London Dreams

Vipul Shah's affinity towards the city London continues. His previous ventures as a director, all of them starring Akshay Kumar, have had good music, with Namstey London being the best among the three. London Dreams also brings together Salman Khan and Ajay Devgn after a decade. They were last seen together in Hum dil de chuke sanam. LD is also Asin's 2nd film in bollywood.

Initially the makers wanted ARR as the music director, but due to some problems they didn't get him and have therefore settled for Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy. They haven't been having the best of times lately and there can be no bigger platform to make a strong comeback than a grand musical like like LD.


1. Barson Yaaron : As soon as the song unfolds, you wonder if it's another Rock On from SEL. A true rock song, everyone would have believed had you told them that this was a deleted song from Rock On. Towards the end, a few lines of the Hanuman Chalisa are energetically fused and thus the song makes the prefect start for a musical like London Dreams.

2. Man ko ati bhavey : This song, shot in front of an extremely rare blue-lit Eiffel tower, is basically a fun song that you'd take to after the first hearing itself. It strongly reminds you of another SEL-Salman number, Tenu Leke from Salaam-e-ishq. But the song does appear too local to be shot in front of something sophisticated like the Eiffel!

3. Tapkey Masti : From the Eiffel tower, transport yourself to the fields of Punjab. An extremely earthy song blended with the electric guitar, Tapkey Masti isn't bad but would obviously be best received in Punjab thanks to the bhangra factor.

4. Khanabadosh : The song talks about the ambitions of the band (consisting of our heroes and herione) to make it big. Debutant Mohan gets to sing this average song that doesn't make that much of an impression.

5. Khwab jo : For a second I thought I was listening to Ikatra, because the start is so similar! A very slow song, this one's kind of boring too. It's always been bad whenever SEL have tried too hard to create melody. A line goes "Neend ko raag de", and that's exactly what the song does for you. Just as your eyes droop, the crowd roars in the background and you're shocked when you realize that this is intended to be a stage song!

6. Yaari bina : The hackneyed lyrics as soon as the song starts put me off again. Just as I think "Now here's another song going down the drain", the "Yaari Bina" part just about salvages the song thanks to the apt use of the electric guitar.

7. Jashn hai jeet ka : A song that celebrates victory in an album that majorly fails to impress! Again a very average song that you'll no way remember after a couple of weeks. By this time you eagerly wait for the album to be over. But hey, then there's song no:8!

8. Shola shola : A Shano shano [Yuvvraaj] like start raises your hopes of at least a decent finish but as expected, it doesn't happen. There's absolutely no point in a song like this. You won't remember this 2 days after you listen to it. Man, that songs are going to hamper the progress of the film when they're supposed to take it forward is saddening.

The London Dreams soundtrack is a nightmare (a little exaggerated for the pun). Atleast most of it is. A Barson Yaaron can't save the album. SEL, in their quest for experimentation over the last 2 years, are losing consistency and becoming average. Well guys, you do come with perfectly decent albums like Wake up Sid but then that's nothing compared to the phenomenal work you've done in the past. No problem guys, you've established yourselves and of course, you need to experiment. You have a lot of big movies coming up; bounce back!