As the radio belts out ads for the new Don, we hear Shah Rukh Khan speak that famous dialogue, “Don ko pakadna mushkil hi nahin, namumkin hai”. Of course, not half as effectively as Amitabh did in the original (that dialogue itself makes me feel that thw new Don will NOT measure up to the original).
But it got me thinking to the so many great dialogues that have become virtual folklore with Indians. Of course, Sholay had 3-1/2 hours of those, and one can give tons of examples from that film:
1. Ye haath mujhe de de thakur
2. Basanti, tumhara naam kya hai
3. Hum Angrez ke zamane ke jailer hai
4. Maut tumhare sar pe mandra rahi hai
5. Itna sannata kyu hai, bhai
etc. etc. etc.
The list is quite endless with regards to Sholay.
But there have been others. Interestingly, MANY of these have been associated with Amitabh. They had some tremendous scripts for him. He must owe a lot of his success to Salim-Javed, Manmohan Desai, Yash Chopra, Ramesh Sippy, etc. for some awesome scripts, dialogues, etc.
Some of the gems that we can remember are:
1. Mere paas Ma hai (yes, Shashi Kapoor spoke this, but made Amitabh famous; Deewar – what a film, man!!)
2. Main wohi Shantidevi ka beta hoon, aur tum ho mere najayaz baap
3. Aaj to bahot khush honge tum
4. Jao pehle us aadmi ka sign leke aao… Bhai, tum sign karoge ke nahin..
5. Aisa to aadmi life mein do-ich time bhagta hai
Often, simple words, but spoke well, crucial scenes in the film, and ended up ultimately, to become folklore. Repeated by kids and others in routine talk, spoofed thousands of times in other films or on late night comedy shows, etc.
Even today when I hear SRK say, “Don ko pakadna mushkil hi nahin, namumkin hai.. “, it gives me goosebumps, remembering the original. What longevity.. thats what great films are. Leave a mark for years after its release.
Random Musings 
On the last bit, about SRK saying Amitabh’s dialogs … it just does not flow well. I don’t know why, but if it was anyone else acting as the angry young man, I would have maybe thought of seeing the film, but with SRK as Amitabh, I am going to avoid it. Completely.
Even with Priyanka Chopra as Zeenat 😉
Yeah, I guess, if it had to be redone, from an angry man kind of role perspective, the guys who could potentially do justice to this, at this time, could be Ajay Devgan and Abhishek?! The film (Don) though, if you remember, has two aspects to Amitabh’s role- he was in double role. And one was a bit of a gaanvala banarasi babu, and the other, a sleek suave Don! I presume, Abhishek could combine his Bunty aur Babli / Yuva role with his Bluffmaster one, to come up with this one!
Interesting to read that Ajay Devgan is to play Veeru in the new Sholay. More about it in another post.