Direction: Homi Adajania
Actors: Saif Ali Khan, Deepika Padukone, Diana Penty, Boman Irani, Dimple Kapadia
Rating: **1/2
Cocktail is a cute and funny rom-com – which is old Bollywood wine packaged as … a new Cocktail (pun intended!!).
Without delving into the story of the movie … which is a clichéd one boy two girls love triangle… lets accept the reality of it being a box-office hit. In Indian Box Office the movie has raked in 71 crore rupees in the first two weeks, and as per Mohsin Yaseen from Cinepax: “(Cocktail) … managed to do record business in Pakistani cinemas in first 7 days.”
Furthermore … as the story unfolds, the film lives up to its name because of the diverse influences that drive the story and its characters. It is written by Imtiaz Ali, and you spot moments straight out of Jab We Met, Socha Na Tha and Love Aaj Kal. Bits off the pages of Archie comics, a dash of American sitcoms such as Friends, and then the second half leads into a marathon of rona dhona. A hash is what it is!
Both the leading ladies are extremely good-looking, carry their parts perfectly and are a BIG reason why the movie is a box office success. Kudos for debutant Diana Penty, who was extremely charming and holds her footing well.
Another factor working well for the movie is the pretty awesome soundtrack. With songs like “Daru Desi” and “Tumhi Ho Bandhu” which were very popular even before the movie was released, this album is definitely one of Pritam’s best albums in a long time, and each of the tracks are refreshing and arresting!
From the sidelines, Dimple Kapadia gets enough humour in the edgeways with her portrayal of Saif’s loud Punjabi mom. Boman Irani as Saif’s uncle is somewhat restrained, but chips in well for his part.
Thus on the surface (in the promos and in the first half) the movie is a perfect GenNex movie …free-spirit, cheerful vibes, and breezy treatment!
Where the movie falters massively for me is the regressive hidden message that lies within the supposedly hip, modern, GenNex storyline. As Tazeen has aptly put in her review: “The premise of the film was that men fall for behen ji types even when they are man whores and have slept with half the women in two metros (Delhi and London).”
It is ironic to see Bollywood film that offers such a rare substantial female role as that of party girl Veronica — performed by Deepika — who under the pretext of love has a sudden and 180 degree change in her mindset, lifestyle and personality, a little too hard a concept to digest in this age or setup … and more so why is there even a need to do something like thing to the movie and the character?
At its core, Cocktail plays things safe – and is not as intoxicating as it looked!
Spot on with the review!
Thank you Fauzan … Maybe soon you can put up my reviews on your website too
Wont mind a girl taking a 180 degree for me/my family.
but then i m not a manwhore 
. i am definitely watching the movie till the intermission but seems it will take a few more decades for me to actually hit the cinemas.. P.s. I dont watch pirated dvds 
LOL Sal are you for real?! it’s a movie man, a) why do things have to be compared to hollywod at the end of the day ? b) lol @ liberal feminism! this is so pro liberal feminism … deepika is so independent and even the way she approaches saif is not the typical way a girl approaches a guy bollywood or hollywood …
chill out .. it’s a movie …
Madam did you miss the point? Saif enjoyed and used the independent modern women and when it came to choosing partner for life, he like the typical Deai men inclined to the Desi housewife, submessive, pure and untouched lady. Depika realised that is what men really want and started to lean to cook Biryani and dress Desi. Trying to win Saif over. The messege in the movie was clear that men should go ahead and enjoy life with modern independent women and when it comes to marriege they will get their mother to approve a Desi type
The film was morally wrong. I must be the only one who found the rediculous distortion of morality. Even hollywood films don’t fall to these levels. The guy was sleeping casually with a party girl and then fell in love with the pure girl living in the same house. The film degrades women to lowest of standard and absolutely against the modern concept of liberal feminism.
Agree with you 100% Sal – it was morally degrading but the entire era of effort taken by women to establish some sort of an independent identity just took a massive leap baci with Cocktail … and that is a point I have clearly highlighted here in my review too.
I really enjoyed this movie as well as your review! Awesome soundtrack and really well paced movie. glad Saif made this right after agent vinod which honestly didn’t impress me much!
Thanks Siddiqa … !