DON NO.1
FULTOO FATACK TELLUWOOD HUNGAMA
by Vishal Verma

Rating:

What is it?
A warning to the flag bearers of the phenomenon called ‘sensible’ cinema.‘This may force you to take the script writer (Raghava Lawrence) & his script to the ICU at a nearby hospital”

But on a second thought you start wondering and try to figure out what the hell made you sit for the entire 2+ hr watching the silly, stupid heroics of this ‘Don No.1’ whose purpose was only to entertain.

If you can switch off your brain cells along with your mobile while watching ‘Don No.!’, then definitely you are in for a fultoo fatack paisa vasool action drama, which can give even bollywood makers a jolt when it comes to the level of mounting.

No doubt the movie has gone into history for two reasons, one for its amazing mounting and second for grossing 86 crore in 8 weeks just in Hyderabad alone. Even the likes of SRK, Kumars, and the other Khans with Bachchans can deliver such an outstanding performance at the box-office even after releasing it all over ‘Hindustan’.

For example Aamir Khan’s TAARE ZAMEEN PAR has collected around 60 crore  in its 10th week of all India release, whereas Anees Bazmee's WELCOME starring Akshay Kumar has netted 74.75 crores in ten weeks from India.

But this typical Tollywood Hungama titled ‘Don No.1’ has grossed a whopping 86 cr and mind you it is not an all India release like the above mentioned flicks. So you drop your thinking caps & also the idea of taking Raghava Lawrence script to an ICU and start finding the rationale behind the success down south.
Imran Qureshi has put his money were its heart is. Don No1 wins the heart of those hungry souls of escapist cinema & provides enough fodder to make the aam movie going junta happy & entertained.

Raghava Lawrence does a commendable job in directing a mix of action, drama, comedy & smartly done special effects with some tight screenplay (no need to find the sense behind the developments…. But who’s complaining!) and churning out an entertaining masala flick.

What is it all about?
Surya ( Nagarjuna- quite good) is an orphan who rescues some street children from the clutches of a drug peddler. One of them happens to be Raghava Lawrence (brilliant). They all become his followers and as Surya grows up to become a Don with an humanitarian heart a modern day Robinhood.. Raghava assists the don in his work, and in turn Surya treats Raghava as his younger brother.

Enter the villain, Stephen aka Sikandar (Kelly Dorjee- fine) who is an international famed DON and after expanding his so called mafia kingdom, he eyes India. He approaches Surya and lures him to join him as a partner. But Surya understands the evil intentions of the Stephen and refuses him. This irks Stephen, and his anger sets him to eliminate Surya and sets up a trap to kill him and expand his mafia empire.

The rest of the story revolves how Surya shields himself from Stephen and how he eliminates Stephen and saves his ‘Hindustan’.

What to look out for?
For those who have not experienced the aura of south Indian cinema. Things are loud over here but it serves the basic purpose – to entertain. The don fights, romances, sings a song & does all what a typical bollywood ‘tapori’ hero will do to entertain.

If you go by the box-office performance, Don No.1 tells the fact that Nagarjuna now enjoys a certain level of stardom in Telugu Cinema what Rajnikant had experienced during ‘Sivaji – The Boss’.

Nagarjuna justifies his part well and does a good job.

Raghava Lawrence on the other hand looks good in Direction and acting department and also as usual his dance talent is very well exposed. He manages to ignite some comedy and also manages to extract some laughter from the audience.

Kelly is makes his debut in Telugu industry & gives proper justice to his character.

Action is well composed.

Cinematography by S. Gopal Reddy is eye pleasing.

What not?
Ah! Everything is fine, the direction is slick but sweetheart were is the content. It’s the same banal adventure though slickly and stylishly done. The heart is there but the soul is missing.

Conclusion:  If you don’t apply logics and logistics then you can enjoy this tamarind rice in Dal Makhani.