Don 2

The concept of an anti hero is not new to Bollywood, but there were certain cliché associated with these characters, killing him in the climax or him going to prison were the most common of them. The ultimate demise of the bad character allowed the filmmakers the convenience to end all the complications of the story in one stroke. You don’t need to put efforts to find out a more creative and innovative culmination to the story, rather just shoot the character who had taken law in his hand to avenge the carnage of his family, or someone who went to the dark side out of circumstances and never has the opportunity to make a come back to normal life. So truth prevails, and characters with criminal background dies (unlike parliament), in the great world of Bollywood.

Right now there are two super hit franchisees in Hindi Cinema where the focus of the story remains with the Antagonist i.e. the main negative character or simply put, the villain. Those two franchisees are Dhoom and Don.  Although the formal differs from the later in the way that, the good policemen are able to catch the criminal in the end in case of Dhoom movies, but Don has already survived two perfect crimes. Don has already crossed 100 crs mark already (India + Overseas) and still counting.

The character of Don is in no way a victim of circumstances, he is in the business for the simple reason of money and power. Still, while watching the movie, we don’t want him to be caught, we are cheering for the villain for a change. Any other movie with the same story, but with the point of view of the police and we would have sweared by heart if the police would have missed someone like Don.

What’s happened is that, may be we can’t see our beloved SRK to be defeated in a movie, or may be we are enjoying a movie with a difference, or may be now we have become more matured or the most uncomfortable of all, that we have stared accepting the truth that there is a good side and a bad side in us simultaneously, and the bad side is more appealing, and the manifestation of that side winning against all odds without being apologetic about it satisfies you in some irrational way.

I have not commented upon the story, screenplay, music, performance or any other technical aspect of the movie, because I believe many would have already seen the movie, however the above mentioned aspect fascinated me more than any other thing about the film. I wont call the movie path breaking or thought provoking but it success shows something more, and that is, you don’t need to become preachy with every story and sometimes it is good to be bad.

No ratings this time.