London Dreams

Year released: 2009
Director : Vipul Shah
Actors: Ajay Devgan, Salman Khan , Asin and Om Puri

The story of London dreams is in short about Arjun (played by Ajay Devgan) and his ambition to become a successful rock star at any cost. His friend and confidante from his village Manu (played Salman Khan) thoroughly approves and encourages him. Arjun's uncle brings him to London to raise him after his father passes on and when he finds out that like his father his uncle too does not approve of his interest and passion for music, Arjun runs away from his uncle to pursue his dreams. In the course of time he forms a band with three other people, one of whom is Priya ( played by Asin). He later brings in Manu, his good friend to join his band and then starts to feel jealous and resent his friend, when he starts to become more popular than Arjun.
Manu in addition to becoming more popular also lands up with the girl Arjun loves, further driving a wedge between the two friends.

For some inexplicable reason Arjun seems to think that to achieve this success he has to focus on his dreams and goals to the exclusion of all other activities in his life. And to prove this point, Arjun who is in love with Priya decides not to declare his feelings because he feels that doing so will somehow sabotage his career in music. Boy this guy sure has never heard the term multi tasking and is definitely not a subscriber to the belief "Behind every successful man is a woman". What Priya feels for him is not quite clear and is left ambiguous.

One of the issues I had with this movie was that the story and the characters are both not sufficiently fleshed out and it is difficult to either identify or empathize with the characters or the script when none of the people in the story make any sense. For example Priya (Asin) is introduced in the story as coming from a very conservative Iyer family and her family would apparently disapprove of her having anything to do with rock music. Yet she seems to be pursuing a career in rock music with Arjun and his rock group and there is no mention of how she is able to this without discovery from her family. She performs on stage, travels with her group and yet her family does not have a clue with regard to her real career. And if there is not going to be any mention of her family in the rest of the movie then why make a big deal about how she comes from a traditional family etc etc in the first place...

Then there is Arjun who runs away from his uncle to pursue his interest in music, there is absolutely no mention how he survives on the streets of London. Is life on the streets that simple or easy or even normal that there is not attempt to even include in passing some of the struggles Arjun might have to have undergone in pursuing his passion for music.And his uncle who presumably brings Arjun to London to take care of him, never seems to feel the need to report to the cops that his nephew has run off and makes seemingly no attempt to find his nephew. And when they meet again after many years, the uncle (played by Om Puri) does not waste one single minute on recriminations. There is no mention of the fact that he was disappointed with his nephew for running away or how worried he was or even how much effort he made to find him.

And yet a great deal of time is wasted in showing inconsequential sequences between Manu and women in his village and even more inconsequential and not in the slightest bit funny sequences between Manu and Arjun

And finally for a movie that is mostly about music, the music in this movie is just average, nothing out of the ordinary. Not quite what I expected from music directors Shankar, Ehsaan and Loy who are much better than this in most movies.

Dreams .....not so much, more like a mini nightmare :-)

Here is a little clip from the song that you hear often during the second half of this movie...

An all time classic....

This song by Lata Mangeshkar from the movie Mera Saaya is one of my all time favorites. This song defines evergreen, definitely a classy number. The movie Mera saaya has a lot of beautiful songs but this one tops the list, at least for me :-) Music for this movie is by Madan Mohan. Enjoy:-)

Movie Review of Dil Hai Tumhara (2002)

This is a movie that I remember having seen when it was first released but do not remember it making any kind of impression on me. Recently when I came across this movie again I decided to give it another try. This movie stars Rekha (Sarita), Arjun Rampal (Dev), Preity Zinta (Shalu) and Mahima Chaudhary (Nimmi). The movie is about Shalu who from childhood feels slighted by her mother Sarita and continuously craves her approval. Nimmi and Shalu are ideal sisters and love each other immensely. Sarita is the mayor of a small town where they reside and there are some corrupt people who try to oust her from her mayoral seat.

What Shalu and Nimmi do not know is that Shalu is not really Sarita's daughter but she is the daughter of Sarita's husband and another lady whom her husband loved. They both meet with an accident and on his deathbed, Sarita's husband asks her to accept Shalu and raise her as her own. Sarita accepts to do it and raises Shalu as her own but is unable to show her the same love she shows her own daughter Nimmi.

Shalu meets Dev, believes him to be a driver and tries to pass him off as Dev Khanna, son of industrialist Mr Khanna who can benefit their small town in an attempt to help her mother. Initially Shalu and Dev do not get along but soon they both fall in love and Shaalu also realizes that Dev is really the son of Mr Khanna the industrialist. Around this time Nimmi also meets Dev and she starts liking him and believes he loves her too. Sarita grows aware of Nimmi's feelings for Dev and decides to approach Dev's father (Alok Nath) with a marriage proposal for Nimmi and Dev.

In addition there is Samir (Jimmy Shergill) a ventroloquist who is in love with Shalu and is unable to express his feelings for her.The rest of the movie is about whether Sarita is able to overcome her antagonism towards Shalu and accept her, whether Dev marries Nimmi or Shalu and whether Shalu realizes the truth about her parentage.

The movie is slow in the first half and does not engage the viewer attention entirely. The sequences between Shalu and Dev were mediocre and could have been far more interesting. Sequences that are supposed to be hilarious do not evoke even mild smiles like the two side kicks to Arjun Rampal that are both friends/comic relief and end up being neither.Arjun Rampal as Dev in the first half seemed so stiff and uncomfortable in his role you actually feel sorry for him and wonder why anyone would offer him a role he is so obviously uncomfortable doing. The second half of the movie is a decided improvement over the first. The story moves along faster, both Preity Zinta and Rekha gave really good performances in the second half and had a lot of meaty scenes where they could show their histrionics. Arjun Rampal in the second half too looked more comfortable and does not look as stiff as he did in the first half. Even though the story is predictable,but good performances by Rekha and Preity Zinta and a couple of hummable tunes make this a passable fare.

Rating
2.25/5

Here is the title song of the movie that is nice.....Enjoy !