Subhash K Jha, in a new installment of This Day That Year, looks back at Vipul Shah’s London Dreams, which starred Ajay Devgan and Salman Khan and in a bonus fact reveals who originally was going to direct the 2009 musical.
London Dreams had everything going for it. A dream cast led by Ajay Devgan and Salman Khan. The two came together for the first time since Sanjay Bhansali’s Hum…Dil De Chuke Sanam and had a lot more scenes together as they played childhood friends Manu and Arjun who grow up with one dream: to see Manu became an international singing star. The sequence where Arjun played by Ajay Devgn sings at Trafalgar Square and within four minutes acquires three band members (including an unrecognizable curly haired Aditya Roy Kapoor) could be a self-defining advertisement for opportunities for Asians in Briton.
London Dreams was a nightmare for all concerned. Just how Vipul Shah managed to make such a hash of a promising tale of brotherly rivalry is anyone’s guess.
Significantly London Dreams was to be directed by Raj Kumar Santoshi. The cast was to be the same, but the music in this musical which was such a letdown, was to be done by A R Rahman when Santoshi was the director.
This was Santoshi’s second non-happening film with Ajay Devgan in a row after the aborted project Saamna. London Dreams was designed as Santoshi’s most expensive film to date. He wanted to replicate the flamboyance of Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge. In Vipul Shah’s hands the rock concerts looked like rockers are at Rae Bareilly.
The story is Krishna and Sudama Redux. Two friends, Arjun and Manu, from childhood share a common dream. They both wish to see Manu become a big singing star. Manu migrates to London with his sullen uncle, runs out of the airport… and becomes a rocker almost overnight! Small and very accommodating world.
The sequence where Arjun now grown into a punk-styled Ajay Devgn and sings at Trafalgar Square is ‘Visa’-vis artistic license. The British soil never seemed more welcoming. Although Salman Khan playing the wild and warm Manu is allowed to make innumerable digs at the Indian revenge on their old colonizers, London seems to say namastey most warmly to all the characters in the film.
How is the city to be blamed if the characters secrete a deep dark and negative side to their personality that bubbles to the surface in toxic fumes burning and destroying the music and harmony of the spheres?
Vipul Shah’s London Dreams aims for a more penetrating and profound look at the life of Asians in Britain than Namastey London. The characters here are far more complex and dark. But their presence is constantly challenged by the predictable and often banal narrative.
From the first few frames when we see the two friends in rural Punjab share Arjun’s international musical dreams, we know exactly the way this story is heading. And that includes the love triangle that grows in London among the intense self-flagellating Arjun, the carefree Manu and the happy-go-‘lanky’ girl next-door.
One of the films 7-8 truly warm sequences shows Asin practising Bharat Natyam in front of her ultra-conservative Tamilian father. The dance steps transform into a ritzy jig the minute pop ain’t looking. MTC, here she ‘combs’.
Such moments are far too in-between in Vipul Shah’s sober-and-straight narrative. Even when Manu played at a range that goes from jaded to involved by Salman Khan, is being facetious he does it in a clocked and correct way. Spontaneity is at a low premium among these wannabe rock stars.
No matter what the length of the rock band-members’ hair no one is in a hurry here to let their hair down. They’d rather let each other down. The dramatic confrontations work when they’re done unselfconsciously. Some of them, like the confrontation between the two Pakistani brothers in a back-alley of London after the one tells the other about Arjun’s treachery and betrayal, is plainly mawkish. Because the film forever has its pale heart in the right place the length (nearly 3 hours) is largely excusable. The meandering atonal music score by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy is not.
Why would stadiums filled with gora log be screaming at our rockers singing these listless songs? And what does the dream of the band London Dreams really mean?
Move on to the wider questions of jealousy, malevolence, insecurity and over- ambition….and the film delivers wispy wallops in a steady and honest tone. Though the music is plainly awful the background score by Salim-Suleiman fights a pitched battle against the mediocrity of the songs.
Sejal Shah’s cinematography is outstanding, often capturing the characters in various phase of emotional breakdown against the quaint neat London backdrop.
Among the cast Ajay Devgn gets to the heart of his troubled and over-reaching character and pulls out a well-balanced performance, though he hardly looks like a rock star (the multiple earrings and other exterior preparations make us cringe). The curly-haired Aditya Roy Kapoor ,playing a Pakistani musician,is an interesting presence.
