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Don (1978 film)

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Wikipedia article




'Don' is a 1978 Indian Hindi-language crime action thriller film written by SalimJaved (Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar), directed by Chandra Barot and produced by Nariman Irani. The film stars Amitabh Bachchan, Zeenat Aman, Pran in lead roles. Amitabh Bachchan plays the titular Double Role, as Bombay underworld criminal Don and his lookalike simpleton Vijay. The plot revolves around Vijay, a Bombay slum-dweller who resembles the powerful criminal Don, being asked by Police Superintendent D'Silva (Iftekhar) to masquerade as Don due to the latter's death, in order to act as an informant for the police and track down the root of the criminal organization. The film features music by Kalyanji-Anandji, with lyrics by Anjaan and Indeevar.

It was the third highest-grossing Indian film of 1978, and was classified a golden jubilee by Box Office India. The film spawned the 'Don' franchise; Javed Akhtar's son Farhan Akhtar created a remake 'Don: The Chase Begins Again' (2006) and its sequel 'Don 2' (2011), both starring Shah Rukh Khan. It also inspired several South Indian remakes, notably the Tamil film 'Billa' (1980), a breakthrough film for Rajinikanth. 'Don' is also known for its theme music, which was used in the 'American Dad!' episode "Tearjerker" (2008). The intro to "Yeh Mera Dil" was sampled by the Black Eyed Peas for the song "Don't Phunk with My Heart" (2005). The movie was also unofficially remade in 1991 into Punjabi language Pakistani movie titled 'Cobra'. 'Don' is one of the films that catapulted Bachchan to superstardom in his career.

Plot





The film begins with Don as one of the most successful criminals in Bombay who always eludes the authorities, marking himself on Interpol's "Most Wanted" list. To that end, the police, led by Deputy Superintendent of Police D'Silva and Inspector Verma, is working with Interpol operative R.K. Malik in their attempts to nab Don. When one of Don's men named Ramesh decides to leave the gang, Don kills him, provoking Ramesh's fiance Kamini and Ramesh's sister Roma to swear vengeance on Don. Kamini tries to seduce Don in an attempt to have the police arrest him, but her plan backfires as Don plays wise to her moves and kills her before escaping once again. Training herself in judo and karate, Roma enters Don's gang after deceiving them into thinking that she too is on the wrong side of the law, impressing Don in allowing her to work for him without suspecting any ulterior motive.

After years of unsuccessful attempts, the police finally succeed in nabbing Don, and D'Silva plans to take him into custody alive in order to reveal the source of crime that Don relies on. Unfortunately, Don dies succumbing to his wounds inflicted by the police during the chase, botching D'Silva's plan. Still wanting a chance to take down Don's gang, D'Silva buries Don's body while ensuring many people to believe he may still be alive as the only ones who know of Don's death are himself, the graveyard priest and his followers. As luck would have it, D'Silva remembers his previous encounter with a slum-dwelling simpleton named Vijay who is an exact lookalike of Don. Meeting up with Vijay, D'Silva explains the situation to him and hatches a plan to have Vijay pose as Don so that he can get the police to arrest the rest of Don's gang and find out the source of crime that they rely on.

As a startup, D'Silva and Vijay staged an 'accident' that lands Vijay in the hospital under police custody, prompting Roma and Don's gang, currently led by Don's right-hand man Narang, to free Vijay, allowing him to infiltrate the gang under the guise of having amnesia. Around the same time, a man named Jasjit "JJ" Ahuja is released from jail and wants revenge against Don and his gang, as they got him arrested for a past robbery that he was involved in. It was also told that JJ only took the job with the intention of using the money to save his wife from death, but was caught by D'Silva in the act; JJ also intends to reunite with his children Deepu and Muni, who are currently taken care of by Vijay himself. As part of his mission, Vijay finds a red diary containing evidence regarding to Don's criminal activities. Vijay replaces the diary with a blank one while telling Narang and the gang members that he is going to take revenge on D'Silva for capturing him, but is actually going to him to give him the real diary. As Vijay heads off, Roma tries to attack him in an attempt to avenge both Ramesh and Kamini's deaths. However, D'Silva intervenes and confesses about Don's death and the situation to Roma, who apologizes to Vijay and agrees to help him out in taking down the gang members. Using the diary, Vijay and Roma learned more about Don's past and feigned moments of doing notorious acts to maintain their covers to Narang and the gang members. D'Silva even learned that the diary also reveals the existence of a notorious crimelord named Vardhan serving as the source of crime in Bombay, and that all of the gang members are working for him (even Don and Narang are nothing more than just middlemen reporting to Vardhan). Despite this, there is no indication to finding out Vardhan's identity as it remains unknown.

