December 06, 2006

Don (new one) 2nd viewing liveblogging

A disclaimer at the beginning (for at least my Viennese BW-gang): Absolutely do not read this until you saw Don yourself. Sac!

I know it is ethically (and legally) not totally clean. Lekin meri bat sunie. A student came to me and gave me the DVD. Before that I was talking to my contact at the only possible Austrian distributor for Don and I was being told that there was no way they would ever get it, since Bollywood action movies won´t work here. Krrish bombed. Badly. So no chance to see it before the DVD is released internationally. But then I heard so much about it already. *whine* And a good friend of a very good friend was the production designer on Don. And most important my spine is made of Jello. The only thing that keeps me from being totally weight down with guilt is that I of course also already ordered the official release.
Enough of this now. Lets get to the point:


00:01:01 Did you know that they they planned to shot the Paris part in Vienna? Our local bureaucracy totally messed up. Thats why Farhan went to Paris. Grrr.
Oh and I so need Don´s ringtone. I have the phone. Now I need the ringtone. The "24" CTU-Jack Bauer-one I have is just not cool anymore.
00:03:04 Chunkey Panday .Yay! And yes, I also always liked me..










00:04:24 Yes, right into the face of that french chick. I mean what else to do if somebody says "Püt them üp" I wonder how it would have sounded had they really shot this here. "Poood sem aaap" maybe?

00:05:39 Don ko pakarna mushkil hi nahin namumkin hai *Whee!*












00:06:00 Credits are a bit trashy. I have some students who you might wanna talk to the next time, Farhan.
00:07:00 KL. Did you know that I have a recurring dream of me running through a very hilly (!) Kuala Lumpur trying to catch a glimpse of the Petronas towers before I have to get back on my flight to wherever?

Hehe. A Russian bad boy named Boris. How very cliché.

00:10:00 Autch. But I like the "terrible shoes" face.

00:11:20 And another cliché. Interpolwala Malik enters scene with coffee in his hand. Ok. I dont get the coffee-just checking line. Naa. Still don´t.

00:13:00 Wrong DVD? Matrix? But Priyanka looks great.










00:13:50 Oh aur Kareena bhi.
00:14:45 Hurry up Ramesh..oh c´mon, if you want to quit the gang, why wait until the evening...you just run and that as fast as you can.

00:15:26 Don loves Tom and Jerry?

00:16:28 Oh, see, that´s why you kabhi alvida naa kehna... because if Don says alvida it´s really alvida

00:19:39 Yay! Remix of Koi Kahe Ketha Rahe.

00:22:49 I´m strangly attracted to the paisley shirt. And as hot as Kareena looks that´s just not a sexy dance. And I so do not like the song.










00:28:53 Ok stupid. You know that the gun is empty. Fight him. Even if he´s stronger. You could at least help the police get a shot while he´s busy getting a hold of you.
00:30:10 Now that´s mean. Don really is a bastard.

00:31:16 Enter Roma. And a cold entry it is. Btw. how does she shoot the window if she only uses naqli amunition?
00:32:17 See, Don is evil. Evidence: No Mac, only an ibook look-alike Compaq laptop. Cheap bastard. And he uses a mouse. So uncool. Cool people get a tendosynovitis in their index finger from the over-use of their trackpad. Like me.

00:34.40 "She tried to kill me". Love it.










I love the Munch painting in Don´s vault (can anybody name the other paintings/painters? My last art class was in 1989 and I don´t follow the international art theft scene very advertent) and I love how tidy the drugs are stacked up on the shelves. Another great Don line "Don ke dushman ke sabse khalat ye hai ki woh Don ka dushman hai" (or something like that)
00:38:10 Farhan kept the exploding suitcase pre-credits thing from the old Don and uses it here. Nice. And the chase through the village is very smooth. LOL @ the flying autoriksha.
00:40:50 See Don, that is why one needs to drive a Volvo. Side head airbags. Write it down: Bad boys need to drive european cars. Bas.
00:42:31 The first sign that D´Silva is not your shiny nice police character. That was cold.

00:43:10 Oh stop bitching Anita. Nag nag nag.

00:44:41 Yeah! Vijay! Great visuals and the inclusion of the "real" footage is great.











00:49:10 Sorry very much. Nice.
00:53:00 The "you need to do that for your country" thing is to tearjearky. uncool. one scene where the old Don was waaaay better.

