Film: Don

This was always going to be compared to the original Amitabh classic, and as a remake I think it does pretty well. The homages made to the 1978 version were good enough not to annoy those who had seen it (and amazingly there were more than a few in my group who had not!).

But as a film in its own right it kinda fell flat on it's face, and I don't think these are the rose tinted spectacles talking either. The acting was alright, the dancing absurd (but then one doesn't really expect anything less from Priyanka), the music so-so. Interestingly the script has been changed enough from the original to keep those who already knew the older plot interested, but despite that it too failed at times. The first 45 minutes or so were really good though.

The fact that it's a good remake but crap film may seem a bit paradoxical. What went wrong with Don, however, was an over-reliance of the franchise resulting in a lack of effort to make it stand up when it chose to do its own thing. And that unfortunately, was what had made it so disappointing.