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 October 20, 2006 and it was also simultaneously released internationally. It received a very good response worldwide, and collected over Rs. 30 crore (US$ 6.39 million) in India in its first week. The script of the previous film was written by Akhtar's father, Javed Akhtar and Salim Khan.

The film stars Shahrukh Khan, Priyanka Chopra, Arjun Rampal, Ishaa Koppikar and Kareena Kapoor in a guest appearance. 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 for the role of Jasjit but he rejected saying he might have accepted if he was offered the part of Don.^[1] Shahrukh Khan and Priyanka Chopra underwent special martial arts training for their roles in the movie.

The film was selected to be screened at the Berlin Film Festival.^[2] Critical reaction was mixed, with most reviews tilted towards the positive. It was a huge commercial success though.

Synopsis

In 2006, the drug trade is booming. The Malaysian Intelligence and Anti-Narcotic Department are called upon for assistance by their Indian counterparts. There are rumours that a drug gang has recently moved their headquarters to Kuala Lumpur.

as Kamini]]

The Indian team is headed by DCP DeSilva (Boman Irani) who wants to break the back of the drug operations of a drug lord named Singhania. Also helping him is Malik (Om Puri). He believes that capturing Singania's dangerous and elusive lieutenant, Don, (Shahrukh Khan), will be the most effective way of accomplishing this. Don's gang consist of Narang (Pawan Malhotra) and Anita (Ishaa Koppikar). 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).

During a chase with the police the real Don is seriously injured and is captured by DeSilva. He keeps it a secret that he has captured Don, even from his fellow officers, and tracks down a look-alike called Vijay, a lovely singer (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 (who is the son of Jasjit played by Arjun Rampal) gets a proper education. Meanwhile, Jasjit who has just been released from prison sets out in search for his son, Deepu, and to get his revenge on DCP DeSilva who arrested him and prevented him from rescuing his wife and child from black mailers. Jasjit's anger stems from the loss of his wife, who died after her sons kidnapping, and his missing son.

and Priyanka Chopra {l-r} in the song Aaj Ki Raat.]]

DeSilva trains Vijay and admits him to a hospital, the same hospital in which Don is also admitted and supposedly in coma, to surgically give him all the scars and birthmarks the real Don has on his body. However, Don dies of heart failure suddenly in front of DeSilva and the doctors, who are unable to save him. While Vijay is infiltrating Don's gang, DeSilva is captured and killed in a fire blast. Vijay is forced to run from the police as well as Don's gang members who are pursuing a disc, the last piece of evidence which has all of Don's criminal activities loaded on it, a disc which can get him, Vijay, out of his mess.

Through various plot twists, Vijay recovers the disc. Eventually, it surfaces that DeSilva is alive and is actually Vardhan, a notorious underground criminal with a grudge against Singhania, Don's boss, and eventually ends up killing Singhania. Vijay 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 who he killed and replaced while in the hospital. It was actually Vijay who had died in the hospital of heart failure in front of Vardhan (DCP DeSilva). In the end, both Don and his girlfriend Anita (Ishaa Koppikar) escape, bewildering the police and Roma. Critics believe that this twist was done to setup a possible sequel.^[3]

Cast

Crew

• Director: Farhan Akhtar
• Screenplay: Farhan Akhtar
• Story: Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar
• Dialogue: Farhan Akhtar
• Script: Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar
• Producer: Ritesh Sidhwani
• Lyricist: Javed Akhtar
• Music: Shankar Mahadevan, Ehsaan Noorani and Loy Mendonsa
• Choreography: Farah Khan, Saroj Khan, Ganesh Hegde and Rajeev Surti
• Visual Effects: Red Chillies VFX
• Editor: Anand Subaya
• Director of Photography: Mohanan
• Production Designer: Aradhana Seth
• Costume Design: Aki Narula
• Line Producer Malaysia: Khabir Bhatia
• Production Manager Malaysia: Shasha Mohd Yusof
• Location Manager Malaysia: Shaiful Azwira Abdul Jabbar
• Talent Coordinator Malaysia: Norafizah Jaja

Soundtrack

Template:Infobox album

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:

"Main Hoon Don (Normal/Fncinternational Mix)" has been in The Top 20 songs list compiled by Radio Mirchi 98.3 FM every week, on the basis of album sales, on-air requests and research since September 21, 2006 i.e for 47 weeks. It gained the #1 position on September 11, 2006 in its first entry and has been in the top 20 list ever since, except one case when it disappeared in just one of the compilations.

The song Aaj Ki Raat was used in the 2008 Academy Award winning film Slumdog Millionaire and is included in the Slumdog Millionaire soundtrack.

Critical reception

• Mumbai Mirror's Mayank Shekhar gave it a rating of 4 out of 5. He did criticise the treatment of certain scenes in comparision to the original, though.

• The Times of India's Nikhat Kazmi gave it a rating of 3.5 out of 5. However, he did not like a few casting choices.

• The Hindustan Times's Khalid Mohammed rated it 2 on a scale of 5.

• IMDb users have rated it as 7 out of 10.

• Variety stated that the film "could have been much better."^[3]

• There were some reviewers in the Indian media who gave the movie negative reviews. However many of these negative reactions can be attributed to the fact that the original was a cult classic and holds sentimental value for many Indians. The mere fact that the original was being remade is likely to have produced a bias in some reviewers' minds. Also, the potrayal of Don and Vijay by Amitabh Bachchan in the original is considered legendary and many were averse to the idea of Shah Rukh Khan (an actor with a completely different acting style when compared to Bachchan) taking up the lead role.^{[original research?]}

Award nominations

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 Asian Film Awards

• Best Actor - Shahrukh Khan

Box Office Reaction

• The movie grossed 50 crores (13 million USD) in India and ranked 7th, classifying it as a hit.^[4] It grossed 32 crores (8 million USD) overseas, which is the second highest for any Indian movie in 2006.^[5]

• In the UK, the film grossed GBP £537,000 (a little more than USD 1 million) in the opening five days along with the preview, which is the highest Diwali opening weekend ever for a Hindi film.^[6]

• In the US, the film grossed USD 1.2 million in the opening 5 days.^[6]

• In the period of just nine days, Don has grossed above 3.45 million Dirham in Gulf which is highest ever for a Hindi film.^[6]

• In Australia and South Africa, the week's collections were the highest ever for a Hindi film.^[7]

• Don - The Chase Begins Again opened in at least 1,200 screens worldwide, beating the opening of Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna.^[8].

References

External links

• Official website
• Don - The Chase Begins Again official Website
• Don - The Chase Begins Again at the Internet Movie Database