London Dreams- Salman –Ajay deliver yet another ‘Jai-Veeru’ saga
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The last time these 2 lads were seen together was over ten years ago in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s-‘Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam’ and what a treat it was! Once again Ajay Devgan (Minus the ‘a’ in his surname) teams up with Salman Khan for a script written by Suresh Nair almost 5 years ago.

Vipul Amrutlal Shah spears the bandwagon with the word ‘London’ proving really lucky for many in his last venture-‘Namastey London’.

Getting back to the film , whats it about? Many perceive that here is Vipul getting an older bunch of actors and trying to deliver yet another ‘ROCK ON’. For those who think that way, let’s get it clear that ‘London Dreams’ is not all about music and the usual band drama. Also let me admit that Vipul has failed terribly to create that aura of a band, or the feeling of rockstars etc and there are indeed many loop holes. But , in the end, the core of the movie has not been lost- the friendship between Manu(Salman) and Arjun (Ajay).
So let’s first get to the loop holes of the film.

Firstly the fact that Arjun runs away from the London airport and still finds himself into the London school of music etc quite easily ,is unconvincing.

The very first performance of Ajay Devgn and how he meets his mates- Ranvijay and Aditya Roy Kapur and further how he gets recognized by the press and the music company is further not convincing.

You also may be wondering what’s that’ Firang’ Drummer doing in and out of the band and what’s Asin actually doing in this band.

Leave all that reasoning aside and also forgive the actors when they try lip syncing to the tunes of Shankar Mahadevan and Rahat Fateh Ali Khan.

Leavin all those flaws behind, London Dreams is the old school style filmy take on ‘Dosti’ aka friendship set against the backdrop of music. Firstly what drives the film is the manner in which Vipul has sketched his characters – Ajay as the obsessive goal oriented lad to whom nothing matters more than achieving one’s dreams and Salman on the other hand as the lad who never really had any goals. And in the midst of this all, What if your dream starts coming true for your best friend?

Vipul with the help of cinematographer -Sejal Shah is able to capture some splendid locales of both London and Punjab. The movie is rich in colour right from the very opening song ‘Tapke Masti’. The music does well for the film and Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy have fused in a good mix of songs though not their finest.

The apex of the film beyond all those glitches is the supreme performance by Ajay Devgn and Salman Khan followed by the breath taking dialogues by Ritesh Shah in various scenes.

Ajay Devgn unlike ‘Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam’ carries shades of grey and what a performer indeed. His character takes a transformation from that of a saint to a man burning with jealousy, The scene where he whips himself portrays the obsessiveness of character and his best dialogue sequence comes towards the end , when he reveals his hearts desires during the performance. Amazing!

On the other hand, Salman Khan brings the life, ‘masti’ quotient into the film. After a long
time, one gets to see him in a role that brings out the best from the actor both in terms of humour and delivering those heavy lines.

Throughout the first half you are left laughing by his silly acts specially his airplane encounter. Then all you see is lot more witty ‘Bindaas’ scenes of Salman flirting around making passes at Asin etc. Then comes the final blow when you see Salman shedding tears on hearing Ajay’s obsession for Wembley, Salman then becoming addicted to drugs , beating up the press when they question his friends integrity , battling it out of drugs and the climax ( can’t reveal this one, watch it youself!)
All in all leaving us with some fantastic dialogues “Sitara ek hi hain…aur uski jaga koi aur nahi leh sakta siwai mere praa ko!”

Asin aka Chennai Express(thts wht Salman calls her) is soon to be found in the top league of actresses and here too has some splendid scenes especially with salman. She’s cute and also delivers her lines with conviction.

Rnvijay and Om Puri are quite wasted. But Aditya Roy Kapur impresses.

At the box office, it has ‘HIT’ written all over with the audiences laughing out loud , moist eyed reactions followed by huge claps when the friends hug. This truly is bollywood’s moderns ‘JAI-VEERU’ story.

Rating – 3.5/5

- Savio Zacharia

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