"Don" characterisation

Hi all,

        I was disappointed that many people do not understand the character of Don very well, and many films (in Telugu) portray him as bad person, and have dialogues like "He is good for good people, and for bad people, he is Don". Don is just a bad person for a simple viewer, but that is not the gist of his character.

        Don is a survival specialist, not a simple bad guy. And being bad and being cut-throat is all "the way he does it". Consider an orphan, having no means to survive in a bad world (for him), with so many people around him trying to steal from his life. He tries to survive by playing the game, and becomes an expert at it. Once an expert, and once a bad guy, there is no way turning back. And now, suddenly, "what he is" is more important than "how he is".

        Consider the "Don I" that Shah Rukh did. He did not kill like a machine, he just made his way through people. And how he did it, very well, brilliantly. He killed only people that are ought to be killed, for his own survival. He implicated and got arrested the others, and just used the rest. There is no way you can blame such a person, if you understand what he is, to some extent. Only problem is, how you can understand him, if you stand in his way. Like he said, "The biggest mistake of Don's enemy, is being Don's enemy".

        "Don - II" is a little hogwash when compared to the first part. They just did not change the characterisation, still he is a survival guy. But the theme got diluted like crazy. I did not especially like the lack of a suitable adversary for him, it would have been better at least, if Priyanka anticipated some of his moves, but could not match up to him completely. I guess it can be better than that.

        Let us discuss what I said here, and see what is a good argument vs, what is not.