Film

Don

Name: Don
Genre: Action, Drama, Thriller
Released: 2006
Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Arjun Rampal, Boman Irani, Om Puri

Other titles called Don: the 1978 film.

Shah Rukh Khan tears through this Bollywood crime thriller as a man forced to impersonate a legendary don after his handler dies, leaving him stranded in a world of violence and betrayal. It's audacious, propulsive, and built entirely on the question of whether he can survive an identity that isn't his. For viewers who want style, spectacle, and a hero in genuine jeopardy.

TMDb rating

3.5

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you like a crime caper built on a double-role gimmick, where the pleasure is watching one actor slip between two personalities while a chase-heavy plot keeps tightening.

Skip it if you tire easily at nearly three hours, or you want a lean thriller that never pauses for anything beyond its plot.

What it asks of you: Close to three hours of plot-building and impersonation games, a slow-to-ignite first stretch before the chase gathers real momentum.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Raees2017

Shah Rukh Khan plays another morally ambiguous crime kingpin in this slick, gripping thriller about a bootlegger's rise and fall. Same star, same register, but this time he's the actual don—curious to see how the role plays when he owns it entirely.

But The plot can feel like a greatest-hits collection of crime film tropes, and the pacing occasionally stumbles in the second half.

Singham2011

Ajay Devgn leads this high-octane action film about a cop taking on corrupt officials with fists and fury. It has the same kinetic energy, the same love of spectacle, and the same willingness to let the hero bend the rules to survive.

But It's more straightforwardly heroic—less morally murky—and some of the action sequences prioritize scale over logic.

Dhoom2004

A sleek heist thriller with Abhishek Bachchan as a charming thief and John Abraham as the cop pursuing him. Slick cinematography, clever twists, and two leads who genuinely spark off each other make this endlessly rewatchable.

But It's more fun than serious, and if you want psychological depth over adrenaline and sass, you might bounce off the tone.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Don

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Point Break1991

Both are films where a man must inhabit a false identity so thoroughly he risks losing himself—but Point Break adds a layer of seduction to the undercover life that makes the moral stakes even thornier.

Two brilliant action films collide: a cop thriller meets a surf film. Keanu Reeves goes undercover in a gang of stylish bank robbers led by Patrick Swayze. It's utterly ridiculous and absolutely committed to that ridiculousness.

But It's camp in ways it doesn't entirely know—if you can't laugh with it, you'll be laughing at it. The dialogue is purple and the plot is preposterous.

The Godfather1972

The template for every crime story that followed. Marlon Brando and Al Pacino build a world of ruthless power, family obligation, and the slow corruption of a good man. Every frame is composed like a painting.

But It moves deliberately, and at nearly three hours it requires patience. The first hour is particularly slow for modern viewers.

Ocean's Eleven2001

George Clooney and a brilliant ensemble pull off an impossible heist with style, intelligence, and humour. It's about the plan, the execution, and the pleasure of watching impossibly cool people work together.

But The plot is deliberately slight, and if you're looking for emotional stakes or character depth, you'll go hungry.

Nayak: The Real Hero2001

Anil Kapoor plays an actor forced to play a corrupt politician for a day, discovering that the role is more real than his actual life. It's a clever, energetic meditation on performance and power.

But It wears its metaphor very visibly, and the social commentary can feel heavy-handed by modern standards.

Johnny Gaddaar2007

A crisp, twisty crime thriller with multiple betrayals and no one to root for—everyone's corrupt, nobody's safe, and the rug gets pulled out repeatedly. It's nasty in the best way.

But The characters are deliberately unsympathetic, which some find refreshing and others find exhausting.

Gangs of Wasseypur - Part 12012

Anurag Kashyap's sprawling, profane crime epic about feuding families in coal country. Raw, brutal, funny, and genuinely surprising. Two films that demand to be watched back-to-back.

But It's extremely violent, the regional politics can feel opaque to outsiders, and Kashyap's style is deliberately rough rather than polished.

Padmaavat2018

A historical epic about power, honour, and the collision between an invading empire and a queen's defiance. Visually stunning, dramatically overblown, genuinely operatic in its scope.

But The runtime is almost three hours, and the second half is repetitive. The controversy around its release overshadowed what's actually on screen.

The Bourne Identity2002

Like Don, the central tension is a man forced to be someone he's not—but where Don must play a role to survive a specific mission, Bourne is literally searching for who he actually is while being hunted as the person he was forced to become.

Matt Damon as a man with no memory, hunted by the agency that created him, assembling fragments of his identity while staying one step ahead of execution. It's brutal, visceral, and minimalist in a way that modern action films rarely are.

But It's relentlessly grim with no breathing room, and the handheld camera during action sequences makes it harder to follow than more classical blocking.

Vidhaata1982

Vidhaata is the Bollywood prototype for what Don became—an innocent man trapped in a criminal identity, forced to navigate a world he never chose. Don is Vidhaata remade for a newer era with bigger budgets and faster cuts.

An '80s Rajesh Khanna thriller about an honest man framed for a crime he didn't commit, forced into a criminal underworld to clear his name. It's a direct ancestor to Don's DNA—the same moral knots, the same engine of deception and survival.

But The print quality varies wildly depending on where you find it, and the pacing is deliberately old-fashioned. It requires the patience of a viewer who likes the eighties on their own terms.