London Dreams

Arjun portrayed by Ajay Devgan and Salman Khan as Manu are childhood friends living in native rural suburbs. AJAY DEVGAN /ARJUN possesses deep passion for music and dreams of becoming a musical sensation and performs at London’s Wembley Stadium but his family has revulsion for music because it was the reason for his grand father’s demise.

Vipul Amrutlal Shah has no doubt presented this musical film on a large canvass. The techniques are on higher side, but the emotions are relatively sparse, and this is the place where precise balance was required.

Any how, Vipul Shah did extend appropriate time for character development and he captures the sensitive moments with confidence. Human beings unavoidable trait Jealousy bit by bit creeps in ARJUN /AJAY DEVGAN and Interweaved scheme devised solely aimed at destroying his best friend, turned contender; and events that unfold is the basis of the film.         

Indian Cinema has really progressed particularly during he last couple of years in the department of visuals and sound. In the London Dreams Cinematography / camera work is very good and at par with international standards. The back drop of the film blends prolific themes is clearly visible and if one is not appreciating then it would be injustice to the camera team. In musical films where a pinnacle is to be achieved the climax trek should be the best. There are majestic music shows in the world in which some times the middle presented songs are not that good but the last trek is best of all and if this pattern was followed then the London Dreams would have been memorable.   

Music composed by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loys’ has fairly well in opening number. The First trek of London Dreams filmed on AJAY DEVGAN is impressive with steel guitar sounds (Shadows type) with techno beat of synthesizers.

Ajay Devgan is good while performing his part with dedication. The Character of Devgan is to a degree mystique, envisioned with a distant dream has shades of dark side, ominous in this film.  

Salman Khan is a fine star and with the passage of time he is getting better. Younger /new movie stars in Bollwood cannot hold candle against Salman and in our view he can perform low-tone/ semi romantic roles but he is a muscle guy and more suited in Action Films like the WANTED.

Asin who portrayed the role of Kalpana in the last year action movie Ghajni is still remembered by us. Asin is one unique actress, who never indulges in vulgarity or crudeness like other young actresses, this is definitely a plus and a rare quality now days. She is a very decent actress and this reflects her good family background. She should be an inspiration for other female stars. In the recent venture the London Dreams, Asin holds a fragile equilibrium between the two lead artists; her role is in way limited as per the requirement of the film. Asin has innocent looks… she is a doll, a lovely doll. 

Mr Om Puri’s is a very senior artist but his role not that noticeable but impresses the cine-goers. The low light and night vision scenes in the Film are captured in a beautiful manner and the credit goes to the camera team of the Film. 

LONDON DREAMS is motivating and has a message and the way aversion has been patched up between AJAY DEVGAN and SALMAN is a feeling that comes right from the heart.

LONDON DREAMS has evoked a musical concept, worth seeing in a proper/big cinema hall-----The vast set design and roaring audience at the Stadium can only be truly appreciated on a CINERAMA type, large and ultra wide curved screen. LONDON DREAMS is an expensive film, the project has been made with huge budget are prima facie evident in the vast / extensive sets.  

London Dreams has a good script but the direction is not satisfying...Especially the 2nd half of the movie is disappointing.
Salman as Mannu is jus fantastic..
The comic scenes of Salman makes you laugh out loud and as well as in the serious portions he is damn good..
Salman's a true rockstar.The scene in which his hands shiver is done quite well.ajay is not quite at his bst .asin takes little footage.
As a whole the first half of the film is damn gud but 2nd half of the movie is slow..
And the major disappointment of d movie is its music..

London Dreams

I had Got some good vibes about the movie from some friends and media, went for it and was hugely disappointed at the end. Execution was not convincingly done. There was a lot of scope for emotions, as it was the call for the movie. Friendship b/t two protagonists were told in the movie but were not shown effectively. Ajay Devgan was found mostly on a Mogambo type huge couch most of the time with the agonized look in the eyes and with giving details of his dreams, passion, sacrifice and his obsession to make his dream come alive by giving a performance in Wembley stadium, London, Where his grand father failed and eventually fulfilling his London Dreams, But to me, Ajay Devgan never looked as a lead singer or a rocker, never. Though Salman somehow managed effortlessly to deliver the stage performance sort of thing. The both acted well, no questions regarding that. The Chemistry was also good between them. Ajay Devgan perfectly delivered the pain and anguish he was going through, when Salman steals the limelight from him unknowingly, leaves Ajay Devgan fuming with jealousy.

