London Dreams

A tale about the musical ambitions of two Punjabi boys. But did it need to be so opulent?

The extravagance of a Hindi film, in budget and stylistic flamboyance, can be self destructive. When the content of a movie is not large enough to fit the scale of its design, a lung collapses. London Dreams is a film about the musical ambitions of two Punjabi boys that take them from Bhatinda to London. A smaller film that focused on their native woodnotes wild, their dreams and relationships, struggles and reward, would have been interesting. Instead, fitted out like an epic, the film is hoist with its own petard.

London Dreams is a beautifully shot film. Cinematographer Sejal Shah has recorded London as a brooding city with beautiful monuments that frame the characters in shadows. The tourist London pops up occasionally, but mostly you see a dark, damp and formal city. Oddly enough, rural Punjab is also shot with shaded tones, and the overall effect is to set the stage for the film’s theme of overpowering envy and resentment.

Arjun (Ajay Devgn) gets to London first and establishes his band, London Dreams.  Charismatic Manu (Salman Khan) follows and develops a huge fan following. He is star material while Arjun is a hardworking and moderately talented musician. Clearly, Vipul  Shah has set his script up for the big heist—Milos Forman’s Amadeus.  Antonio Salieri’s plot to kill Mozart is set into operation. There is just one problem. Manu’s music is not worth murder. It is not even worth a movie ticket. At the end of Forman’s film, Salieri confesses to the audience that he is ‘the patron saint of mediocrity’. It would be delightful if a similar owning up of responsibility for the dreadful music composed in London Dreams took place.

A girl that Manu calls ‘The Chennai Express’  (Asin) is the female factor. She is factored in more like an algebraic equation than a living, breathing, character. This is the problem with everything here. The scale of the film’s architecture is designed first. Later, the nuts and bolts of the story and characters are screwed and hammered into place, irrespective of the bad fit.

About The Author

Ajit Duara