The After Hrs Review: 'Don 2

Film: Don 2
Director: Farhan Akhtar
Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Priyanka Chopra, Boman Irani
Rating: ***

Thanks to the faulty promotional strategy, you have already seen some of the visuals and yes, you already know a part of that storyline. Unfortunately, the visuals of the unexpected

twists and turns have been all given out during the promotions.

 

When Shah Rukh Khan suddenly comes into the police headquarters and surrenders (it’s a big moment, Don is surrendering himself!), you know that now he will go to jail wearing that ‘same’ orange uniform and then escape. The interrogation scenes, the Mercedes blowing up, all the dialogues – they have all been out in the open for a long time. No prizes and no guessing there.

 

So, the sequences that could have put you on the edge of the seat actually don’t thrill you at all. The promotion of Don2 couldhave been much well planned where you don’t give out the storyline and keep the unexpected visuals a ‘secret’.

 

Also, another point must be made here – this film is all about Shah Rukh Khan. He is there in almost all the frames. He is there everywhere! He has already accepted that he is great salesman and in the first half of the film you will see him marketing Don2 -- Don isgreat, Don cannot be caught, Don is one notch less than superman…blah, blah, blah. Thankfully, there are times when he shuts his marketing campaign and gets on with the film. And we will now ignore the thousands of marketing adjectives used to describe the superhuman Don and get on with the film.

 

The first half is as something that you have already visualized – everybody tries to catch Don and he outsmarts everybody. The film progresses in a linear fashion till Don decides to surrender himself to the police. Now, thanks to the visuals you already know that Don will go to jail, get interrogated by Om Puri (where he says

 ‘Aaj Meri Maa Kitna Khush Hoti’ and ‘Aap Meri Maa Ko Nahi Jaante’), sent to jail where he will meet Boman Irani (who says ‘Welcome to Hell, Don’). So, the film begins for you when Don escapes out of jail.

 

The film gathers some pace as Don teams up with Boman Irani for a daring bank heist. He blackmails, threatens and hatches a perfect plot for the perfect crime. From the time on he starts executing his perfect plot, the film gets more interesting. The build-up to the climax is good.

 

About the other actors – Lara Dutta looks good, Priyanka Chopra looks good, Kunal Kapoor looks good and everybody else in the film looks good except for Boman Irani who has got the chance to do some acting as well. There is also a surprise moment with Hrithik Roshan. Shah Rukh and Hrithik don't even have one body part similar to each other but yet he turns into him and vice versa. Don’t try to think a lot about the scene because if you try to, you won’t enjoy the film.

 

The cinematography is good but frankly my dear Farhan, we had expected a better sequel. Next time, don’t let all the good things out before the film releases, will you?