The plot of the flick revolves around the friendship and ambition of two persons -Mannu (Salman Khan) and Arjun (Ajay Devgn). They are childhood friends, related to each other through their music loving families. However, other than music, Mannu and Arjun are as different as cheese and chalk.
While Arjun’s character is very intense, with leanings towards being a dark personality, Mannu is carefree, loves good things of life and drinks freely. Mannu is content with playing his musical instruments at weddings in his village of Punjab.
However, Arjun is a different man altogether and wants to realize the dream of his grandfather of becoming a renowned musician. To realize this dream, Arjun flees from the house of his relative in London and takes shelter in a music shop.Gradually, by dint of his hard work and grit, Arjun forms a musical band with the help of two Pakistani brothers Zoheb(Rannvijay Singha) and Wasim(Aditya Roy Kapoor), who came to London to make name for themselves in the field of music.
Later, Priya (Asin), a girl from a conservative South Indian family who was brought up on the staple diet of carnatic music and bharatnatyam living in Punjab, also joined the band. Priya and Arjun have tender feelings for each other, but refrained from expressing it openly.
Mannu, too, comes to London and joins Arjun’s band on latter’s invitation. Soon Mannu’s carefree style and natural gift in singing, makes him darling of the audiences and he makes great progress on the London’s musical scene.
However, this also breeds suspicion and jealousy between Arjun and Mannu. Arjun is an ambitious person and can not tolerate anyone overtaking him in his band, even it be his friend Mannu. He started fearing Mannu as his clout was increasing by every passing day.
Mannu, unaware of this complicated aspect of Arjun’s personality, continues living in his own simple world. However, the tension reaches its peak when Mannu expresses his love for Priya openly, with whom Arjun was in love (but had never told clearly).
Now, Arjun conceives a plan for a musical tour encompassing three big cities of Rome, Paris and Amsterdam. Arjun’s game plan is to drown Mannu in the web of drug and sex and destroy his career.
What happens to Mannu and Arjun and their friendship forms the rest of the film.
Salman Khan, who plays the happy go lucky character of Mannu, has come out with a winning performance. His character is author backed and the audience takes a liking for him instantly, especially for his irreverent and unconventional style (largely associated with him in real life, too) in the film.
The scene in the post interval period, when an inebriated Salman Khan feigns ignorance to Ajay Devgn’s talk of taking revenge, is superb and the macho actor seems so real in the frame. His facial expression perfectly justifies the sequence. Salman Khan stealing the original tunes of Ajay Devgn and making his own on their basis is also worth watching in the film.
Ajay Devgan, who plays the part of Salman Khan’s friend Arjun on the celluloid, has portrayed his character with a rare intensity. In any case, Ajay Devgn has always been known for his brooding and intense personality and this character once again justifies Ajay’s specialty.
Ajay Devgn’s intensity is worth watching in the sequence where he vouches to take revenge on Salman Khan for usurping his tunes. Ajay Devgn’s sinister planning to destroy his close buddy Salman Khan out of jealousy, has come out beautifully.
Ajay Devgn has infused life in the character and makes it look real on the screen. His eyes say it all. The chemistry between Salman Khan and Ajay Devgn, who had earlier worked in ‘Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam’ , is terrific, and both seem to have helped each other in coming out with top notch performances in the film.
However, Ajay Devgn’s outburst at the end of the concert seems inexplicable and the intense actor does not come out as convincing as in other sequences of the flick. Even his making it big in city of London without any help, seems unconvincing.
Asin, who plays the lovely character of Priya, enacts her character with panache. She looks stunningly beautiful and her romantic sequences with Salman Khan have come out
very well. This was her second outing after Aamir Khan’s ‘Ghajini’ and the southern sexy siren has proved her worth in bollywood. She is certainly going to get a new name of ‘Chennai express’ (Salman Khan refers her as Chennai express in the film) in bollywood from now onwards.
very well. This was her second outing after Aamir Khan’s ‘Ghajini’ and the southern sexy siren has proved her worth in bollywood. She is certainly going to get a new name of ‘Chennai express’ (Salman Khan refers her as Chennai express in the film) in bollywood from now onwards.
Om Puri, who does not get much scope in the film, has done justice to his small role. Rannvijay Singha, who plays the part of Zoheb and is part of Ajay Devgn’s band, passes the muster. Brinda Parekh has done average job, while Manoj Pahwa succeeds in infusing laughter at some places. Others lend able support to the main cast of the flick.
The direction of Vipul Shah is at par with his earlier hits like ‘Namaste London’ and he has executed most of the scene efficiently. However, at some places he seems to have been bogged down by inefficient writing. For instance, Ajay Devgn’s outburst after the concert and a song number after the emotional reunion of Ajay and Salman are hard to understand.
However, the weakest link in the film is its music by Shankar Ehshan Loy. Not a single track is going to be popular with the masses, despite of the whole film being based on music and musicians. Ideally, the music should have been the strongest point of the flick but it is just opposite, the weakest point.
But the cinematographer has done a commendable job in capturing the spirit of concerts in the flick. The cinematographer Sejal Shah has done an exceptional work on this front and must be appreciated. The background music provided by Salim- Sulaiman goes well with the mood of the flick.
Salman Khan and Ajay Devgn have come out with winning performances but the subject of the flick is such that it will appeal mainly to the urbane, yuppie crowds in big cities. The lack of hit music will also keep the masses away from theatres, despite of it being a good movie. Above average fare.