Salman was good as an actor, sometimes he went over the board and overacted, But it was a rare and notable performance from him. Asin was looking pretty and that was the part she was supposed to do in the movie, No more space was left for her. Did not get any chance to show her acting prowess.

Ranvijay (Roadies fame) wasted his chance completely. He does not impress and looks pretty dull  when it comes in terms of acting. The other guy with Ranvijay was so forgettable that i cant even remember his face.  Veteran Actor Om Puri was given a petty role.

 The Worst Part

Lousy Music and monotonous singing from all of the singers, many  times it’s hard to find if its not sung by Shankar mahadevan himself. The sheer joy of individual playback singing was somehow eluded. all was in Shanker mahadevan's style and most of the songs were in same pitch, Hard to find a difference among the songs. This was a definite drawback of music. And due to this the movie suffered largely. This could have been a great odyssey, but turned out to be mediocre attempt to incorporate music with the progress of the movie.  Barson Yaaron was the best piece of work amidst all, Man ko ati bahve wasted in Shankar’s voice. It was a pretty funny romantic song and not a patriotic score for heavens' sake. And the voice had to be more jovial, though he tried a lot to deliver in this and gave a lot of variation but if you don’t have that kind of voice then there is no point left of trying. Just Imagine same song in the voice of Sonu Nigam or Udit narayan, You would find it a lot more hummable. But it’s all done and wasted like a piece of junk.

Over All rating : 2.5/5

Vipul Shah once again returns with his uniform Punjabi flavour & the India-London theme. Taking a 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. 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 further developments on the screen.

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. 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 lacked 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 Déjà vu since these kind of sequences were more seen in the movies of 70s & 80s, like the one 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. Though she didn’t have much to do in the project but she surely has got immense talent in her to be explored. 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 “Rodies” 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.

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 wanna be 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.    

Ratings : 3 / 5

(by Bobby Sing at www.bobbytalkscinema.com) 

 Vipul Shah's Landon Dreams revolves around two aspects music and friendship. Story of the movie is very different but the presentation is not that satisfactory. The movie is unique in its own way; there is lot of masala like love, revenge, friendship and jealousy.

It is the story about two childhood friends Arjun (Ajay Devgn) and Mannu (Salman Khan). Arjun's only wish is to become a great singer and perform at London’s Wembly Arena. He wants to accomplish his grandfather's dreams, who committed suicide as he could not show his talent in the same stadium when he got a chance to do so. In London he forms a band with Zoheb (Rannvijay Singh) and Wasim (Aditya Roy Kapoor) and Priya (Asin) from an Iyengar orthodox family.

Arjun calls his best friend Mannu to London to join his band. Mannu has a natural singing talent but was aimlessly staying in Punjab. Later Arjun decides to throw Mannu away from his band "London Dreams" and his life, when he finds out that the two things he urged for, success and his love Priya, have been unknowingly taken away by his friend Mannu. Later it leads to many ups and downs in their lives and the movie ends on a positive note.

Salman Khan's performance is worth acknowledging and the humor created by him was great. Though Ajay Devgn looked very old and dull his acting was up to the mark. Asin and Salman's love story wasn’t great as there was no chemistry between them.  Asin looked horribly ugly and was pathetically dressed in the whole movie. Rannvijay Singh and Aditya Roy Kapoor looked cute and played their part very well. Om Puri played Ajay's father but had a limited role to play.

The emotional boding created by Ajay and Salman was very sweet. This movie could have been better because of the uniqueness of its story. It lacked perfection in various scenes and sounded vague at times. There is a very stupid scene where Ajay Devgan belts himself for a senseless matter and even Om Puri and Ajay's part is not explained properly.

But I think you must go and watch it because of its music which is just fabulous. There are many catchy rock numbers which might take you to another level of happiness. So don’t miss it if you are a music lover.