Cocktail (Hindi 2012)

Cocktail is directed by Homi Adajania whose first movie was Being Cyrus (remember) which I thought was a very good piece of work. And I was quite amused at the expression that someone gave me when I predicted that Cocktail will be a very good movie. I trusted Homi to deliver a movie that was at least as well made as his singular previous attempt.

For those who came in late, by well made, I mean attention to detail, getting the finer aspects correct, ensuring that the right cuts are made, making sure that there are minimal or zero consistency errors etc. etc. etc. At the end of 150 minutes, I was disappointed with all these aspects of the movie – I can now visualize my friend grinning ear to ear saying “I told you so”.

Thanks to a decent story line, this RomCom which is written by Imtiaz Ali and Sajid Ali (and it has Imtiaz Ali ALL OVER IT), turns out to be a decent watch. Cocktail is the story of three people who get thrown in together by some twists of fate and go onto become really good friends. Gautam (Saif Ali Khan) is a Casanova of sorts. A software engineer in London who hits on anything that is in a skirt or a saree or salwar or even a pair of jeans. And is successful more often than not. Veronica (Deepika Padukone) is the female equivalent of Gautam who spends most of her non working time getting smashed out of her wits on endless rounds of tequila shots and other varieties of alcohol.

And then there is Meera (Diana Penty) who is a demure damsel from India. She has flown into London only to find out that her husband (Randeep Hooda) is part of an elaborate immigration scheme and doesn’t want anything to do with her anymore. She bumps into Veronica who takes her in and they become close friends in a short while. In comes Gautam and so does a steamy relationship with Veronica. Meera makes sure that she stays out of their way and makes her dislike for Gautam quite obvious at all occasions – but then one cannot help remember the Airtel tag line about friends.

Cocktail turns out to be a good enough film to be seen once at the end of the day. A story line that has been seen before in Indian cinema but hasn’t been portrayed in a RomCom sort of way. Cocktail bridges that gap for sure but it could have done with some better finishing. The performances are reasonably strong across the board but I was disappointed with Deepika who has gone over the top at times. Diana Penty is quite good if you manage to look beyond her stunning looks that is (I can assure you it was extremely difficult) – but I guess she will stick around just on the basis of the latter for a while to come.

Superb performances from Boman Irani and Dimple Kapadia who outshine everyone else with little or no effort. Pritam’s definitely inspired music sounds good in parts but not so great in parts. Lot of psychedelic effects to show the pain and conflict in Veronica’s mind towards the end. Was irritating but good. Overall, worth a dekko. Don’t expect much and definitely don’t expect something as good as Cyrus. 5 on 10.

Watch the trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FfBzyiU0ZU