Don - the original one

I had this movie lying around for almost one year and I have no idea as to why I never came around to watching it. It is exactly the kind of movie I love. 70ies fare. Cool Amitabh. Cool Zeenat. Cool clothes. Cool music. Cool Action. Perfect masala fair with a pinch of Blaxploitation elements.















Now if you plan to go into the new Don totally spoiler free (not that I know anything yet as to how much of the storyline will be changed by Faran Akhtar) stop reading here. Right here. No really, stop reading. Will you, please. Good.

Still here? Well don´t say I didn´t warn you.
Don (just Don, no other name) is a bad boy. He works for the local branch of an international Gold, currency and whatever smugglers association.















He´s the guy who carries the suitcases and is pretty ruthless with people who try to frame him. Bombs are one of his specialities. And police are so far unsuccessful in breaking up the cartel. Any informer or undercover agent up to now ended up rather deadish. Even the help of an Interpol agent has not led to anything but dead bodies. But steadly one very determined police detective keeps getting closer. One day so close that Don is shot and before any info on the bosses and the network can be found out he dies. Not good. We actally need him alive to really hurt the smuggler ring. So policewala has an idea. A while back he had an encounter with a street guy who looks exactly like Don.
And the plan is to plant the nice chap as Don right in the middle of the gang. And don´t tell anybody about it. It takes a bit on the policewalas side to convince Vijay to go undercover. But eventually he is planted in the gang and is able to get the info we´re looking for.

So far so good. But of course there are some obstacles in the way.

One in the form of Zeenat Aman. She´s the sister of one former gang member that was killed by Don. The first try to get back at Don by his fiance backfired and resulted in a) a very cool dance sequence of the divine Helen















and b) in getting her killed as well. So Zeenat gets rid of her Sari, takes some Karate and Judo lessons and heads after Don on her own. The Don who in the meantime is not the real Don anymore.















The other inconvenience is the bloody mole in the policeforce whose actions get the good policewala killed and Vijay stranded as Don without any proof of his being a mole as well.
And to top that off there is Pran who has an agenda on his own.
So Vijay has to run from the gang and the police. And what do we do if the going gets tough? How about a bit of Bhang, Paan and Gaan to refresh your spirits.














Thoroughly refreshed Vijay can now head out again to fix the mess he´s landed himself into. And we are treated to some very nice (and long) fight scenes.

So did I love it? Of course. Am I curious as to what Farhan Akhtar made of it? Very. Do I think that SRK will do the role justice? I have no idea. I have no doubts that we´ll finally be treated to a great bad-ass SRK again after a long time. I´m not sure though about the Vijay (or Rahul in the new Don) parts. But I´m optimistic. With the right director Shahrukh is able to underplay in comedic parts. And in my take Farhan is a very cool director. So no reason for me not to get hibbelig.