Udita Jhunjhunwala 

Don Muthuswami 

Director: Ashim Samanta
Cast: Mithun Chakraborty, Hrishita Bhatt, Rohit Roy
Rating: *

The slim premise of this film is that a notorious don decides to reform in order to appease his dead father’s spirit. Mithun Chakraborty plays the South Indian former Don Muthuswami whose process of reformation includes learning Urdu, wearing designer suits, converting his bumbling henchmen into butlers and being referred to as Sir Muthuswami. He’s also obsessed with marrying off his daughter Sanjana (Hrishita Bhatt). Reminds you of aspects of the Sylvester Stallone starrer Oscar doesn’t it?

Suitors for Sanjana are assessed, jewels and cash are confused with the maid’s bag of lacy underwear (clearly rather well-paid), some conmen want to outwit Muthuswami and trick him out of his wealth. All this action takes place in one gaudy house, with every character shouting louder than the next, accentuated by sounds of flatulence. Aiyyo!

All in all, this film is testing and clichéd, with stereotypes galore. The only redeeming feature is Chakraborty’s energetic performance as Muthuswami, which might appeal to his diehard fans, but it’s not enough to compensate for a juvenile script and the soap opera costumes, histrionics, direction and production values.