Film: Don
Cast: Nagarjuna, Anushka, Raghava Lawrence, Nikitha, Kelly Dorjee, Venumadhav and others
Dialogues: Abburi Ravi
Cinematography: S Gopal Reddy
Action: Vijay
Editing: Marthand K Venkatesh
Produced by: M L Kumar Chowdhary
Banner: Sree Keerthi Creations
Story, screenplay, choroegraphy, music and directed by: Raghava Lawrence
Release Date: Dec 20, 2007
CBFC Rating: U/A
What's it about!
Suri (Nagarjuna) is good-natured don. He treats his aide Raghava (Lawrence) as his brother. International mafia don Stefan (Kelly Dorjy) eyes on Andhra Pradesh and looks for a foothold in the state. When Don opposes to be Stefan's man in AP, war ensues. The rest of the film is power struggle between two Dons.
Analysis
The last big movie of 2007 is here. DON, the most anticipated film of this season, unfortunately falls flat with its weak script. It starts off on a promising note, but after the interval it runs out of gas and ends up as a big disappointment. All style, no substance.
The main problem lies with its director Lawrence who handled all the departments from scripting, composing songs and choreographing them, acting in it and directing them. Here we get the new SV Krishna Reddy in the making? Lawrence who delivered blockbuster with Mass, this time has no proper script to hold the grip over the film, despite some of the scenes are brilliant. He appears in the film from first scene to the climax while Nagarjuna as Suri anna alias Don doesn't have much to do. The basis for power-struggle between two Dons - Nag and newcomer Kelly Dorjee is too thin.
Moreover, Nagarjuna looks pathetically bad. He never looked worse than this.
However, some scenes stand out..
1. Nagarjuna's introduction. It is one of the best scenes in the recent times.
2. When villain Kelly Dorjee comes to make an agreement with Nag.
Performances
Nagarjuna is the original style icon in Tollywood and he always charmed everyone with handsome looks. But in DON, his getup and intention to look like a real don doesn't go well with audiences. As an actor, he cakewalks through the character but somehow, whenever he played the character of mafia guy or killer (Neti Siddardha, Antham, etc), it boomeranged. Ageing is inevitable but a top hero like Nag should take care of it through make-up or other means.
It is Bollywood actor and Lara Dutta's boy friend
Kelly Dorjee who steals the show. He looks handsome and his suaveness as international don is appropriate. He looks perfect foil to the lead hero.
Lawrence as actor irritates and his dialogue delivery is awful. For the sake of audiences' health, he better should stick to direction than acting.
Anushka urgently needs to check her gaining weight.
Nikitha in her brief role is a surprise.
As per technical aspects, senior cameraman
S Gopal Reddy shows he still has the verve to show differently and competed with any young cameraman. Of the songs composed by Lawrence, three are good.
Bottom-line
Don has style but lacks substance. Lack of entertainment and weak script mar the film. It is disappointment.
Re-introducing Rating:
2.75/5
