*ing : Ajay Devgn, Salman Khan, Asin
Directed by : Vipul Shah

A waste !!

Is it Rock on part 2 but set in London this time? Is it Abhimaan part 2 but relationships changed from husband-wife to two friends? Is it the Indian version of Amadeus, the great yesteryear flick? Is it the same Vipul Shah who gave us the underrated Waqt and the stupid but atleast watchable Namastey London?

Sadly the answers to the above questions are as muddled as the protagonist’s brain in this case Ajay Devgn who plays a hardworking rockstar consumed by jealousy because his friend and band member Salman Khan, a happy go lucky buffoon can sing better.

Devgn and Salman play Arjun and Manjeet respectively, langotia friends in Punjab. But Arjun has dreams and an agenda built on a foolish hilarious purpose. His grandfather committed suicide because of stage-fright at Wembley, London and Arjun is out to avenge that by becoming a singer and playing full house at England’s most celebrated venue. But Manjeet is in his way, unintentionally ofcourse. And then Arjun devises a sinister plan to shove the competition away.

As Thakur would have said, loha garam hai ,maardo hathoda (The iron is red hot, slam the hammer). And that is exactly what Vipul Shah proceeds to do, hammer one boring scene after another on us without getting us anywhere near the desired emotional level. Where is the drama, the tension, the need to feel sorry for Arjun’s plight? Nothing….even in the final showdown, everyone just breaks into a song with zilch concern. The final scene of the film shows what could have been done way earlier - the old “sit-down have a tea-time chat” with a good friend and express what Wembley meant to him. Spare us the contrived drama.

Performances by the individuals don’t rise above the shoddy writing. Devgn is stiff and one-dimensional. I don’t know what Asin is doing in the movie. Tomfoolery comes natural to Salman Khan and he is occasionally funny but comes up woefully short(again thanks to bad writing) in scenes that require more heart. Shankar Ehsaan Loy’s energetic music is wasted on this drivel.

Finally the London in London dreams could have been any Indian city but the director perhaps is the first one to make the British capital look ugly and renders its meaning useless in the title. Do not bother watching this.

Rating : 1/5