Don

Main hoon Donnnnn, main hoon Donnnnn, main hoon main hoon main hoon, main hoon donnnnn, don! don! don!

I still remember this song like it was yesterday. These were the days of waiting on Saturday early afternoon for the Indian movie of the week on television.  Also then, that’s all the cinemas used to show along with “Chinese” and “cowboy and Indian” movies.

Don starring Amitabh Bachchan.

Amitabh Bachchan was the don of Indian movies in those days. Dharmendra, Jeetendra all came after him. Films like Sholay, Amar Akbar Anthony, Toofan easily come to mind.

Amitabh or Amita as we used to call him was to me then, the real star long before I got to know the Sylvester Stallones and the Arnold Schwarzeneggers of this world.  Amitabh was the real deal. He could dance, he could fight, he could sing. As a young boy, I used to think that all you needed to be a star was to be tall, just because of this man. I remember the scene from Slumdog Millionaire, where a young boy jumped into a pit latrine just so as to be able to see Amitabh and did so covered in poo. This simple scene showed the level of cult hero status Amitabh possesses in his home country India.

This 1978 movie was a classic .The plot was a crime boss (Don) who always eluded the police but was finally killed without the knowledge of his gang. A police boss then tried to use a Don lookalike to infiltrate the gang.

Amitabh  Bachchan brings his unparalleled acting skills to this movie. The dual roles played by him were so real, it was almost as if an acting double was brought in to play the role of the imitator. The bad “Don” was smooth , suave and sophisticated while the good” Don” was uncouth, clumsy and uncivilized or what we call this part of the world, a village boy.

The lovely Zeenat Aman was his love interest. Remember those days, when we used to argue who was finer between Zeenat and Hema Malini?

I would like to watch the movie all over again. I found clips of it on YouTube but I am yet to find the whole movie.

The musical theme of the movie was catchy and way ahead of its era. As I type this I can still hear the sound playing in my head.  The musical group Black Eyed Peas used a sample from one of the songs of the movie for their 2005’s hit: “Don’t phunk with my heart”.

All the songs in the movie were nice, not like the songs in the modern Bollywood movies.  At times on YouTube, I play the songs over and over.

Who remembers Disco Dancer starring Mithun Chakraborthy? Hmm , before I go down the memory lane again ,let me go back to YouTube.

UPDATE: I’ve found the whole movie on YouTube! Settling down with a drink to watch it all over again.