If you are a fan of the old Don, you should read this review. The old Don was fabulous. Amitabh Bachchan was king at that time and anything he touched, turned gold.

Frankly, today Shah Rukh Khan is the king and what’s more… he rules in the new Don. However, we’re not drawing a comparison here since it’s difficult to be objective after that.

Don is a new age movie. The Don (Shah Rukh Khan) wears black shades on his eyes, sleeve and character as well. He is not grey. He has no dead father or mother for whose revenge he has become a Don. The bad Khan from Baazigar, Anjaam and Darr has returned with this film.

Don has many enemies and he hates them all. He kills on impulse, shoots at sight and loves women. He kills one of his employees (Ramesh) when he tries to move away from the gang. Ramesh’s girlfriend Kamini (Kareena Kapoor) tries to take revenge and is killed. Then it is his sister – Roma’s (Priyanka Chopra) turn. She joins the Don’s gang. Don is in fact working for a narcotics drug runner called Singhania who gets all his work done through him.

But Don is captured by D Silva (Boman Irani) who substitutes a road show music band player Vijay (Shah Rukh Khan) and lets him loose as Don. But there is the twist in the tale. Vijay is taking care of a kid Deepu, who is in fact the son of Jasjit (Arjun Rampal). Jasjit got arrested by the cops as he tried to steal Rs 500 million worth of diamonds to save his wife from death. His wife dies and Jasjit is gunning for D Silva.

Meanwhile Vijay tries to get details on the Don and pass them on to D Silva. Singhania gets killed and Vijay gets arrested. Even as he tries to prove his innocence, multiple twists and turns lead to a thrilling climax. This Don, in that sense, is very different from the earlier one.

Shot breathtakingly at times, the skydiving sequence shot by cameraman Joe Jennings and second unit director Angelo Sahin is easily one of the highlights of the film as never seen before in a Hindi film.

That scene separates the men from the boys. Farhan Akhtar excels in his stylish storytelling once again after Dil Chahta Hai and Lakshya. King Khan does rules in both his roles.

However, notwithstanding all that, the movie moves at a slow pace thus defying the thriller genre. The basic flaw lies with the slow narration of the story and hence even editing couldn’t have helped it much. It may be possible that the slow pace may test the audiences’ patience.

Arjun Rampal looks hot and acts well too but alas his scenes do not have the punch and hence it makes the film even more sluggish.

Boman Irani too emerges as a better hero. His character, persona and dialogues seem to be more powerful than that of Shah Rukh’s at times. There is a visible effort made by the man in his acting skills, which seemed to be rather monotonous in his earlier films. But unfortunately his screen presence hardly creates any excitement as one would expect it to.

Priyanka is splendid in the action scenes and deserves applause for that. But her make up still needs to improve and seems more like a Krrish hangover.

Isha Kopikar looks good and lends good support but has very little potential to expand.

The background music adds excitement in a couple of scenes. Also the cinematography and the choreography of the action scenes in Malaysia are breathtaking. The look of the film is sleek and stylish and represents the new age Don very well. But the audiences expect much more from Shah Rukh Khan than just that.

Apart from that, one might also not concur with the picturisation of ‘Khaike Paan Banaraswala,’ however, Kareena Kapoor oozes sex appeal in ‘Ye Mera Dil Pyar Ka Deewana’. The songs are not as good as the original and are again new age. Well, one can’t expect earthy music if the film is set in Malaysia!

The film has huge potential in the international market and the visual effects too will help in that. The 325 international prints of the film are expected to come in handy for sure.

The angry young Khan of yore is back!