London Dreams

It's a bad season for Bollywood with all the big releases with a massive hype surrounding proving to be duds at the box office. London Dreams is no exception to that. Let's dissect it... It's all about chasing your dreams and how far will you go to achieve it. Sounds impressive right? But unfortunately the film is not.

Arjun (Ajay Devgan) is an aspiring musician who wants to make it big someday. His dream is to perform in Wembley stadium in front of a cheering 90,000 audience calling out his name. He is joined by two brothers, Zoheb & Wasim (debutants Aditya Roy & Ranvijay) and a ravishing Priya (Asin). Together they form "London Dreams" their dream band. After impressing the chief of a record company, they become overnight sensations. Arjun is secretly in love with Priya which he doesn't want to reveal till he achieves his goal. Arjun then brings his childhood friend Manjit Khosla aka Mannu (Salman Khan), a carefree flirtatious guy who has got no ambitions in life, to join their band. Mannu is a trained musician and a real talent for whom later Arjun become envious for Mannu's superior skills and his affair with Priya. Arjun with the help of Zoheb plans to blight Mannu. What happens next forms the rest of the movies.

Coming to the technical aspects, we feel only the shadow of Vipul Amritlal Sha whom we have admired in Namaste London. Felt like he simply visualized the screenplay. To cut it short, a glorified cameraman. Screenplay by Suresh Nair dulls even though it has its moments. Defined in a predictable fashion, the screenplay bore you to stiff. Camera work was awesome in capturing the beauty of London. It's the only entertaining part while watching songs.

Few songs are hummable while others are passable noisy fare. Ajay was the one who stole the show with his negative character. Salman is monotonous and he irks you. Asin is forgettable and I don't that she will make it big in Bollywood. Aditya Roy is impressive while Ranvijay is strictly OK. Brinda as the bitch is what we have seen in innumerable movies. Ompuri is ongoing with the proceedings. I don't want to pen down about the flaws as it will be a herculean task.

Finally let me put it simple and straight, London Dreams is a soulless movie which you may better enjoy on DVD.

London Dreams plays out like a classical Cain and Abel type story, where two brothers, one jealous of the other for his talent and recognition, plots the downfall against the other behind his back in betrayal most foul. Arjun has a dream, and that is to take his music to London, and play at the renowned Wembley stadium, where his grandfather had failed in his time and returned to India a broken man. He spends his early teenage life honing his musical skills, and ever ready to sniff out any opportunity to scale the music ladder until his goal is reached. His is a singular mind obsessed with the single goal, so much so that he's willing to self-flagellate (!) himself when his mind gets swayed by Priya and the chance for romance, or any other distractions that crosses his path that day actually.

Ajay Devgn plays Arjun with enough menace and envy to make him believable as a man who would go to great lengths and at any costs to ensure his road to glory is not jeopardized. Salman Khan's Mannu on the other hand, is blessed with great musical talent without even trying, and while Arjun sees this as an advantage to be gained should he bring Mannu back to London and join his band, little did he realize that Mannu's country boy demeanour would start to win the fans over, as well as Priya. There are plenty of scenes which set up this innocent usurping of another's thunder, and the decisions that come to spark off the entire turn of events just after the intermission.

As a musical film, somehow the songs and dance sequences didn't really stand out, although in general they weren't that bad, but not too memorable as well, other than the pulsating number first performed at Trafalgar Square. Salman Khan proves why he's one of the three King Khans of Bollywood through his rendition of a simple boy with simple pleasures, with plenty of cheekiness combined with great comic timing to bring in some laughs. That airplane scene was a classic light hearted touch in what was a dark tale about bringing down a best friend using the cruelest of methods and exploiting the weakness of another for no good benefit.

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.

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.

Story: Ajay Devgan, a man with a big dream, is joined by three people who become his band members. His best friend, Salman Khan, enters, threatening to destroy Ajay's biggest achievement. How Ajay handles this challenge forms the rest of the story.

Analysis:

Characters:

Ajay Devgan, as the main protagonist, seems a bit old for this role but nevertheless does justice. He is neither portrayed as a hero nor villain but as an ordinary man who believes in hard work and dedication to work his way up the ladder. His character represents the motto: "You can achieve anything if you put your mind to it".

Salman Khan, as the friend, is jovially and carefree. He represents the minority of people who have talent without effort. His soft nature is contrasted with Ajay's hard one, giving a ying-yang feel. As a actor, Salman was amazing, easily stealing Ajay's thunder.

Asin plays a girl from a strict Iyer family, who loves dancing. Her character was unnecessary as it was not properly etched out. As a backup dancer, she easily could have just been a random person getting some camera attention. Her presence was overshadowed by both Ajay's and Salman's relationship, making her forgettable.

Rannvijay Singh Singha & Aditya Roy Kapur are brothers in the movie who parallel Ajay and Salman's relationship. Their characters reinforce the struggle between Ajay and Salman. Both were good, with one sharing the same dreams as Ajay and the other trying to hold the band together. Like Asin, they were not necessary to the script. They did not add any substance.

Om Puri plays Ajay's uncle, is also seen as the man with wisdom. He is a voice that guides Ajay throughout his journey. He does not add anything to the film.

Storyline/Screenplay: The concept was good. It was something different and the emotions raw. There were some scenes that showed what humans, in order to remove perceived obstacles, are capable of.

Songs: The songs by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy were another highlight of the film. Soft rock mixed with different styles of music really showcased the talent of the trio. It proves that not every song has to be romantic to be a hit. A couple of minor nuance was that sometimes Salman and Ajay were not in sync when singing at the concerts (maybe it was the copy) and sometimes the voices between the two would change even though the background singer was the same.

Other Technical Aspects: The direction was done beautifully, the editing good. Cinematography was amazing. All three aspects really captured the emotions that were portrayed. The movie was fast-paced and cleanly portrayed the struggles, both emotionally and physically, between all the actors.

Final Product: This movie was good but has a selective audience.