‘Don’ movie review: Sivakarthikeyan stars in an ordinary comedy-drama that is unsure of its purpose

After a stoic detour in Doctor, the actor is back laughing and crying, singing and dancing, but he still cannot salvage this humdrum affair

When a principal character in Don makes a heartfelt apology to another, we see a poster in the background that says “Mistakes are always forgivable if one has the courage to admit it.”

It is what the scene tries to communicate too, and it succeeds in doing that. But first-time filmmaker Cibi Chakravarthy zooms into the poster, lest we miss the message... he zooms in so much that there is no room for subtlety.

This example encapsulates the problem with the rest of the film too; it delivers its messages through hackneyed lines rather than the screenplay. Don wants to talk about two things: a) finding one’s talent in rule-ridden, needlessly stringent engineering colleges that seek to suck the fun out of its students, and b) celebrating our parents while they are still with us. Wait, how are these things even connected to each oth… let’s not get into that. 

Firstly, these issues are as novel to Tamil cinema as last-over finishes are to Chennai Super Kings fans (next season, guys… there is always a next season). Engineering colleges especially get attacked like a reluctant part-time bowler. Meanwhile, the Father Sentiment, though a relatively lesser-used weapon than the Mother Sentiment, can inflict sufficient cringe.

Secondly, the screenplay does not even care much about the things the film wants to talk about. Instead, it largely fills the time with the antics of its protagonist, Chakravarthy (Sivakarthikeyan) in his battle of one-upmanship over his college principal Bhoominathan (SJ Suryah). Even this conflict is properly established only after an hour into the film. Till then, we have to sit through a slew of face-palming, groan-inducing comedy. 

Samples for your perusal: a) SJ Suryah catches a couple romancing within the college. He shows a Dairy Milk Silk wrapper as an evidence to one of his assistants, Munishkanth. And, we hear S Janaki’s famous moaning sounds from ‘Nethu Rathiri Yamma’. Because Silk, ‘Silk’ Smitha… gettit? b) Sivakarthikeyan reconciles with Priyanka Arul Mohan after a conflict. He asks her out for a date. She says okay and proceeds to give him… a date fruit.

We also get oneliners like, “Ex ku edhukku extra feelings?”, complaints about college canteen food, frustrations about ‘boy besties’... things that are supposedly the concerns of our youth. If the film contends that students in engineering colleges are facing a problem, we really don’t feel that.