Cocktail - Perfect blend of Love, Friendship and Fun

What would the desi version of Vicky Christina Barcelona look like? Cocktail is the answer. Not exactly a rip off but the plot looks more or less the same. After the offbeat psychological drama film Being Cyrus, Homi Adjania has attempted a light hearted RomCom flick, which has been pulled off quite well. The seductress falls for the ultimate casanova who is in confused for his feelings for the distressed miss goody two shoes. Sigh.

Cocktail begins with the sketching of the cheesy character Gautam Kapoor (Saif Ali Khan) who is staying in London with his uncle Randhir Kapoor (Boman Irani), who is an equally colourful man married to a British woman. Gautam is the guy your mom warns you of. A guy any good girl would helplessly fall for because of his charming persona. He is goofy, nice at heart, wild, romantic, sensitive and a womanizer. All the wonderful shades of his character are beautifully unveiled in the due course of the movie. Cut to Meera Gupta (Diana Penty), the introvert, desi damsel in distress. She is a victim of being lured into a hoax marriage by Kunal Ahuja (Randeep Hooda), who conveniently abandoned Meera and absconded to London. She is a beautiful, intelligent and the typical girl any mom would want to take home. She comes to London looking for her husband who shoos her away mercilessly telling her he is going to divorce her in a couple of weeks. Enter Veronica D’costa (Deepika Padukone), the ultimate spoilt kid and a victim of neglected upbringing. She is brash, sultry yet pratical. She proudly carries the I-DON’T-GIVE-A-DAMN attitude and throws it on others just like that. One moment you like her and the other moment you detest her, but you can’t escape her charm. She is the girl Mammas boys stay away from. She meets Meera at a utility store’s restroom. Appalled by Meera's husband’s conning her, she takes her home and lets her stay as long as she wants too. There begins a friendship so strong yet so much fun. The camaraderie captured between two people who are poles apart is just impeccable. Gautam enters their life and joins in the fun when he starts dating Veronica. The threesome fun-some have a blast in this “Frenaissance“, with each of their feeling cut sorted in its right place. No feelings or complications until Gautam , who is 32, keeps dodging of the marriage talks with his homely typical Punjabi mom Kavita Kapoor (Dimple Kapadia).  Tired of these never ending questions he decides to fake a serious relationship with the help of his uncle Randhir. Kavita aunty lands up at their house and mistakes Meera to be Gautam’s girlfriend. The mom is impressed and she starts the melodramatic scenes of the typical kada-for-my-soni-bahu, etc. There begins a series of complications and moments of family love yearning where Gautam and Meera fall for each other and on the other hand Veronica is dreaming of a normal life that she can have with Gautam forgetting the fact that they had both agreed to just have a fling. She realizes how much she loves him and how much she wants to be like Meera. The rest of the movie drags a bit and becomes predictable but definitely not boring.

The story is repetitive yet interesting to watch since its portrayal is very new. The dialogues are good but some are cheesy to the core. The songs are catchy and put in at the right moments. Tumhi Ho Bandhu and Yaariyan are the ones you’ll hum along. Background score by Salim Sulaiman is very apt for the story. The styling in the movie is refreshing and trendy. Watch out for a lot of Meera from Cocktail  trend catching up just like the Meera from Love Aaj Kal  trend.

The casting is perfect. All the actors have given their 100 % to the character and the film definitely doesn’t lack anything when it comes to performances. Saif Ali Khan with his endearing performance makes you forgive and forget his last disaster Agent Vinod.  Diana Penty looks fresh and promising but still seems stiff at times. Deepika Padukone, unexpectedly, has given her best performance in this movie. The movie is a pleasant blend of fun, love, friendship and humour, which is exactly what everybody is expecting from it. Give this Cocktail a try, u won’t regret it. J

Rating :- 3/5