London Dreams

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.

Whilst the film has an interesting enough premise the execution is pretty much diabolical.

With the film being effectively developed over a ten year period, you would have thought that for a start the screenplay would have been a lot better. It really is weak with some barely creditable plot developments, which at times do chronically insult the viewer. I mean were they really serious about the last twenty minutes of the film? Atrocious!

The film is horribly miscast. Ajay Devgan as a young man trying to get a break in the music business? Okay he tries, but really this needed one of the up and comers or a completely new face. Salman Khan is at his usual overacting worst here and fails to convince at any level. Poor Asin gets stuck with in a "leading" role with basically nothing to do other than being the token shatteringly gorgeous love interest which for all the limited time on screen could have been competently handled by any number of Bollywood supporting actresses.

On a technical level there is not much horrendously wrong here, but it could and should have been so much better. The cinematography is good although the editing could have perhaps been a little tighter. Music was okay but not as good as it needed to be since it was the whole point of the film. Choreography was very average: I am still in two minds as to whether it should have been stripped out of the film completely or whether it needed to be more dazzling to support the music.

Overall London Dreams is a very large disappointment as it could and should have been so much better than what it ended up being. A hugely wasted opportunity.

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.

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.

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.