London Dreams, the fourth directorial venture of Vipul Shah came with lot of promise and potential. Was the aspiration confronted?, Were the dreams fulfilled for the audience?. A couple of years back, Vipul reinvented Akshay Kumar and showed the world his romantic and emotional side in Namastey London and Waqt. In 2009, Vipul dives further to nurture the complex characteristics of human nature.
Having resemblances and inspirations from 1984 Hollywood flick, Amadeus, the story of London Dreams revolves around two childhood friends Arjun [Ajay Devgan] and Mannu [Salman Khan] in a small village in Punjab. For Arjun, music is everything in life and dreams of becoming a huge pop star one day. Arjun’s family is sternly against this decision of Arjun because of a sad incident which occurred with his grandfather.
He was a very well known Sufi singer in Punjab and upon getting a huge opportunity to perform in one of the World’s biggest stadium The Wembley amongst 90000 audiences he faltered in nervousness and could not sing. Shame and embarrassment provoked him to commit suicide. Arjun prayed to god to remove all the obstacles that came between him and his dream. When his father dies, he in turn believes that God is gradually removing all the obstacles from him. He makes a promise that until he realizes his dream he will not allow anyone to come in between.
On the other hand, Mannu [Salman Khan] is a happy go lucky boy who has a born talent for music because of his family heritage, but is least interested in his father’s instruments and music. He fools around everywhere and makes a fun of his talent by wasting time with girls.
Arjun comes to London with his uncle [Om Puri] to fulfill his dream and meets with two aspiring musicians in Zoheb and Wasim [Ranvijay and Aditya Kapoor] along with Priya [Asin] who comes from a conservative Iyer family with a secret enthusiasm for music. They together form a pop band “London Dreams” and gradually but diligently pursues their dream of becoming a huge band.
On this threshold, Arjun obliges Munna to come to London and join their band. The first show with Munna becomes a huge hit and Munna steals the show with his inborn flair for music and charisma. This is where the story takes a different turn. With Munna getting all the accolades and attention from the media and fans and even his long secretly nurtured love, Priya, Arjun gradually realizes that his best friend’s talent is a strong obstacle between him and his dream.
Arjun realizes as long as Munna is there, he will never get to his dream, and slowly frustration and jealousy creeps in. With the help of Zoheb, he starts drugging Munna without making him notice about his shrewd plan to destroy him slowly. Munna gets into the drug web and their much hyped three city tour goes for a toss. They return to London with a failed tour and a failed chance to perform in The Wembley Stadium, which was Arjun’s ultimate dream.
The story moves towards a dramatic climax in the Wembley Stadium show, where Arjun gets frustrated when the whole stadium chants Munna’s name because of his absence and openly admits of his jealousy with Munna and the whole stadium listening. The film ends with Arjun realizing his mistakes and Munna forgiving him to reform their…..”London Dreams”……..all over again.
The script of the film is a huge plus and Vipul does well to establish the lead characters. The complexities of the characters are very real and are portrayed brilliantly. Ajay Devgan’s character is debatable in the sense people are finding it difficult to digest whether it is normal for a person to behave like this. I even heard my neighbor saying.”Ajay shouldn’t be shown like this, whatever he is doing is very normal.”. Salman’s character on the other hand is over the top and will be loved by one and all.
Certain sequences, like the one when Ajay whips himself, the scene where Salman buys the piano for Ajay and the final Wembley Stadium drama are very well executed and will leave you enthralled. Asin is okay and does justice to her role. Newcomers Ranvijay and Aditya are acceptable considering them sharing the stage with huge stars like Ajay and Salman. Salman Khan steals the show with his charm while Ajay hold the ambience together with an intense and power packed performance
But the music is a huge letdown. In a film like this, more importance and thought should have been given to the soundtrack and background music. The film lacks in this aspect and it definitely should have been better for the film’s sake. Again, the screenplay could have been a touch better and it would have been like an added feather to the cap.
Overall, London Dreams is a pleasant watch with some good performances and few power-packed scenes. It definitely could have been another Namastey London or Rock On but it falls a little short of it.