It’s an understatement to say that Don 2 falls short of one’s expectations of Farhan Akhtar, the director of the Dil Chahta Hai, a trend setting movie that changed hindi cinema forever. After a successful remake of the Amitabh Bachchan classic ‘Don’, Farhan attempts to take the story further in the sequel. 

Let’s get one thing clear, Don 2’s promos are very misleading.  The movie appears to be creative and new, however it’s only a blend of Hollywood films such as Ocean’s Eleven and Mission Impossible, to name a few.  And so the originality factor of this movie is quite low. 

The first half of the movie drags and one finds him/herself hoping for something exciting to happen.  The characters were given lame dialogues and the “Junglee Billi” referral to Priyanka Chopra’s character was used one too many times, and the novelty wore off after hearing it in the first instance.  Akhtar and company could have come with some witty dialogues to draw in the audience and divert their attention from the lack of emotion between the characters.  When emotion was finally shown it almost made you laugh out loud because it seemed unreal even for a typical Bollywood movie where we believe in love at first sight. 

As for Shah Rukh Khan, the attempt to look like the bad boy appeared to be nothing but over acting.  When one watches the likes of Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible, Cruise’s character is “cool” because he makes it look effortless and believable, as if he just is that way.  Shah Rukh’s character on the other hand was over exaggerated and made him seem anything but believable.  The few times that he did come across as being the bad boy, it was ruined by the lackluster of the other characters and their lame dialogues.  It’s unfortunate because Shah Rukh in other well directed movies has played the bad boy with so much ease.

Sorry folks but this movie was a disappointment for me.  Even the likes of Shah Rukh and Priyanka’s so called off screen chemistry couldn’t hold ones attention.  Also for all Priyanka fans, sorry but Lara Dutta was much easier on the eyes.  Piggy chops just didn’t cut it.

So if you are expecting something out of the ordinary that takes the franchise further, I wouldn’t hold my breath.  The movie was a letdown, and Akhtar’s talent as a director didn’t live up to his name.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed by Sonia Nagpal