London Dreams

A rags-to-riches cautionary tale straight off the Bollywood assembly-line, "London Dreams" is a lengthy, superficial account of an orphaned Indian émigré who finds that life as a rising British pop star isn't all it's cracked up to be.

This cliché-ridden film pads out its interminable two-and-a-half-hours-plus running time with overheated melodrama, soul-searing angst, bloated musical numbers, and cutesy slapstick routines. And, of course, it's overflowing with that kind of self-congratulatory smugness that seems to be the hallmark of so many of the commercial films coming out of India these days.

The movie does take us to many colorful London locales – befitting a wide-eyed tourist from abroad - but one could get pretty much the same effect using Google street view and not have to put up with all the drama.

I have been waiting for London Dreams since the days Rajkumar Santoshi was the director, the movie kept on delaying, and was eventually shelved. Later, Vipul Shah picked it up and the movie started rolling. Because of the name Vipul Shah (Aankhen, Namastey London, Waqt) and the wonderful cast of Salman Khan, Ajay Devgn and Asin was known, I was expecting a spectacular musical.

The movie did give me a satisfying feeling, though it missed out on a few things, unfortunately. The first half is very entertaining and keeps the viewers interested, the climax is also very gripping. Just the ending spoiled it all, it feels like Vipul Shah forced the movie to end, it could have been so much better.

Performance wise Salman Khan stood out once again, Salman carried the whole movie on his shoulders, he was very entertaining and very convincing. Asin looked beautiful and delivered a good performance, though her role was kind of small. Ajay Devgn was wonderful, the intensity of his character was visible in his very expressive eyes during the whole film.

Everyone thinks the music of this film is very weak, I disagree because I feel the movie is good, not great though. Barso, Mann ko ati bhave, Khwab jo, are foot tapping. The Wembley song performance by Ajay could have been a different composition.

The defect of the movie only lies within the last 7 minutes of the movie, which is such a pity, because I really liked the initial 2 and a half hours.

You should go for this movie if you want to see gripping performances, great cinematography and emotions. Don't watch the movie if you hate movies which have very bad endings!

Overall I would rate this movie 8 out of 10, because of superb Salman Khan, Ajay Devgn, Asin, the direction to a certain extent, and the great locales.

Vipul Shah once again returns with his uniform Punjabi flavour & the India-London theme. Taking another step ahead of his "Namaste London", this time he impressively comes up with a good take on pop singers and the back stage drama in their over famous lives. But in an otherwise well directed, intense and emotional drama, he is sadly not accompanied by an equally enjoyable musical score (as in Namaste London), which was much needed by the subject and its script. So minus the songs and uninspiring music, here we have a well directed movie with some entertaining & enlightening moments and a worth watching climax (again subtracting the last song).

With a story about changing relationships between two childhood friends, "London Dreams" starts with a notable opening dialogue from Ajay Devgan and then moves into the flashback of the same overused fields of Punjab. After a few introductory scenes, a song and 20 minutes into the movie, enters Salman Khan, who simply sets the screen on fire with his superb effortless acting and hilarious comic timing. From here on the film takes off in actual terms giving way to a brilliant in-flight sequence where Salman interacts with the passengers, an airhostess and the security men in his own impeccable style. And then the first half ends with a well conceived on-stage sequence, which successfully excites you enough to see the rest of it.

Post interval the narration moves into more serious matters, showcasing the cut-throat competition between artists, the feeling of jealousy among themselves and the evil games they play to taste success in their professional lives. The emotional conflict between Ajay and Salman further leads to a completely unexpected and splendidly conceived climax which gives new meaning to the spirit of friendship between two artists and childhood friends. In fact the climax sequence of Salman and Ajay at the Railway Station rightly deserves to be applauded for its superb writing and enlightening execution. Salman straight away wins the heart of every single viewer in the theater, coming up with a completely unimaginable solution to the problem existing between the two friends and gives a new meaning to the "Art of Forgiving". But a whole song after their re-union was not creative or intelligent from any angle and the movie should have ended right at the Railway Station.

