Don Movie Review

 

Chakaravarthi (Sivakarthikeyan), the protagonist of Don, decides that he'd rather establish a reputation for himself without studying since his strict father (Samuthirakani), or as he defines him, the "sirappana tharamana villain" in his life, wants him to study hard. The story revolves around whether or not this young man can find out what he wants to accomplish with his life while attending an engineering college. Boominathan (SJ Suryah), a college professor, adds to his hardship by being an even stricter disciplinarian than his father!

 

Cibi Chakaravarthi, a newbie director, uses this Santhosh Subramaniam-meets-Nanban set-up to appeal to both the younger and older audiences. He cleverly divides the video into two portions, the first for young people and the second for families. Yes, we notice how deliberate this strategy is, which turns Don into a commercial entertainment rather than a coming-of-age drama, but the director succeeds.

 

The tension between Chakaravarthi, the college's Don, and Boomi dominates the picture, and Sivakarthikeyan and SJ Suryah's energetic performances bring these scenes to life. The strategies that the two devise to bring down the other result in a number of amusing scenes, such as when Boomi arranges a parent-teacher meeting with Don's father or when Don manages to put the teachers in the shoes of the pupils. This battle of wits is intermingled with a few moments of adorable and cringe-worthy romance between Don and Angayarkanni (Priyankaa Mohan).

 

Things wander into emotional terrain in the last sections, and the film comes perilously close to treacly melodrama, which is tonally different from the light-hearted tone we've seen so far, but it doesn't wreck the film. However, the emotions it elicits in these scenes do not feel well-deserved, as it attempts to pass off destructive parenting as a type of 'untold love.' While the remark about parents discovering out how to raise their children via trial and error is true, the film's attempts to make Don's father into an attractive figure are difficult to believe, given the way the character treats his son until then.

 

Nonetheless, Cibi Chakaravarthi's passion propels the picture to its conclusion, ensuring that, despite his formulaic approach of the topic, it stays fairly engaging.