London Dreams

Cast: Salman Khan, Ajay Devgan, Asin, Rannvijay Singh, Aditya Roy Kapoor, Om Puri
Director: Vipul Amrutlal Shah
Rating: ****

London Dreams is an emotionally-charged Bollywood entertainer that is grand, extravagant, loud and yet has a tender core. It has delightful highs and heart-wrenching lows. And above all, a compelling story with honest characters.

Two young friends, Arjun and Mannu, live in Bhatinda, Punjab. Arjun dreams of singing to cheering crowds while Mannu straps a mirror to his shoe and checks out girls’ underwear. Arjun’s father runs a dhaba and hates music. Arjun prays that all hurdles in his journey to musical fame be removed; His father passes away. Arjun’s chacha (Om Puri) takes him to London but warns that he too hates music. Arjun runs away, gets by on busking and eventually enrolls in a music school.

Arjun, now an adult (Ajay Devgn), wears earrings, a trishul tattoo and has a recurrent dream — singing to a packed, dancing stadia and throwing himself at the crowd, literally. Desperate to make it, he does an impromptu gig at Trafalgar Square, acquires two backup boys — Zoheb (Rannvijay Singh) on keyboards and Wasim (Aditya Roy Kapoor) strumming the guitar, eye candy in dancer Priya Iyer (Asin), and a name for the band, London Dreams. A successful audition and they are en route to success. Arjun lusts after Priya but won’t say till his dream is realised.

Meanwhile, in Bhatinda, Mannu (Salman Khan) has grown up on debt and pluck and he too plays in a band, Raja-Rani Shaadi Band. Just like Arjun’s devotion to his dream is complete, Mannu’s dedication to his friend is unconditional. Arjun goes to Punjab, the two friends bond, prance around and when Arjun listens to Mannu sing he gets him over to London and it’s now a five-member band.

While Arjun meditates over his dream in solitude and tortures himself every time he digresses, Mannu lives in the moment, mostly slightly intoxicated, and with an eye on a girl. At their first show itself Arjun watches Mannu throw himself at the crowd. He’s a natural talent, a rock star.

Mannu likes Priya, or Chennai Express as he calls her, and pursues her. Arjun has already seen crowds cheer for Mannu, and now watching Priya go to him is too much. He plans an elaborate game of deception involving drugs, girls and the Daily Mirror. A tour gets cancelled and the blame is all on Mannu. Arjun is now a few seconds from living his dream — Mannu is with a drug dealer and Priya is with Arjun. But while Arjun was busy pulling his best friend down, his own dream was turning sour. Will he be found out? Will Mannu ever forgive him?

Though the story of friendship and betrayal is ancient, the strength of Vipul Shah’s London Dreams lies in pitting Arjun’s singular focus against Mannu’s natural, almost careless, talent, and in giving plodder Arjun dark shades and the womanising wastrel a heart. The film’s production quality, probably since it’s a collaboration with a UK company, is fabulous. We have real English people here, not the Tom Alter variety. But for a movie where the fight between two friends is over music, most of Shankar-Ehsan-Loy’s songs, barring two, are uniquely soulless.

Asin pulls faces, is a below-average dancer and disappoints. Rannvijay Singh and Aditya Roy Kapoor are both good. Ajay’s seething intensity as the desperate but less talented singer is fabulous. Though his character is not entirely negative, but to make Arjun even slightly likeable deserves a round of applause.

Salman Khan. It helps, of course, that his character has the funniest lines, a heart of gold and that Salman gets to play himself in parts. But that’s undermining what he does in London Dreams. Whether in kachchas or struggling with drugs, Salman Khan is the film’s emotional core. You laugh with him. You weep with him. This is one of his best performances to date.