Performance wise Salman comes at the top with a great act, which includes comedy, emotion, tragedy and even trauma of a drug addict. Ajay Devgan gives another intense and explosive performance different from his current famous comedy movies. He looks dashing in his rough performer getup, but lacks the youthfulness and body flexibility of a rock artist. In other words, he seems to be quite stiff in his stage acts and moreover his self torture scenes were also not needed at all. They give you the feeling of Deja vu, like the one seen in Amitabh's "Mahaan". Asin is breath-taking gorgeous and looks much better than "Ghajini". Her short Sita-Gita act was enjoyable only because she looked equally beautiful in both kind of dresses.Om Puri is cool and calm in his few scenes and notable dialogues but Ranvijay Singh gives an OK performance in his debut movie. He looked more confident in his "Roadies" act on the small screen. Aditya Roy Kapur, as Ranvijay's brother is impressive & Brinda Parekh repeats her act of "Corporate".

It can be said that director Vipul Shah is back with a commendable effort talking about the ugly side of human characters who happen to be stage artists in the current script. But the theme is equally relevant in any business form in this cunning monetary world. Vipul realistically directs few praiseworthy sequences in the movie like the one where Salman transforms two lines of a song in different kind of compositions having different tastes and the worth watching emotional climax scene at the railway station. However, along with these well directed ones, he also delivers a questionable sequence, when all the four members of the band except Ajay freely move out of the Wembley Stadium's green rooms to the lonely, dark backyards, breaking all the security circles, on the very night of their much awaited performance.

Unfortunately, Vipul majorly faulted on his choice of compositions for a project which entirely talks about a musical band and its members. For such a script based on music itself, the songs and score by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy is too feeble to get register.In fact the most important song of the movie, which the band plays at their night in the Wembley Stadium, is completely uninspiring and boring. On the other hand the cinematography captures the essence of the subject superbly. The stage sequences and the Wembley have been shot real well along with some great computer graphics.

Conversely, I wondered that if a project is around Punjab and also requires a great amount of Punjabi language, music and feel to be incorporated into it, then why not they hire some actual Punjabi Professionals for the job, who can rightly guide them about the Punjabi dialogues, their pronunciations and the Punjabi melodies in the songs. For instance, Salman keeps on calling Ajay as "Bhara" which means brother, with a faulty pronunciation.

Summing up, I would like to say the "London Dreams" just missed out to become a masterpiece flick based on a good subject. It is Salman's movie all the way, who will appeal to everyone from a city professional to a village farmer. Besides him, the movie and its theme will also appeal to wannabe artists from the younger generation. But it cannot be called a finely polished product as it has many unwanted songs and scenes which could have been easily edited out. And I wish it had some good melodious songs which would have taken the brilliant performances in the movie to another level altogether.

This movie is awful- it really is. And so unrealistic. How does a guy go from being a street performer to suddenly creating a sudden rock concert in Trafalgar Square and then getting a multi city tour with no exposure or experience and getting a swanky apartment.

If the story is unbelievable the acting is even worse. Ajay Devgan doesn't look like a rock star- he can barely dance and yet he's supposed to be a music God. And then you have Salman Khan- a man with so much natural musical talent which he ignores in order to womanize his way through life. His acting is supremely bad- the scene where he goes through the metal detector screeching like a retarded hyena was so annoying that I can't understand how it could pass for comedy.

This is a terrible movie that has only one conclusion: don't watch and if you're given a copy throw it away...or burn it.

Another Vipul Shah Movie after hits like Waqt,Namaste London, Singh Is King. In theater we people had lots of expectation from this one, Starting is dashing which shows the bond between two friends Arjun(Ajay) and Mannu (Salman). How they grew up, choose their career, maintained friendship, their sacrifice for each other. Story line is perfect, acting is excellent, direction is good, but the movie lacks in the freshness, music and specially confused ending. Salman is at its best, and tries hard to make us laugh, even impressive in emotional role too. Asin was okay as an confused girl who didn't decide she loves Salman or not. Aditya Roy Kapur and Ranvijay are good in supporting role. Ajay Devgan was not upto mark, as he plays the negative role in the movie, but he was clearly unpresentable in the role of a Jealous Musician and silent lover. Though he does an excellent work in Deewangee as an silent lover and musician, but here he spoils the movie. Music was also bad expect 1-2 track. I will give 6/10 to this movie. Salman is the only saving grace of the movie.