so i caught the 1978 film "Don" which made amitabh bachchan the star he is today. it’s difficult to describe the 70s sheik which comes to play in this movie. giant bowties. heists involving fake beards. and a cameo by barbara streisand.
it has the aesthetic of a 70s blacksploitation movie, but with new and exciting ethnic-oppression issues! bachchan plays dual roles, a cool, smooth talking gangster, and a betel-leaf chewing yokel with a lilting dialect. betel-leaves are a mild stimulant common to india, and the habit is actually more disgusting than chewing tobacco.
incidentally the remake to "Don" came out this year and it includes jazzed-up martial arts sequences and a slightly less appalling version of that last dance sequence.
