Trailer:
Criteria:
0/5 – No value whatsoever. Absolute waste of time.
1/5 – Barely worth any time.
2/5 – Pathetic but has a bit of something to hold the attention a little.
3/5 – Somewhat kept the attention but could definitely have used more.
4/5 – Good, but not awe-strikingly amazing. Could have maybe used a bit more to the movie.
5/5 – Go see it! Wonderful movie all around – characters, music, theme, storyline, etc.
This movie came out December 23, 2011 in India. The languages, similar to the movie it sequels, are Hindi and English. Therefore, I watched this with English subtitles. [NETFLIX HAS THIS, and "Don" (2006) ON STREAMING!!!]
Oh where do I start...! I'm going to save this and go back to get a copy of my "Don" (2006) review, since this is the sequel. I'll be right back, though you won't get the sense of the time split.
Okay, anyways, "Don 2" was a better movie than "Don", I think.
Storyline:
It has been 5 years [2006 to 2011, that's right on the money!] since Don dealt with DeSilva/Vardhaan and gained control of the Asian drug empire. He also got away from Roma at that point. Since it is now the past, I might as well say what happened at the end of "Don" (2006).
DON (2006):
DeSilva was a DCP police working against Don and with Vijay [the look alike, same actor]. It turned out that DeSilva was Vardhaan {I quote myself: "We
learn that DeSilva is not who he says he is and that he knows a lot
more about the drug trafficking business than he originally leads the
viewer to believe."}, Don catches DeSilva/Vardhaan for being a drug lord [two of the potential guys to inherit a drug trafficking empire from Boris after the USSR broke up into smaller countries], and we also find out that Vijay is dead. DeSilva had injured Don during a chase and captured him, to which Don said "Do not capture me" as a warning because Don never forgets what his enemy has done. DeSilva finds a look-alike named Vijay and has him undergo surgery to look like Don. As Vijay is recovering, the attendants find that Don dies under care, so there is no backup. Well, it turns out at the end of the movie that we find out that Don was the one who survived, not Vijay, though the movie hinted that Don died. Don managed to switch the two of them while Vijay was recovering from surgery and, while Don/"Vijay" seemed to "be recovering from surgery", "Don"/Vijay died.
Roma was a main figure in the "Don" (2006) movie. Her brother Ramesh had worked for Don but, wanting to get married and have a respectable life, he decided to leave. Don found out and killed him. Kamini, Ramesh's fiancee, tried to help DeSilva and the police catch Don but Don saw through that and killed her too. Roma was distraught so she decided to go and join Don, for her brother's revenge. When Don first met Roma (before the chase that put him out of commission for a bit), Roma tried to kill him with a knife/letter-opener. He said that she was a wild cat and that he liked her. She worked with him, though she kept looking for a chance to kill him. She finds out that DeSilva switched Vijay for Don and that, what we were supposed to think, Vijay is playing as Don. She develops a soft spot for him during the rest of the movie, especially since Don/"Vijay" seems to be kind and doing the best for a young boy named Deepu that Vijay watched over {Deepu's father Jasjit was set up by Vardhaan years ago and was injured, Deepu's mother was killed by Vardhaan when the DCP didn't let him do his robbery task}. Yes, Deepu is reunited with Jasjit thankfully. Anyways, Roma thought that Vijay was being very brave for trying to act as Don just for this kid's sake.
After Don and Jasjit caught DeSilva/Vardhaan for the thing with Jasjit's family and for the drug trafficking and whatnot, they found out that Don was injured so he was to be taken to a hospital. As he about to be taken away, Don says one thing to Roma - "I also like wild cats". Roma realized then that Don was Don, and not Vijay like we were led to believe, but he was out of her reach already.
Anyways, it has been 5 years since that whole situation. Vardhaan has been in jail and Roma has joined the DCP to try catching Don. Don has been her "white whale" and so Roma has put her life on hold to try figuring out how to catch him, though one of her coworkers has a huge crush on her.
Don has been trying to get into the European drug trafficking ring but the drug lords do not want that. One of the main leaders, Coogan, has asked the other guys if they should take Don out and they all say yes. So there is a hit set on Don and we see him turn himself in. Turns out he turned himself in to a specific area just to get Vardhaan out of prison for help to make a daring move. They get out of jail and set up the plan to rob a bank [DZB - Deutsche Zentral Bank ] of their dollar printing plates.
One of the guys who works in DZB, the Vice President?, made a corrupt deal with Singhania {Don's former boss, Vardhaan's rival} to make a certain person the president of the company. His name is Diwan. So, why not go mess with their lives, use a video to blackmail the guy?
Diwan doesn't want to be blackmailed so he gets a hit on Don also. Don convinces the group (Diwan's hit men) to join him to get 5 times the amount of money that Diwan promised. Either that or Don would have to kill them before they could attempt to kill him. Mercenaries are so materialistic, so the guy and his gang go with Don.
They get all they need for a bank robbery including a guy to crack the security system, a fire truck (and firefighter outfits), explosives, and whatnot. And then they go to rob the bank. Of course, Vardhaan and the hit guys become wary of Don [Vardhaan told the leader that Don does not care about their safety, he'd rather let them die than get them out alive], and turn on him once they get the plates that they were going for.
SPOILERS: Don (with his genius plan) is able to walk away from the whole situation with the printing plates and a paper of national immunity in Switzerland with Vardhaan back in jail and the hit men dead. His security hacker did what he was told so was able to live and be rich, though at one point the movie wants to convince us that he was doing against Don's will. Roma survived, Diwan was killed, the drug lords that wanted him down were arrested by the police, and now Don can print lots of money without them being a counterfeit {so loaded with cash}.
Music:
Not as great as "Don" (2006) had but still alright. Enough to give the movie an interesting soundtrack but nothing extraordinary. That's one thing that the 2006 film had over this one, the music. This one was more of a "Ocean's Eleven" kind of movie instead of a 70's film remake, so that might be why there was no real Bollywood type music. There was one that was kinda interesting and kinda awesome but no where near the 2006 film's music.
I could not find the song by itself with English subtitles, so there's part of the song. Of course, this is the title song for the movie, so it is pretty much saying that Don is back. As the line for the movie says, "Get Ready for the Return of the King". :)
Context:
Not many sexual references or drug references because that was not the plot line. Sure, there were questions about feelings between Roma and Don but that was just "do you care about me" kind of things. Violence, yeah, but that was to be expected with the "let's rob a bank" plot.
Watching "Don" (2006) before this definitely made me learn about him before this movie so I was able to predict what he was going to do, which was nice, but the thing with the security-whiz was kinda unexpected for even me. :-) I liked that a lot. It showed that Don is very very smart.
Characters did not change during the movie, though they did play into Don's plans.
Also, this was a 2 hour 28 minute movie. Not as long as the 2006 movie but a bit long-ish. Not boring at all, though.
I must say that Shah Rukh Khan is amazing. He played Don in both the 2006 and the 2011 movie. I have watched a few youtube videos about him and it seems that many people think he is the "King of Bollywood". From my perspective, I know for sure that I look forward to viewing more of his films! Very handsome, very debonair. :-)
RATE:
5/5 – Go see it! Wonderful movie all around – characters, music, theme, storyline, etc.
I liked this movie a LOT. I cannot think of anything wrong with this movie {but I will say that stealing is bad}. Great characters, great action, great genius, great filming. Wonderful film! I might even buy this one on DVD some time in the future to watch again! :-D But, you should watch "Don" (2006) beforehand because it really rides on the information that the 2006 movie gave us.
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