar has expressed interest in making a third film, however he stated that he needed "a break from action films".

Characters

Don

The titular protagonist of the series. He is a powerful crime boss, who in spite of being one of the most wanted on the list of Interpol, remains elusive to the police. Though not evil, he is still hated because of his activities. Along with the police, Don makes a few other enemies through his merciless approach to running his organization, especially when he kills one of his own men, Ramesh, when Ramesh decides to leave the business. This introduces Don to two new enemies, Kamini, Ramesh’s fiancee, and Roma, Ramesh’s sister. Meanwhile, after a couple of unsuccessful attempts at nabbing Don, the police finally succeed, but Don dies during the pursuit, botching Officer D’Silva’s plan to reach the source of all crime—the man Don reported to—through capturing Don alive. D’Silva buries Don’s body, ensuring that people believe that he may still be alive. As luck would have it, D’Silva remembers his chance encounter with Vijay, a simpleton trying to survive in the hustle and bustle of Bombay in order to support two small foster children, who is an exact lookalike of Don. D’Silva hatches a plan to transform Vijay into Don and place him back into the crime nexus, but this time as a police informer.

D'Silva

The local DSP who was assigned the duty of capturing Don. He does succeed in capturing Don, but the latter accidentally dies in the process. However, only D'Silva knows of Don's death. So he secretly hires a look-alike of Don, named Vijay and advices him to disguise as the Don and give the police info all about Don's gang (D'Silva is the only one who knows that Vijay is Don). Vijay succeeds, but D'Silva is killed and that leaves Vijay on his own to prove his innocence. D'Silva is a Deputy Commissioner of Police in Don: The Chase Begins Again.

Roma

A simple girl from town, she literally hates Don because he killed her brother Ramesh and her sister-in-law Kamini. Roma, in order to get revenge, trains up herself and joins Don's gang (with a secret desire to kill him). Unaware that the real Don is dead, she fights Vijay who is then masquerading as Don. But when she gets to know the truth, she befriends him. However in Don: The Chase Begins Again, she comes to know that Don is still alive and continues to hate him. Her pursuit for Don continues in its sequel where she joins the Interpol.

Anita

An ally of Don, she however doesn't have much to do with the story. She, like the rest of Don's gang, is unaware that Vijay is acting as their leader who is dead. But she does overhear Vijay's phone conversation with D'Silva, thus she finds out the truth. Vijay however quickly manages to trap her, thus saving himself (None of this happens in Don: The Chase Begins Again). In Don 2, a similar character named Ayesha replaces Anita.

Vardhan

The real underworld criminal higher than Don, they are not friends however. Vardhan hides himself as a local interpol officer Malik, and his identity is not known to anyone except his gang members who pretend to be against him. Eventually D'Silva finds out that Malik is actually Vardhan, but gets killed before the news can reach anyone. Vardhan, who knows that Vijay is not Don, reveals himself to Vijay, who eventually manages to defeat Vardhan and get him arrested. In Don: The Chase Begins Again, it is D'Silva who eventually is revealed to be Vardhan, with Malik becoming an ally of Vijay.

Malik

The Interpol officer and assistant of DSP D'Silva. He however betrays D'Silva by killing him, but not before revealing himself as Vardhan. He however is not Vardhan in Don: The Chase Begins Again, where he becomes an ally of Vijay. He returns in Don 2, where he gives Roma the duty of capturing Don.

Singhania

Even though he never appears in any of the films, he is mentioned as Don's boss and is in fact the real underworld criminal, only second to Vardhan. He briefly appears in Don: The Chase Begins Again and Don 2, in the former he is killed by Vardhan (disguised as D'Silva) without anyone's notice.

Reception

The original Don was a blockbuster. It won a few awards.

• Amitabh Bachchan won a Filmfare Award for Best Actor.
• Asha Bhosle won a Filmfare Award, for the song "Yeh Mera Dil".
• Kishore Kumar won a Filmfare Award, for the song "Khaike Paan Banaraswala."

Mumbai Mirror's Mayank Shekhar gave the remake a rating of 3 out of 5. He did criticise the treatment of certain scenes in comparison to the original, though.

The remake of the film in 2006 was titled the same Don, was also a blockbuster.

The sequel to the 2006 film Don was released in 2011 as Don 2 and it was also a blockbuster.

See also

• Billa, a related Tamil and Telegu film series