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Wow, what happened to April. I don't know about you, but it seems like time is perpetually stuck on fast forward. Either that or all the days are melding into one giant cluster. Anyway, though my time has been taken over once again with card designing, I still have managed to take in a few movies. Here's a couple of thoughts...


Sometimes all it takes for me to watch a film is one song. In this case it was a few, as I think the soundtrack to London Dreams is just about brilliant. And that's a compliment to the Shankar Eshaan Loy team, because it meant I was willingly going to sit through an entire movie with Salman Khan!

London Dreams stars Ajay Devgn as Arjun, the man who's only aspiration in life is to perform at Wimbley Stadium, thus setting right the disastrous embarrassment his family suffered at the hands of his grandfather. Salman Khan plays Mannu, the childhood friend with a natural gift for music that could possibly help Arjun achieve his goals, if a predictable case of the green eyed monster doesn't set in first.

I actually didn't mind this film. I thought Ajay was his handsome brooding self, though to be perfectly honest I could have done without the physical self-discipline. Despite the fact that Vipul Shah probably should have cast someone a little younger for the role, he carries it well. Salman, well what can I say about Salman? He had some fairly important scenes in the film and yet I managed to laugh out loud several times at scenes that were sometimes intentionally funny, sometimes not. If there's one thing I can give him credit for, he sure knows hot to play the ignorant buffoon to a tee! Asin, as the boy's love interest, wasn't nearly as memorable or engaging for me as her role in Ghajini. She was lovely to look at though.



What I remember most about London Dreams is the ending though (and probably not for the right reasons). All I can say is someone must have gotten a heck of a deal on plastic water bottles. Not a bad time pass film I suppose.



I watched Lage Raho Munnabhai quite some time ago, and was really impressed with the way Rajkumar Hirani told his story Munna. Would the first in the series be better or worse than it's successor? The film starts off much in the same fashion that LRMB does, with Munna's goons participating in some charade that's relevant to their "social work". Soon, we discover that it is time for an annual parental visit from the Mumbia crime don's family and watch in amazement as every single person helps transform the area into a very effective looking hospital facade, complete with patients and medical instruments. Oh the lengths we go to impress our parents. However, enter Dr. Asthana (Bowman Irani), and soon all hell breaks loose, shattering Munna's duplicity and breaking the trust this small family had. Deciding not to roll over and give up, Munna decides that he has to turn his lies into reality and heads off to medical school, a journey that includes more hi jinx, some heartwarming moments, lessons learned and some romance all wrapped up in a pretty comical package. Though the be honest, I could have done without the romance bit.


Sanjay Dutt is really just the perfect actor to play Murli Prasad Sharma, and I find it very interesting to take a character that's suppose to be rough and make him so completely sympathetic. Murli craves acceptance from his father, yearns for love and understands the differences between what is morally right and wrong. So he does a little bit of kidnapping on the side - most of Murli's road's paved with good intentions. LRMB was the first movie I'd seen Arshad Warsi in, and I loved him as Circuit. He is the perfect accompaniment to Munna's character, and though he doesn't have a whole lot of extensive dialogues in the film, his sheer presence, his expressions and mannerisms make him a force of comedic talent. Bowman, as always, does a good job in a role that's more caricature then realistic, but what else do we expect from Mr. Irani? Jimmy Shergill has a small role as a patient that's bound to draw out a sympathetic tear, and Gracy Singh (Dr. Suman Asthana) gives the film some feminine charm.

If I had to compare the two, I would say that Lage Raho has a slight edge for two reasons: Arshad Warsi's role as Circuit is more developed, giving the actor more opportunities to shine, and the music is catchier. I had to revisit youtube to even remember the songs in MBBS. However, M Bole To is fun to watch.



One last note. I'm not sure how accurate the info I found is, but I read somewhere that Shah Rukh was the initial choice for Murli, and all I can say is thank goodness that wasn't the case because Sanjay personifies Munna 100%, and the movie would have been very very different had Shah starred.