London Dreams

Language : Hindi
Banner : Blockbuster Movie Entertainers
Director : Vipul Shah
Producer : Aashin Shah
Cinematography : Sejal Shah
Story : Suresh Nair
Screenplay : Suresh Nair
Dialogue : Ritesh Shah
Lyrics : Prasoon Joshi
Music : Shankar Mahadevan, Ehsaan Noorani, Loy Mendonca
Release : 2009 October 30
Starring : Salman Khan, Ajay Devgan, Asin, Rannvijay Singh, Aditya Roy Kapoor, Om Puri, Khalid Azmi, Brinda Parekh, Manoj Pahwa

How rare and wonderful is that flash of a moment when we realize we have discovered a friend. And how hapless it is to witness the same friend being erroneous to your relationship�. �London Dreams� boasts about story of two Bhaiyya-like friends and their destined dreams living life for �Music�. Touching the intense level of emotions and relationships, the film strictly adheres us into the screens for the 2 complete hours. On the flip side, there are certain realms of illogicalities of Sallu-Ajay crooning their compositions in Hindi at such English-bounded areas of Great Britain.

Let�s not put this at center as Vipul Shah has attempted for an unforeseen endeavor. To be precise, his previous films have been a sort of not-so-happening ones despites fetching big collections at box office. But, �London Dreams� proves of Vipul�s adeptness over crafting an splendiferous script.

Arjun (Ajay Devgn) & Mannu (Salman Khan) were childhood friends. But they had little in common except their family's vague connection with music. While Arjun's life was consumed by a passionate drive to get on stage and realize his grandfather's unfulfilled dream, Mannu had little interest in his music tutor father's instruments and was content with remaining a child at heart with no higher ambition than enjoying the good things in life. But little did they expect music to strengthen their friendship and then test it with catastrophic results...

Arjun diligently pursued his dream, at the risk of running away from an uncle who was his only family in an unfamiliar land and roaming the streets of London before taking shelter in a music shop and priming himself until he's ready to make his foray into the world of music and showmanship.

As Arjun forges a band with Zoheb (Rannvijay Singh) and Wasim (Aditya Roy Kapoor), two brothers who'd duped their relatives in Pakistan to travel to London in pursuit of their musical aspirations, and Priya (Asin), a music enthusiast from a conservative South Indian family, far away in Punjab, music becomes a survival tool for Mannu, who takes to playing in wedding bands in his village.

But when he gets Mannu to London and makes him a part of the band, Arjun soon realizes he's created the biggest threat and obstacle to his own ambitions.

First things first, �London Dreams� is brimmed with great beauty and splendor. Well, the credit goes to Vipul Shah for delineating the onscreen individuals sans valorousness. Of course, Sallu takes sudden cuts on contrastive roles in his three previous flicks released within couple of months: �Wanted�, �Main Aur Mrs. Khanna� and �London Dreams�. His charismatic appeal of being Mannu and enchanting the people around him is a top-notching act. On the pars, Ajay Devgn strikes-up with an intensely overpowering show of his �grey-shaded� lad. Be the sequences where he spells out an emotional bonding with Sallu or the malevolent behavior of hatching evil designs on the same person. Asin attempts on elevating her standards from �Ghajini�, but remains static in certain portions and indeed stuns us over her performance in few heart-wrenching sequences. Om Puri doesn�t get centered with a prominent role while Aditya Roy Kapoor requires special mention. Though Manoj Pahwa sparkles us out with mirthful takes, he gets eclipsed with minimal role. Vipul Shah should�ve depicted Rannvijay with yet more prominence.

Musical score by Shankar-Ehasan-Loy is quite commendable with few tracks, but the trio doesn�t seems to have let its �Josh� over other numbers. They fail to invigorate our senses. Cinematography by Sejal Shah is marvelous. Capturing the best backdrops of Punjab and western lands, he emblazons the screens with enriched tones.

Though the entire first hour revolves around establishing the roles of star-casts, Vipul Shah plants his plot-points with an excellent touch in intermission. Though the film falls off slightly with low tempo, things are back in action in penultimate scenes and Vipul could�ve yet more perfectly delivered a closing shot.

On the whole, �London Dreams� makes it appealing on all panoramas with exquisite elegance over this tale of friendship, happiness, pains, amnesties � etc, etc�

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