Blu-ray Review: Don Seenu

In his feature debut, director Gopichand Malineni plays it safe, taking film star Ravi Teja and placing him in the middle of a well-orchestrated masala genre mash-up and letting the star do his thing.  Unfortunately for casual Western viewers, some of the references will go whizzing over their heads, I don't think it detracts too much from the film's overall enjoyability, but there are a few jokes that won't land because of it.  However, the good mix of action, comedy, a couple of catchy songs featuring a couple of pretty girls, and some unusual twists by Western standards should make this film a fun diversion for anyone.

Ravi Teja stars as Seenu, excuse me, DON Seenu, a guy who is obsessed with the classic Hindi gangster film Don, starring Amitabh Bachchan.  The opening segment of the film shows Seenu as a young boy, probably 7 or 8 years old, watching Don in the theater for the thirty first time.  He becomes so enamored of the film that he dedicates his life to becoming a Don, going so far as to refuse to answer to any name other than Don Seenu.  If you cross his path, you'd better remember that, because those who don't are in for a severe thrashing.  After a few cutesy scenes of the 7 year old Seenu playing gangster with his friends, we see him running away from home, misunderstood and mistreated.

Cut to present day, Seenu reappears in Hyderabad and contacts his childhood buddies, telling them to meet him at the bus depot, where they are greeted by the grown Seenu, who makes his grand entrance by throwing the bus conductor through the door of his bus and at least 20 yards across the pavement after having insulted Seenu by forgetting the "Don" on his bus ticket.  This is the first taste of the bad-ass that Seenu has become.  Upon reconnecting with his friends he informs them that he is now ready to become the Don of all India. 

Seenu hatches a plan to put a beating on the highest profile gangster he can find to get the attention of the local crime bosses, in the hopes of joining one of their gangs and climbing the ranks.  Out at a bar, he finds an appropriately sleazy and sinister grease ball to pound and goes to town, wrecking the bad guy, his buddies, and the bar in the process.  Seenu gets the attention he seeks, and goes to work for a local Don as an enforcer, of sorts...

The first big job he gets is to break up a rival crime boss's sister's wedding to a major industrialist by making the sister fall in love with him.  A battle of the sexes ensues as Seenu, and Deepthi, played by Shriya Saran, chase each other across Europe in a typically filmi way.  Seenu manipulates Deepthi, who attempts to manipulate him right back, the only thing is that Seenu is always two steps ahead of her, and she can never quite get the upper hand.  On this jaunt in the guise of a fashion photo shoot, they are followed by Seenu's friend, played by Ali, and Deepthi's friend Priya, played by Anjana Sukhani, who both provide comic relief and an audience for Seenu and Deepthi to confide in, and provide exposition.

The plot meanders for a while, and eventually Seenu is romancing both Deepthi and Priya, without them being aware, in an effort to play to battling Dons against one another.  While the Dons spend all of their time and energy battling each other in an increasingly complicated game of oneupsmanship, somehow Seenu keeps everything in check and is always in complete control of everyone's destiny. 

Describing the plot any further will only serve to give away the good bits, so I'll move onto what I thought worked and didn't about Don Seenu.

Pros:  The action in Don Seenu is well-choreographed, fun, explosive, and pretty well acted.  Typically Telugu films are pretty cartoony in this area, and while some of the people getting beaten certainly do defy the laws of physics at times, it is not as absurd feeling as it usually is in these kinds of films.  Don Seenu thrashes the bad guys with ease every chance he gets, I don't think that he ever even takes a punch through the entire film, but this is also to be expected with this type of masala film.  Ravi Teja seems to do all of the fighting on the film, and he sells it.  For all of the fantastic elements of the film, Ravi Teja somehow manages to ground these excesses with his enthusiasm. 

Ravi Teja is another big selling point of Don Seenu.  I'd never seen one of his films before, and from all of the other reviews I've seen, this is apparently par for the course.  If that is the case, bring 'em on!  Ravi Teja performs with an intensity and genuine enthusiasm that is contagious.  Whether he is dancing his gangly ass off during a song, kicking the asses of people who cross his path, or simply pretending to be mute in a particularly absurd moment, he sells it and he is fun to watch.  None of the other actors make nearly as big of an impression as he does, and this film has a couple of Telugu stars that should make an impression, but fall mostly flat in their performances.

Cons:  There are a few places that fall short of the mark during Don Seenu, and the most glaring to me is the performance of Shriya Saran as Deepthi.  When she is introduced in Germany, her character is absolutely repulsive.  She is garish, stuck-up, and arrogant.  I can't fault Shriya for that, that is how the character is written; I can however say that Shriya doesn't appear able to act her way out of a paper bag, and the horrendous dubbing done for both of the girls (neither of whom are typically Telugu film actresses) does them no favors.

Then there are the things that will leave Western viewers with their heads spinning, will barely cause viewers familiar with Indian films to blink.  We think we can see plot twists coming, and the film will very suddenly change tones, or make a 180 degree turn leaving viewers confused.  Worst of all, the film changes its plot completely in the final 10 minutes.  Like I said, Indian viewers are used to this and can roll with the punches, but many Western viewers, myself included to a degree, will feel cheated.  I spent two and a half hours invested in the story being told only to discover that it was all a part of another story that hadn't even been hinted at.  Ah, the conventions of south Indian films are strange.

On the whole I really enjoyed Don Seenu, once I was able to wrap my head around the plot twists and simply accept the ridiculous climax and denouement.  The fights were really great, the songs were mostly pretty good, and the colors and sounds were outstanding.  I can see myself revisiting this one more than a couple of times, and for a film that is two hours and forty five minutes long, that is really saying something!

The Disc:

Bhavani DVD have provided Don Seenu with an amazing audio and visual treatment on all-region Blu-ray.  The colors are eyeball meltingly vivid; these colors are not found in nature, and if you see them, grab a Geiger counter quick!  The image is also tack sharp from beginning to end, the cinematography really shines on this Blu-ray disc several ways that DVD could never even aspire to match.  The audio performance is just as impressive.  Bhavani have provided a Telugu 5.1 LPCM Uncompressed audio track that is outstanding.  The bass is full, and the dialogue is clear, the audio effects are very solid.  The surrounds don't get nearly the workout they did in Simha, but I'm very confident that what I hear on Don Seenu's audio track is exactly what I am meant to hear.

Unfortunately, there are no extras on this disc.

Overall:

Don Seenu is a fun ride, and while it may require a flow chart at times to keep track of what is going on and who is gaming who, it did nothing to diminish my enjoyment of this highly entertaining masala film.  In fact, for someone wanting to understand what exactly masala films look like, this would be a great place to start.  It has the action, comedy, drama, romance, music, and excitement that is typically south Indian and really cannot be found in other film industries!