After Vijay feigns a moment of regaining his memories to the gang members, this prompts them to announce a celebration on Don's return. However, things take a drastic turn when Malik and the police (acting upon Vijay's information) raided the celebration, and D'Silva is killed in the crossfire, leaving Vijay, Narang and the gang members to be arrested as Malik and the police mistook Vijay for Don. With D'Sliva dead and no one to vouch for him, Vijay is forced to escape, and the commotion caused Narang and the gang members to finally learn that Vijay is an impostor just as they too escape from captivity, swearing to kill him. To make matters worse, Vijay learns that the diary (the sole evidence to prove his innocence) is stolen by JJ, who attempts to use it to reunite with his children. Despite this, Vijay avoids getting captured by the police and the criminals with the help from Roma, who maintains her cover to the gang members. Vijay and Roma then meet up with JJ and explain to him about the events, prompting him to ally with Vijay and Roma. However, the trio are horrified to learn that Malik himself is actually Vardhan, as he captured the real R.K. Malik and posed as the latter to cover his identity. They are even more horrified to learn that Vardhan was the one who murdered D'Silva during the raid-up, and that he already exposed Roma's identity to the gang members before having them kidnap Deepu and Muni so that they can force the trio to surrender themselves and the diary to Vardhan.

Meeting up in the same graveyard where Don was buried, Vijay, Roma and JJ meet up with Vardhan and his gang members, who are holding Deepu and Muni hostage. During a long standoff between the trio and the gang members, Vardhan snatches the diary and burns it before calling in Inspector Verma and the police to the scene to have the trio and the gang members arrested so that he can get away scot-free. However, anticipating the possibility that Vardhan would try to escape, Vijay cleverly revealed that the diary that Vardhan burned was the blank one that he switched, just as he hands the real diary over to Inspector Verma, exposing Vardhan's identity and occupation to the police. As a result, Vardhan ends up being arrested and sent to prison along with his gang members for their crimes, and all charges against Vijay are dropped while JJ is reunited with Deepu and Muni. The film ends with Vijay, Roma, JJ, Deepu and Muni happily walking away from the police station, satisfied that they took down Vardhan and his gang members for good.

Cast



* Amitabh Bachchan as Vijay / Don (Double Role)

* Zeenat Aman as Roma

* Pran as Jasjeet "J.J."

* Iftekhar as DSP D'Silva

* Satyen Kappu as Inspector Verma

* Jagdish Raj as Police Officer

* Paidi Jairaj as Dayal

* Pinchoo Kapoor as Interpole Officer R.K. Malik

* Om Shivpuri as Vardhan / Fake R.K. Malik

* Kamal Kapoor as Narang

* M. B. Shetty as Shakaal

* Mac Mohan as Mac

* Yusuf Khan as Vikram

* Rajan Haksar as Kishan

* Arpana Choudhary as Anita

* Sharad Kumar as Ramesh

* Helen as Kamini (Special Appearance)

Production



Producer and cinematographer Nariman Irani was in a financial mess when his film 'Zindagi Zindagi' (1972), starring Sunil Dutt flopped. He was in debt for Rs 1.2 million and couldn't pay the money off on a cinematographer's salary. When he was doing the cinematography for Manoj Kumar's major hit 'Roti Kapada Aur Makaan' (1974), the film's cast (Amitabh Bachchan, Zeenat Aman, Pran) and crew (assistant director Chandra Barot) decided to help him out. They all recommended that he produce another film and that they would participate in its production. They all approached scriptwriting duo SalimJaved (Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar), who gave them an untitled script that had already been rejected by the entire industry. The cinematographer Nariman Irani, while working on 'Chhailla Babu', decided to borrow most of the plot of 'Chhailla Babu' and shared a modified story idea with Chandra Barot, who made the new modified story as the film 'Don' (1978). The script had a character named Don. Bachchan would play Don, and Barot would direct the film. Aman and Pran would play key roles in the film.

