Dreams gone sour

 

 

Looking at “London Dreams” promos, it was hard to digest Ajay Devgn as a rock star. Watching the film only confirms your worst suspicions. Amateurish acting, shaky plot points and implausibility rule the roost as Vipul Shah’s “London Dreams” takes only about half an hour to degenerate into a nightmare of tedium. Salman Khan provides the only few bright sparks while you barely notice Asin. And, oh, by the way, the film is about music. The film’s actual music from Shankar, Ehsaan and Loy is way below the trio’s par. The resulting concoction is hard to swallow.

Here’s the plot – Arjun (Ajay Devgn) and Mannu (Salman Khan) are childhood friends and while Arjun becomes successful enough to land up in London as part of a band, Mannu falls by the wayside despite being the more talented one. Arjun decides to help his friend out and get him to London. But Mannu’s presence in the band overshadows Arjun’s and suddenly Mannu becomes the star, even winning the affection of Priya (Asin), who Arjun has a thing for. Enter the pangs of jealousy and the angle of revenge, since Arjun is furious that Mannu has been bestowed with all the talent and even gets the girl.

If that sort of reminds you of “Amadeus” and Salieri’s rivalry with Mozart, well that’s no surprise since the plot seems heavily inspired from that. But unfortunately, the performances do not match the intensity of the classic. And the biggest disappointment is the so-called ‘band’, which masquerades as a rock band but seems to play no real rock music. To be fair, “London Dreams” did not want to be “Rock On!!” but if a film ignores the bedrock of its existence (in this case, the focus on music), it can only spell a disastrous show.