00:54:41 Jasjeet! I like Arjun. I think he has the most sexy voice. And he looks good in black.
00:55:51 Fingerprint recognition. No good. It´s way to easy too crack.
The breathing sound makes me claustrophobic only hearing it. Whose voice is that? Srk? Does not sound like it. Boman? No. Narang? Don´t think so. Well I´ll get the original 2 disc DVD in a few days. And hope for enlightment.
01:00:15 Oh I hate D´Silva. I actually did not like him in the old Don too.

01:03:20 Bruce Lee t-shirt. Bahut accha. Me likes.

01:04:35 C
hacha Chaudry kaun hai? I like Vijay. He´s such a chicken. Love that he passes out on the operation table on seeing the scalpel.
01:10:30 That is very thin and totally oberblown. Smoke grenades? For what? A crane to lift the van to another lane...c´mon. How about just stopping the convoy in a Tunnel and the bhag. Ts.
01:13:01 I think Don really likes Anita and I think he tells her now already.

01:15:30 Another hint. See the background and whats playing on the TV?










01:18:00 See drive a German car aur sab teek hai.
00:20:10 Main hoon don. Its been said before but that damn velvet jacket is too cool.










01:27:26 The one thing about the changes I love best is that D´Silva is Vardhan.

01:28:45 And the fight is cool. I´m told that Priyanka did the whole moves on her own.

01:32:00 The Dipu thing works. He never has to say his name and the boy sees him first











01:39:48 "Aaj ki rath" another song I´m not to keen about. But the disco ball is bilkul first class. The whole song is a bit like a school function. The gals are dancing for the visiting principal. And even little Don is allowed to perform some steps.
01:44:41 I like the way Singhania is allowed to gracefully bow out. Cold and very russian mafia for me.

01:46:32 The van over the gully here works better then in the original. That´s a good one. Although the 11 sec I counted are a bit short to enter the van, move the bodies and disappear through the floor.

01:55:13 Yay! ConAir! But in Malaysia the guards are armed. With guns. I love the Vijay speak: Very Badly..

01:58:58 Can´t wait for the making-of to see what parts of the skydiving stunt were greenbox and if SRK really jumped.

02:09:15 And the next big hint. Don does not like paan. And now that we know the truth, it is even ok that this "Kaike Paan" version is not as sweet as the original one. Here it´s just a very very sloshed Don..











02:16:08 Now that´s the Don we all love and the gun in mouth thing is funny even if it´s old.
02:16:55 I need to ask Aradhana if that really is shot at an unused floor of the Petronas Towers. Could be.
02:18:20 Flashback..interesting. But the timing isn´t right. Here Boman needs 16 seconds to leave the van.

02:19:20 Btw. it somehow sounds better when Jasjeet says "do you think i am a fool"
Hmm. And giving Vardhan the phone without turming it off....Risky on Jasjeets side and sloppy on Vardhan´s not to make use of that.

02:24 Phir. The timing isn´t right. Why is Jasjeet faster out of the towers than his haunters?

02:25:22 I think Don doesn´t follow Dipu. My guess is he follows Jasjeet.
And doesn´t even recognise Dipu.
02:28:45 D´Silva not dead and being Vardhan. Hah! Don is genuinly surprised and verging towards being veeeery pissed
. Now think fast chota Don.
02:31:11 Question, for the sake of my very much needed inner peace: Where is that? Malasia I guess. Lekin kaha? That has to be one of the most fantasic places I have ever seen.
EDIT 12/18/2006: Thanx to meri pyaari Ezri I know now: That´s Langkawi Island










02:35:15 Don´t you think that until this moment Don can not be 100% sure about Vardhan not knowing that Vijay is in fact Don? Love that look on Dons face. And before that I loved the hysterical "Khush?" from Vardhan. Boman can be so scary when he´s playing a borderline character.
02:43:22 Not bad. Technically. And storywise. Major spoiler pic

Did I like it? Yes. Very much. Its slick. Über-Stylish. SRK, Boman, Priyanka. Very cool. It´s smoother then the old Don and thats why it feels a bit colder. But I don´t care. If I want Masala fair I´ll still go and watch AB1.0 doing tha moves. But as an Actionthriller this is the one to watch.
How to I rate it in my Farhan Akhtar list? Position 3. I might reconsider.

P.S: This is the second Hindi movie I could make my husband sit through during the last 6 months. The first one was Lakshya. Go figure.

18 comments:

Beth Loves Bollywood said...

I did a bit of research on stolen paintings and got nowhere. I hope one of the world's millions of underemployed art history majors will figure it out for us.

babasko said...

hehe. i hope so too, my research on the interpol website led to a dead end too :-)

the only thing thats clear is, that the munch paining has been recovered some months ago..but thats ok. i mean don is not a live-broadcast and considering the end of the movie.. some of the "worthless" info on don´s disc might have led interpol to the vault and make them recover the paintings don left behind ;-)

Anonymous said...

