''The Don'' is a 2006 Indian

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam was des ...

-language

action thriller film Action film is a film genre in which the protagonist is thrust into a series of events that typically involve violence and physical feats. The genre tends to feature a mostly resourceful hero struggling against incredible odds, which include life ...

directed by

Shaji Kailas Shaji Kailas (born 8 February 1965) is an Indian film director and screenwriter known for his works in Malayalam cinema. Shaji got a breakthrough with the comedy film ''Dr. Pasupathy'' (1990). He is best known for his action films with mainl ...

from a story written by J. Pallassery. It stars an

ensemble cast In a dramatic production, an ensemble cast is one that is composed of multiple principal actors and performers who are typically assigned roughly equal amounts of screen time.Random House: ensemble acting Linked 2013-07-17 Structure In contrast to ...

Dileep Gopalakrishnan Padmanabhan Pillai, better known by his stage name Dileep, is an Indian actor, producer, and businessman who predominantly works in the Malayalam film industry. He has acted in more than 150 films and has won several awards, inc ...

Lal Lal ( fa, لعل, hi, लाल, bn, লাল, ur, لال, ps, Lāl) is an Indo-Iranian surname and given name, which means "darling", "precious", or "beloved", from the Sanskrit ''lala'' ("cajoling").''Dictionary of American Family Names''F ...

, Sai Kumar,

Gopika Girly Anto, credited by her screen name Gopika (born 1 February 1984) is an Indian actress, who has predominantly starred in Malayalam films.Starting her career as a model, she ventured into acting with the Malayalam film, ''Pranayamanithooval'' ...

Shammi Thilakan Shammi Thilakan is an Indian actor and dubbing artist who is active in Malayalam films. He is the son of veteran actor Thilakan. He lent his voice for Napoleon in ''Devasuram'', Prem Nazir in ''Kadathanadan Ambadi'' and for Nassar in ''Ghaza ...

Bheeman Raghu Bheeman Raghu (born 6 October 1953) is an Indian actor, singer, dancer, former politician and police officer (retired) who appears mainly in Malayalam films and is best known for his villainous and comedy roles. In a career spanning over three ...

Baburaj Mohammad Sabir Baburaj was an Indian music composer. He is often credited for the renaissance of Malayalam film music. Baburaj has rendered music to many evergreen Malayalam film songs. Early years Baburaj was born on 9 March 1929 in Kozhikod ...

and

Chitra Shenoy Chitra Shenoy is an Indian actress and producer in South Indian movies and television series. She has acted in more than 600 films in Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Tulu, and Hindi. She is known as the 'young mother' in the Kannada film ind ...

. ''The Don'' was released on 5 September 2006 where it received negative reviews from critics and became a

box-office bomb A box-office bomb, or box-office disaster, is a film that is unprofitable or considered highly unsuccessful during its theatrical run. Although any film for which the production, marketing, and distribution costs combined exceed the revenue after ...

Premise

Unnikrishnan aka Salaam becomes the most trusted man to Kasim. However, when Kasim is found dead Salaam is blamed, where he sets out to prove his innocence.

Cast

as Unnikrishnan / Salaam *

as Kasim Baba * Saikumar as Advocate Subramaniam Swami *

Maniyanpilla Raju Sudheer Kumar (born 20 April 1955), better known by his stage name Maniyanpilla Raju (Malayalam:മണിയൻപിള്ള രാജു), is an Indian actor and producer who works in Malayalam film industry.Harisree Asokan Harisree Ashokan is an Indian actor and director who is known for his comedy roles in Malayalam films. Ashokan has acted in more than 200 Malayalam films. He started his career as a mimicry artist in the troupe Harisree and then worked in Kalab ...

as Salim, Unni's friend *

as Shahida *

as Baba's wife *

as Sikandar *

as Abootty *

Kazan Khan Kazan Khan is an Indian actor who has predominantly appeared in Malayalam and Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called i ...

as Sharon Bhai *

Lalu Alex Lalu Alex is an Indian actor who works in Malayalam cinema. In a career spanning four decades, Lalu Alex has acted over 250 movies and is known for his character roles, comic roles and antagonistic roles in Malayalam movie industry. Lalu Alex ...

