Don Muthuswami Review

Producer Shakti Samanta

Director Ashim Samanta

Music Anu Malik

Writer Salim Agha

Lyrics Amitabh Varma

Release Date 23-May-2008

Nowadays, with corporate houses being in the spotlight for their multiple films, one begins to think - whatever happened to producers who built an empire in the 1960s, 70s and 80s? One of the prolific production houses of the era re-emerges on the scene with the Mithun starrer Don Muthuswamy.

To put it blatantly, it is a complete rip-off of the Sylvester Stallone starrer, the English comedy OSCAR. But our real concern is does it work as well? To answer that simply - Mithun can never be doubted. The film does entertain and the credit goes to Mithun mainly. He is the life in the film and honestly, there's nothing to look forward to except him

Muthuswami's father is on the deathbed and Muthu [Mithun] comes to see him and pay his last respects. The father slaps Muthu and tells him that he has brought shame to the family by being a gangster and that he would die an unhappy man. The Don asks his father what he could do to bring his father peace. He extracts a promise from his son that he should go straight. Thus begins the drama of the Don trying to change into a gentleman. From Don Muthuswami to Sir Muthuswami.

Muthu tells his henchmen to continue working for him, but instead of being gangsters, they have to work as domestic help. He engages an Urdu/Hindi teacher Jaikishan [Mohit Raina] to improve his language. To add to the confusion is his daughter Sanjana's [Hrishita Bhatt] marriage. The best match, according to him, was his good friend Don Vardhan's son Pradhan, but Sanjana refuses. In fact, she lies that she is pregnant.

Muthu's manager Preetam [Rohit Roy], who wants to marry Muthu's daughter, is another angle of this story. He had been stealing regularly from Muthu, to make himself a millionaire. There's also Ranjana [Anusmriti], who tells Muthu that she loves his accountant Preetam. Meanwhile, Sanjana and Jaikishan fall in love and make things more complicated.

There are two sides to every coin, so let's not forget the negative aspects here. Minus Mithun, there's not much to look forward to in this film. Also, look keenly on the screen and you instantly notice the lackluster look of the film. The look, in fact, reminds you of the 1980s era. Ashim Samanta's direction is passable. Music [Anu Malik] is hardly appealing. Cinematography [Harish Joshi] is appropriate.

As mentioned earlier, Mithun is the sole saving grace. Rohit Roy also gets good marks. Shakti Kapoor is okay. Hrishita Bhatt is a bit loud. Mohit Raina is fair.

On the whole, this Don doesn't have the capability to rule the hearts.