Does Don remind you of Big B?

By: Gaurav Malani, IndiaFM

Friday, June 30, 2006

Farhan Akhtar's Don is undoubtedly one of the most awaited releases of the year for reasons more than one. Firstly, obviously because it's a Shahrukh Khan movie. Secondly because it will be one of the first remakes of a yesteryear film to come out in Bollywood. Remaking yesteryear classics has been a common practice in Hollywood but Bollywood has caught fancy of this trend only off lately. Farhan Akhtar's reworking on the classic, grabs attention for the fact that his father Javed Akhtar is one of co-writers of the original masterpiece.

While the 1978 Amitabh Bachchan flick was a true-blue entertainer, what needs to be seen is how Farhan Akhtar adapts this timeless story and how much of his own touch does he add to the film. While we do believe that the adaptation will be contemporary, there are some elements that filmmakers intentionally retain from the original while remaking a film which kind of work as a recall value and also as a tribute to the original.

In Don, for example, Farhan is having a new version of the original chartbuster song 'Khaike Pan Banaras Wala'. Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy are recreating the song and going by what they did to 'Pretty Woman' in Kal Ho Naa Ho one can be rest assured about the new version. But it's not just the song that will be retained in the remake.

Check this picture of Shahrukh Khan (posing with a fan) shot on the sets of the picturization of the 'Pan Banaras Wala' track. What else is common between the original and the remake? Well, Shahrukh Khan is wearing a polka dotted shirt that very much reminds of Amitabh Bachchan's similar shirt in the original. In fact Amitabh was seen in this shirt throughout the second half of the film where he keeps escaping from the bad guys. Just the sleeves have gone longer this time...

Let's see how many more recall value does this remake generate with the original.