The film took three-and-a-half years to complete. Before filming was completed, producer Irani died from an accident on the set of another film he was working on. Barot faced budget restraints but received aid. Barot showed the film to his mentor Manoj Kumar, who felt that the film was too tight and needed a song in the midst of the action-filled film, and so "Khaike Paan Banaraswala" was added into the film. 'Don' was released without any promotion on 12 May 1978 and was declared a flop the first week. Within a week after an adding the song "Khaike Paan Banaraswala", the song by itself became a big hit, and by word of mouth spread, so by the second week, the film's fortunes were reversed, and the film was declared a blockbuster. The profits from the film were given to Irani's widow to settle her husband's debts.

The hit-song "Khaike Pan Banaraswala" sung by Kishore Kumar was choreographed by P.L. Raj.

'Don' was produced on a budget of 70lakh ($860,000). Adjusted for inflation, its budget is equivalent to $ million (22crore) in 2016.

Soundtrack



The soundtrack of the film has been composed by the duo Kalyanji-Anandji, while the lyrics were written by Anjaan and Indeevar.

According to film music expert Rajesh Subramanian, the song "Khaike Paan Banaraswala" was composed by Babla, the younger brother of a famous music director Kalyanji-Anandji.

Kishore Kumar and Asha Bhosle received accolades at filmfare for the tracks "Khaike Paan Banaraswala" and "Yeh Mera Dil" respectively, both of which have also been remixed in the remake.

Box office



At the Indian box office, the film grossed 7crore ($8.6million). Adjusted for inflation, its box office gross is equivalent to $ million (218crore) in 2016.

Awards



Legacy and influence



'Don' series



The film was remade in 2006 as 'Don' starring Shah Rukh Khan in the lead role of Don, Priyanka Chopra as Roma, Arjun Rampal as Jasjit, Boman Irani as D'Silva, and Om Puri as Malik. It was directed by Farhan Akhtar. With some changes in the script, the film proved to be one of the highest-grossing films of the year. A sequel to that film, 'Don 2', was released on 23 December 2011.

Remakes in other languages

* 'Don' was first remade in 1979 in Telugu as 'Yugandhar', starring NTR, Jayasudha and Jayamalini.

*It was also remade in 1980 in Tamil as 'Billa', starring Rajinikanth. Helen, who played Kamini in the original Hindi film 'Don' (1978), repeated her role in this remake. 'Billa' was a breakthrough film for Rajinikanth, establishing him as the top star of South Indian cinema.

* In 1986, the movie was remade in Malayalam as 'Shobaraj', starring Mohanlal and Madhavi.

* In 1991, the movie was remade into a Punjabi language Pakistani movie titled 'Cobra', starring Sultan Rahi and Nadira.

* The 2006 Hindi remake starring Shah Rukh Khan, titled 'Don', inspired the Tamil directors who made the Ajith Kumar starrer 'Billa' a remake of the same-titled Rajinikanth film.

*In 2009, a second Telugu remake titled 'Billa' was released, starring Prabhas, Anushka Shetty, Namitha and Krishnam Raju, and Jayasudha in a different role than the one she played in Yugandhar. This film used the same title as the Tamil remakes.

* 'Billa II' (2012) is a Tamil film starring Ajith and a prequel to 'Billa' (2007).

Music

A sample from the song "Yeh Mera Dil" was used by The Black Eyed Peas for their hit song "Don't Phunk with My Heart" in 2005. The song won the Black Eyed Peas their first Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group, while the composers for "Yeh Mera Dil", Kalyanji Anandji, were awarded the BMI Award for being the originators of the melodies used in "Don't Phunk with My Heart."

The third season 'American Dad!' episode "Tearjerker" (2008) uses the 1978 'Don' theme music in its intro sequence.

The third episode of the Marvel Studios television series 'Ms. Marvel' features "Yeh Mera Dil" in a wedding dance sequence.

References




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