Don: The Chase Begins Again is a slick, polished remake of the 1978 masala classic known simply as Don. At the time I saw this film - in a theater on its first run - I had not yet seen the original, so I present my impressions of it here without comparison to the antecedent, without holding the modern script to its campy ancestor, without pitting its star Shah Rukh Khan head-to-head against the great Amitabh Bachchan, the original Don. [Note: some comparison may be found in Filmi Geek's review of the original, written about a month after this review.]
Still, it's difficult for me to review this film. To explain my perspective, I can say that if this were not a Hindi film featuring some of the biggest names in contemporary Hindi cinema (though none of my personal favorites), I would not have seen it. If it were a Hollywood film I might have been only barely aware of its existence. It belongs to a genre - action thriller - to which I just don't pay any attention. It's just not my thing.
If it is your thing - if you are capable of relaxing into the mode of the action thriller, of surrendering yourself to the particular kind of unreality that the genre presents, Don is a thoroughly fun ride. Its twists and turns, while in some cases predictable, are nevertheless well-paced and well-executed. Its sense of style is decadent and consistent. I felt that some of the fight scenes went on too long, and I was irritated by some small weaknesses in the plot, but I think these stem more from the fact that I am not an action thriller fan than from any problem with this film in particular. The film made excellent use of its exotic locale - Malaysia - with towering, vertiginous shots of the spectacular Petronas Towers and a climactic scene atop a forested mountain, perched upon a treetop network of scenic observation platforms and precarious bridges.
Shah Rukh Khan is used perfectly here in the title role. He made his name as a romantic hero, and though he is a massive star he never really worked for me in that capacity. In Don, though, his slick, creepy demeanor well suits the sadistic hedonism of the character. The best performance in the film is that of Boman Irani, one of Bollywood's best and most versatile character actors, who is nuanced and intense as Don's nemesis, a ranking police official named DaSilva. Priyanka Chopra is also quite good as a woman who, having lost her brother to Don's cruelty, infiltrates his organization in search of an opportunity to take revenge.
The soundtrack is a thumping techno score by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy. I have observed with soundtracks by this team that I usually find there is one excellent song, maybe one or two that are fine but not particularly special, and the remainder range from mediocre to atrocious. Don fits this pattern perfectly. The triumphant track "Main hoon Don" is the excellent song, chilling and addicting. The anticipatory "Aaj ki raat" is also good, though I did not appreciate it until I saw the film, in which it sets a slick and smooth, yet kinetic, mood. The other tracks are neither here nor there. "Mourya re" is a colorful but forgettable festival song, the only track in which the techno beats have been laid aside. Two remakes of songs from the original, "Yeh mera dil" and "Khaike paan banaraswala" fall completely flat for me. In "Khaike paan" the techno beat just interferes with the bumpy energy of the tune, getting in the way and adding nothing. "Yeh mera dil" is overproduced drivel, a pale shadow of the funky aesthetic of Asha Bhosle's orginal rendition.
Still, even if the soundtrack is not one that I will listen to on its own, it suited the mood and tone of the movie and the picturizations were diverse and entertaining, and were among the most enjoyable aspects of the film as it was going on. I haven't included Don in my "Good introductions" category, but I do think that if you are a fan of the action thriller genre, Don is an example of the best that the current golden age of Hindi film can offer.