Don: The Chase Begins Again
A 2006 Bollywood film, and Farhan Akhtar's remake of the 1978 film starring Amitabh Bachchan. This version stars Shah Rukh Khan, Priyanka Chopra and Kareena Kapoor. Follows the conflict between an Indian drug lord's lieutenant (a man known as Don), and his arch-rival; the cop DCP Desilva. After Don's death, Desilva replaces him with his lookalike Vijay in order to dismantle the drug cartel. Two other subplots involve Jasjit (who was screwed over by Desilva) and Roma (who was screwed over by Don.) Many many action scenes ensue.
This film containts the following tropes:
- Action Girl: Roma.
- Air Vent Passageway: Deepu and Jasjit pull this off.
- And Your Little Dog, Too: The criminal that threatens Jasjit's family. He follows through too, and kills Jasjit's wife.
- Arc Words: "I like wild cats." It's also the reason Roma figures out that Don is, well, Don. Don's catchphrase, listed below, arguably fits this trope, as well.
- Badass: Most of the characters.
- Badass Driver: Several escape scenes qualify.
- The Baroness: Anita.
- Best Served Cold: Jasjit and Roma.
- Bound and Gagged: Kamini.
- Catch Phrase: "It's not difficult to catch Don. It's impossible." True.
- The Chessmaster: Don and Vardhaan both. Don is the more successful of the two.
- Code Name: You never learn Don's real name.
- Combat Pragmatist: Don he immediately tries to shoot Kamini in the head when it's revealed she's working with the police.
- Crowning Moment of Awesome: While a good portion of the film could be listed here, special mention has to go to Don's escape from the police after meeting Roma where he manages to talk and threaten his way past a whole mess of armed police all while menacing his hostage with an empty gun.
- Crowning Moment of Heartwarming: Jasjit and Deepu's reunion.
- Deceptive Disciple: Roma who is planning to betray Don.
- Detective Mole: Desilva who is, in fact, Vardhaan and a rival drug lord to Singhania.
- Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: Yeh Mera Dil functions as this.
- Drunken Song: Vijay's high, not drunk, but it still counts.
- Eiffel Tower Effect: Many, many establishing shots of the Petronas Twin Towers.
- Extraordinarily Empowered Girl: Averted. Roma's shown training, so her martial arts skills don't come as much of a surprise.
- Evil Is Stylish: Don's clothes are... interesting, to say the least.
- Fan Service: Camera lingering on Roma in a swimsuit.
- Faux Affably Evil: Don.
- Fetish Fuel: Vijay and Roma's fight in the abandoned train.
- Fridge Brilliance: So many of the film's seemingly awkward moments (mainly related to Vijay's unlikely skills) make sense once it becomes obvious it was Don all along.
- Gambit Pileup: The climax, during which everyone's plots collide.
- Genre Savvy: Officer Malik.
- Hey, It's That Guy!: Boman Irani!
- Honor Before Reason: Averted completely. Everyone fights dirty.
- "I Am" Song: Quite literally. Main Hoon Don = "I am Don."
- Improbable Weapon User: Don kills people with exploding briefcases and golf balls.
- I Never Said It Was Poison: Roma realizes Vijay has been Don all along when he says "I like wildcats." Slight subversion because he fully meant for her to realize it and revealed this information when there was nothing she could do about it.
- Karma Houdini: Don and Anita.
- MacGuffin: Don's CD of drug cartel contact info.
- Magic Floppy Disk: For all the high tech stuff going on, Don seems to not know about the existence of zip discs.
- Magnificent Bastard: Don.
- Malaysia: Shot there, and it's sponsored by Tourism Malaysia.
- Mexican Standoff: Don and Vardhaan in their end battle.
- Neutral Female: Averted. All the main female characters aid in the action somehow.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Roma, as she realizes that her testifying that Don is Vijay led to him escaping from justice
- Not His Sled: The original Don, released in 1978 and starring Amitabh Bachchan as Don, had Don actually die much earlier, in D'Silva's car, so viewers remembering it may think, till the end, that it's Vijay doing all that... till the twist at the end. It was probably for practicality more than shock value - Akhtar is releasing a sequel in December 2011, which, given the original ending, would have been difficult - it was happy and resolved everything.
- Off With His Head: Don really hates police informers.
- Pragmatic Adaptation: Many plot points from the original movie are altered. Possibly to maintain the element of surprise
- Prisoner of Zenda Exit
- Right Under Their Noses
- Rule of Cool
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Ramesh tries this, anyway...
- Sealed Room in The Middle of Nowhere: Happens to Jasjit, until he agrees to steal diamonds for an unknown criminal. Vardhaan was probably the one to set him up, but it's never fully explained.
- Shoot the Shaggy Dog: No one gets their revenge on Don. In fact, pretty much everyone is screwed over except for Jasjit.
- Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Cynical. Sooooo cynical
- Stuffed Into the Fridge: Kamini. In a mild subversion it's Roma who chooses to avenge her. In fact, Kamini was also attempting to avenge her fridged boyfriend.
- Played straight with the death of Jasjit's wife, Geeta.
- Theme Song Reveal: Aaj Ki Raat as Roma taunts Anita. In truth it turns out that Anita and Don are mocking Roma and it seems incredibly obvious on rewatches.
- All the songs serve this purpose to a certain extent, actually. Even Khaike Paan!
- Too Dumb to Live: Singhania.
- Probably Ramesh, too.
- Took a Level In Badass: Vijay, who goes from a bumbling comic character to being able to engage in badass fight sequences. While in the sky after falling from a plane. Brutally subverted when it's revealed that Don knew about Vardhaan's plans from the start and had Vijay killed. The level of badass therefore makes sense for the character involved.
- Touch of Death: Don kills Kamini this way.
- Trick Twist: If you don't know the ending, don't let anyone give it away for you. Just watch the movie and be amazed.
- Unholy Matrimony: Don and Anita can be unexpectedly... adorable.
- Viewers are Morons: Subverted. Akhtar wants the viewer to go "wait. What?" and then have your suspicions proved correct.
- What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic: Does showing Lord Ganesha, Goddess Saraswathi and Goddess Lakshmi before the credits roll count?
- Wouldn't Hit a Girl: Subverted in the first five minutes when Don punches a rival's henchwoman in the face.
- Xanatos Speed Chess: Don is forced in to this because of Vardhaan's plots.