Position *three* on your Farhan Akhtar list?

As a writer-director, I don't know if he's ever going to make one as good as DCH (my personal fave FA film) again. But I think in terms of quality, Lakshya and Don are tied... but then SRK puts Don on top, for me, so position 2, easy :D

babasko said...

hmm, see thats why i wrote i still might reconsider my ranking. i have a special weak place for lakshya in my heart. and i just can´t decide yet. but it really looks like it might become a tie between lakshaya and don when i think of it.

Anonymous said...

I for one didn't care much for the new Don. I thought it was flat and SRK's performance as Vijay was pretty bad. He was OK as Don though. My favorite movie this year was Lage Raho Munna bhai. Having grown up in India and gone to a medical college there, I could really relate to Munna Bhai MBBS as well, that was also a great movie. I am now waiting eagerly for Guru. I was also disappointed with Dhoom 2 which I thought was not as good as Dhoom 1.

babasko said...

I´ll have to wait for the DVD of Dhoom 2 but apart from the "hottness" factor I don´t have high hopes for D:2

LRM is my favorite of this year too and about your relating to MBBS..thats cool. I always wondered if a movie like that would be interesting for somebody with a medical background.
And I join you in your eager wait for Guru. I hope it won´t be delayed any further.

Qalandar said...

Whoa!

My buddy 007 introduced me to this blog today, and it's superb. Guess you liked the new Don a lot more than I did, but a super site and reviews, keep it up! (and do check out my site too)...

My review of Don: http://qalandari.blogspot.com/2006/10/don-hindi-2006.html

Qalandar said...

D2 is pretty crappy IMO...

babasko said...

@qalandar:for totally girlie reasons I will still have to see D:2 at least once. Can´t let a "baywatchy" movie with Hrithik and AB2.0 pass me by....

Qalandar said...

btw, glad you brought up the credits: in a film otherwise so technically refined and sleek Don's credits really stood out-- and not in a good way. It was like the one moment of 70s cheese in the film, but it was pretty out of place!

A better retro moment was "Don" written in Urdu on some of the posters (such as the one outside the theater showing the movie on New York's Upper East Side); back in the day the titles of all Hindi movies would appear in English, Hindi, and Urdu, and I thought that was a nice touch honoring that tradition...

Maja said...

Tried to comment on this a couple of days ago but Blogger was acting up ... Nice liveblog :D So you've already ordered the DVD? Do you know what the extras are? I really want to see the movie again but I haven't decided yet if I should buy the DVD or maybe just rent it sometime, I've kinda spent too much money on movies (DVDs and cinema tickets) already in these past couple of months :/

I actually liked D:2 much more than the first one, I was just bored during Dhoom but the sequel was fun, I thought, and I'd be willing to sit through it again purely on the strength of Hrithik's hotness factor, especially in the first song ;)
< /teenybopper >

I just saw today that Guru's been pushed back to January, I never thought I'd say this, but - YAY! I'm going home for the holidays and if it'd been released on 22 Dec, I would've missed it, but this way I'll get to see it in the cinema *g*

Anonymous said...

about the shoe scene in the beginning...
I thought it would have been so cool on Farhan's part if he had changed that and Don really had shot the guy for his butt-ugly shoes only. Don looks like such a fashion-victim anyway it would have worked!

babasko said...

@julia: LOL you´re right. that would have been real badass.

Anonymous said...

Hmmm. Maybe your hubby liked those films because they both had lots of shooting.
Have you tried to get him to watch Asoka? Sword fighting is almost as good as shooting. lol.

I only thought the first Don was "okay" so I wasn't super excited about the new one. Shahrukh did a good job though.

Anonymous said...

Great liveblog. FYI: Chacha Chaudhury is a cartoon strip character in an Indian children's magazine (I think the magazine is either Twinkle or Tinkle oe something like that.) He's this detective sort of character who has a "pehelwaan" sidekick.

babasko said...

@t-hype: sounds like a possible reason, him being a "24" fanatic, but then he (like me) prefered the flashback part of Lakshya much more to the fighting scenes..

@D: thank you, thank you..one Don riddle solved - at least two to go..

Anonymous said...

found your dream location = Langkawi.

Links are in the forum.

http://511.forum.onetwomax.de/topic=103677703603&startid=83

Have Fun
ezri

babasko said...

Great, thanx. Babasko khuch hua :D