Seven days of 70s Bollywood: Don

[This post is part of a week long blog-a-thon, masterminded by Beth of Beth Loves Bollywood, paying tribute to the films of 1970s Bollywood. Be sure to check out the other participating blogs for more about the best decade ever in the history of Indian film-making!]

Don (1978)
Directed by Chandra Barot
Written by Javed Akhtar & Salim Khan
Starring: Amitabh Bachchan, Zeenat Aman, Pran, Iftekhar
Music by Kalyani-Anandji

For many a ferangi viewer, Don was the gateway drug into 70s Bollywood. And while some were later disappointed to find that not all Hindi films from the period borrowed so liberally from American blaxploitation films, or had heroines quite so kick-ass as Zeenat Aman's Roma, many more found much that lived up to the promise of that initial dose. After all, the badassery of Bachchan, the killer funk of Kalyanji-Anandji, and the mad convolutions of masala appeared to have been in near inexhaustible supply during that decade. Of course, seldom did they come together quite so irresistibly as in this sure-fire little addiction starter.

Read Keith's review of Don at Teleport City.