London Dreams (2009)

Cast : Ajay Devgan, Salman Khan

Director : Vipul Shah

Running Time : 2 Hours 20 minutes

Rating : 2 out of 4

Release Date : October 30, 2009

Two best friends, Arjun and Manu. Arjun ends up in London, chasing his dreams (so the title London Dreams), while Mannu stays back in his Punjab village and is pretty much responsible for every girl in the village becoming a woman. Well, Mannu really does not have a career plan in place, Arjun does. He wants to become a pop start equivalent to Michael Jackson, and goes about it with complete focus. He grabs attention of music producers, gives auditions, builds a band and eventually he is on the brink of reaching his goal (to perform at Wembley Stadium).

However, his best friend, who is air-lifted to London, suddenly pole vaults to the position of a rock star, something which Arjun always wanted to be. This pisses off Arjun big time. I mean, Mannu just bypassed the whole system and reached the top, like that! The dilemma for Arjun is, Mannu is his best friend, but he is in his way to his dreams. What does he do? Answer : Personal goals are more important than friendship. Sabotage.

If the movie was just about how Arjun handles the situation, this would have been a fantastic movie. However, an excellent story is ruined forever by the addition of Priya (Asin Thottumkal). Since, every Bollywood movie needs a love story, a love triangle is forced into the script. This means, every now and then the story picks up pace, you have to bear some faltu romantic, drama scenes with songs, which have nothing to do with the main theme of the movie. I promise you, if you just edit out all the scenes with Priya in it or the scenes which reference is made to her, it will just make this movie that much better. Also, Ajay and Salman give good performances, but please. This is a movie about rock stars. Both the leads are in good shape, but that won’t stop them from looking in their 40s. I read somewhere that, this movie was written keeping Hrithik Roshan and Abhishek Bachan in mind. Now, that would have been much, much better.

All said and done, I loved the second half. Arjun’s dilemma and his helplessness at the situation makes you go back to school/college where you had your close friend who was much better than you, and how you would burn in jealousy and can’t do anything about it. Fantastic acting by Salman and Ajay.

Oh! another thing. Arjun keeps asking God, why is Mannu so much better than him, even though it was he who worked hard all his life. I think the answer is simple. Mannu has a ‘free’ lifestyle, where as Arjun is probably a virgin. Guess, that explains why he is not as good as Mannu.