London Dreams

London Dreams
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Vipul Shah
Produced by	Aashin Shah
Screenplay by	Suresh Nair
Story by	Suresh Nair Ritesh Shah
Starring	Salman Khan Ajay Devgn Asin Thottumkal
Music by	Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy
Cinematography	Headstart Films UK Limited Blockbuster Movie Entertainers
Editing by	Amitabh Shukla
Release date(s)	October 30, 2009 (2009-10-30)
Running time	150 minutes
Country	India
Language	Hindi
Box office	30.5 crore (US$6.1 million)

London Dreams is a Bollywood musical film directed by Vipul Shah. Starring Salman Khan and Ajay Devgan in lead roles, the film also features Asin Thottumkal as the lead female character. The film which released on 30 October 2009 has music by the trio of Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy with lyrics by Prasoon Joshi.

Plot

The story revolves around two childhood friends Arjun (played by Ajay Devgan) and Mannu (played by Salman Khan) who have some music lineage in their family history. Arjun dreams of being on stage as a performer in the music industry, to live up to his grandfather's unfulfilled ambitions. Mannu however has little interest in his music tutor father's instruments and is content with remaining a child at heart with a simpleton attitude.

Through the course of the film, Arjun diligently pursues his dream, at one point almost leaving an uncle who is his only family. He finally makes it to London where he believes he can succeed.

Arjun creates a fledgling band with Zoheb and Wasim (Rannvijay Singh and Aditya Roy Kapoor respectively), two brothers who duped their relatives in Pakistan to travel to London in pursuit of their musical aspirations. He also brings aboard Priya (played by Asin), a music enthusiast from a conservative South Indian family. The other protagonist of the movie, Mannu, is shown to be trying to make his livelihood by playing as a wedding band performer at the village back in India.

Arjun eventually invites Mannu to London to complete his band contrary to his own belief that the latter could create competition within the band.

Upon forming the band, Mannu is shown to have musical talent and the qualities of an entertainer. He therefore becomes popular with the audiences with his unique style of performing. This is in contrast to the earlier part of the film where Arjun struggles to captivate the attention of the crowd despite the music.

Arjun starts feeling envious of the rising success of Mannu. As a further extension of the jealousy, Arjun who is starting a budding relationship with Priya starts sensing that she is now smitten by Mannu. While the latter now starts a relationship with Priya, he does become the target of Arjun's frustrations who seeks to sabotage Mannu's career. Zoheb, who doesn't like Mannu, decides to help Arjun.

The band embarks on a three-city tour spanning Paris, Rome and Amsterdam. Here Arjun deceives a naive Mannu into a rollercoaster ride of promiscuous sex and illicit drugs. He tricks him, gets him addicted to drugs, and then gets him arrested in a car full of them. While pretending to help Mannu, Arjun leaks the drug story to the press. As the three-city tour concludes, the band heads to London to perform at Wembley Stadium in front of an audience estimated at 90,000 (which is of significance since, earlier in the movie, the viewer is told that Arjun's grandfather had failed before a similar audience). Knowing how important this is for Arjun, Mannu tries to give up drugs. But Arjun decides that his success and Mannu's total failure are related. He pays a girl to have sex with Mannu, which makes Priya break up with Mannu. In this fragile state, Zoheb pushes Mannu toward drugs again so that he can't come on stage.

In the moments leading up to the stage entrance, Mannu comes to senses and chooses the righteous path and runs to support his mate. But Arjun, who has become incensed with the crowd chanting Mannu's name, confesses his envy of Mannu's talent and what he did to finish Mannu off. The audience boos Arjun, the band breaks up and a sad Mannu goes back to his village.

Arjun's uncle (Om Puri), advises him to apologize to Mannu. In the village, however, Mannu tells him not to apologize saying that it was his fault that he didn't see Arjun's sorrow. They get back together and London Dreams becomes a successful band again.

Cast

• Salman Khan as Mannu
• Ajay Devgan as Arjun
• Asin Thottumkal as Priya
• Rannvijay Singh as Zoheb
• Aditya Roy Kapoor as Wasim
• Brinda Parekh
• Om Puri as Arjun's uncle

Production

Initially Raj Kumar Santoshi wanted to work on the project with Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir Khan to do the leads but when the ongoing face-off between the two Khans became a hindrance Santoshi backed-off from the project. Santoshi later roped in Salman Khan and Ajay Devgan and even shot parts of the film before shooting was stopped. Salman finally got Vipul Shah to produce and direct the film. For the lead actress, names such as Rani Mukerji and Priyanka Chopra have been mentioned, but were never confirmed.

Reception

Critical response

London Dreams has received mixed reviews and did average business in box office. Taran Adarsh praised the performance of the principal cast, while criticizing the climax. Rajeev Masand gave a scathing review of the movie, describing it as a "frustratingly foolish film about foolish people." Chandrima Pal of Rediff criticized the background music of the movie, while praising the dialogues, as well as Ajay Devgan's performance. Noyon Jyoti Parasara of AOL said "The last twenty minutes of ‘London Dreams’ take away half its spirit." NkS Reviews It rated it 3.5 out of 5 and wrote, "London Dreams goes down as one of the bollywood's best friendship script.Its fabulous on entertainment,tearjerking and really fulfills what you wished from it."[sic] Gorafied.com's Aatif Nawaz noted the "stilted and uneven nature" of the script, but praised the lead characters' performances.

Box office

The film had an average opening despite facing competition from All The Best: Fun Begins,Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani, Paaand Rocket Singh: Salesman of the Year. The film grossed a decent Rs. 31,00,00,000 (Rs. 31 Crore) and was declared a flop.

Soundtrack

Main article: London Dreams (soundtrack)

The song style is generally rock inspired to match the motifs in the movie. "Khanabadosh", "Shola Shola", "Barso Yaaron", "Khwab" and "Man Ko Ati Bhavey Saiyaan" were very popular songs. "Man Ko Ati Bhavey Saiyaan" and "Khanabadosh" being the most popular.

No.	Title	Performer(s)	Length
1.	"Barso Yaaron"	Vishal Dadlani, Roop Kumar Rathod	05:48
2.	"Man Ko Ati Bhavey Saiyaan"	Shankar Mahadevan	05:14
3.	"Tapke Masti"	Feroz Khan	04:29
4.	"Khanabadosh"	Mohan	04:41
5.	"Khwab"	Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Shankar Mahadevan	06:15
6.	"Yaari Bina"	Roop Kumar Rathod, Milind Diwadkar	04:32
7.	"Jashn Hai Jeet Ka"	Abhijeet Ghoshal	04:11
8.	"Shola Shola"	Zubeen Garg	05:31
9.	"Khanabadosh" (Remix)	Mohan	05:00
10.	"Man Ko Ati Bhavey Saiyaan" (Remix)	Shankar Mahadevan	05:30
11.	"Tapke Masti" (Remix)	Feroz Khan	04:20

External links

• London Dreams at the Internet Movie Database