as Superintendent Vishwanathan *

Spadikam George George Antony, popularly credited as Spadikam George is an Indian actor and former Kerala state Police officer who primarily works in Malayalam films. He came to the limelight with the 1995 film ''Spadikam'', after which his name was preceded b ...

as D.Y.S.P Anirudhan *

as Sulaiman, Baba's nephew *

Subair Subair (25 May 1962 – 18 August 2010) was an Indian actor in Malayalam cinema industry. He was part of Malayalam films for nearly two decades and acted in around 200 films. Personal life Subair was born in the village of Chokli, Thalasserry ...

as Koya Sahib *

Sreejith Ravi Sreejith Ravi (born 19 May 1976) is an Indian actor who appears predominantly in Malayalam films and also in Tamil films. He is the son of actor T. G. Ravi. Early life Sreejith is the son of actor and industrialist T. G. Ravi and V. K. Subhad ...

as Vasu, Unni's friend *

Anil Murali Anil Murali (12 April 1964 – 30 July 2020) was an Indian actor in Malayalam cinema. He acted in more than 200 films. He started out in the film industry as a villain before later taking on character roles. He died on 30 July 2020, as a re ...

as Joji, Unni's friend *

Augustine Augustine of Hippo ( , ; la, Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430), also known as Saint Augustine, was a theologian and philosopher of Berbers, Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia (Roman pr ...

as Kabir Bhai *

Sukumari Sukumari Amma (6 October 1940 – 26 March 2013) was an Indian actress best known for her works in Malayalam and Tamil films. In a career spanning more than five decades, She has appeared in more than 2500 films predominantly in Malayalam, Tam ...

as Devakiamma

Production

This film marks the first collaboration between Shaji Kailas and Dileep. Pooja was initially considered to be the heroine, but the role went to

Soundtrack

The music was composed by

Mohan Sithara Mohan Sithara is an Indian music composer. He received the Kerala State Film Award for the Best Music Director (2009) for the songs in Priyanandan's ''Soofi Paranja Kadha''. Since 1986 he has been an active musician in the Malayalam film industr ...

. *"Chandanatheril" -

M. G. Sreekumar Malabar Gopalan Sreekumar (born 25 May 1957), better known as M.G. Sreekumar is an Indian playback singer, composer, music producer, television presenter and film producer, who works predominantly in Malayalam cinema. He has sung more than 2000 ...

Jyotsna Radhakrishnan Jyotsna Radhakrishnan (born 5 September 1986) is an Indian playback singer. She predominantly works in 12+ languages including Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu and Kannada. She has sung more than 1000 songs. She is based in Thrissur, Kerala. Jyotsna g ...

(lyrics by Vayalar Sarathchandra Varma) *"The Don (Theme)"

Release

''The Don'' was scheduled to release before

Onam Onam ( ) is an annual Indian harvest festival celebrated predominantly by the Hindus of Kerala. A major annual event for Keralites, it is the official festival of the state and includes a spectrum of cultural events. Onam commemorates Vamana ...

, before the release was pushed to the first week of September.

Critical response

Paresh C. Palicha of ''

Rediff.com Rediff.com (stylized as ''rediff.com'') is an Indian news, information, entertainment and shopping web portal. It was founded in 1996. It is headquartered in Mumbai, with offices in Bangalore, New Delhi and New York City. , it had more than 300 e ...

'' gave the film a rating of one out of five stars and wrote "The Don is simply a hotchpotch of many action-drama films, clumsily put together". A critic from ''Webindia123'' wrote that "It may be better for Dileep to stop trying to become an action hero". A critic from ''Indiaglitz'' stated that "The screenplay of Pallaserry offers nothing new. And with the song which arrives an hour into the proceedings, the tempo slackens". Unni Nair of ''Nowrunning'' said that "The Don is not his haji Kailas'worst effort yet".

Future

Dileep and Shaji Kailas were reported to collaborate again for another film produced by Dileep, but it did not materialise.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Don, The 2006 films 2006 action films Indian action films Indian gangster films 2000s Malayalam-language films Films directed by Shaji Kailas