It is a kind of film that demands to be just seen and not felt. The promos promised an unconventional romantic comedy. After the first few testing minutes, we do feel tipsy thanks to a new-age romance, but after an hour of unbridled revelry, it resorts to the same old formula of sacrifice and tears to fix Bollywood’s love triangles. It seems director Homi Adajania is trying to tell a story through an imaginatively shot music video and Imtiaz Ali is trying to touch hearts by writing for a coffee table book full of trendy pictures. In Deepika Padukone and Diana Penty they have a concoction that could turn heads but when it comes to pulling heart strings, the writing disappoints. Like Ali’s Rockstar , the love never gets heady and that’s the least you expect from a cocktail!
Talking of novelty, the girl who is in touch with her wild side is named Veronica D’ Costa. And the coy and culturally rooted is called Meera. For all its technical finesse and modern appeal, the writers have not been able to break through the simplistic stereotyping that over the years suggest that if you are ‘bold’ you are christened either Bobby or Julie in Bollywood. Set in London, for the makers seem to believe two girls can’t share a flat with a compulsive flirt in India.
Dumped, though it is hard to believe, by her husband (Randeep Hooda in a thankless role), desi Meera (Diana) finds shelter in Veronica’s apartment. Veronica (Deepika) is a kind of girl who parties hard and needs her daily fix of alcohol. Coming from a fractured family (again a cliché), in Meera she finds a mate she can trust. In comes Gautam, an incorrigible, commitment phobic Casanova, who doesn’t believe that a thing of beauty is a joy forever. He finds his match in Veronica.
As the two begin to share brush and bed and Meera begins to understand the wild streak of her house mates, the fun element gets viral. Soon the antidote arrives in the form of Gautam’s mummyji (Dimple Kapadia is unusually over the top) and uncle (Boman Irani is hilarious in a cameo). She is desperate to see her son married. Gautam pushes Meera forward because she looks the homely type. But what was meant to be a temporary arrangement turns serious because Meera begins to feel that she is a kind of girl only a boy’s mother will like. And in an attempt to bring her out of the shell, Gautam falls for ‘lonely’ Meera.
It is an interesting twist, and Pritam’s tunes and Irshad Kamil’s words capture the transformation of the girl in a tangible fashion. Adajania cleverly follows it up with moments of silence to draw us into the emotional upheaval Meera goes through. In the meantime, bikini babe Veronica, who till then, was busy giving Meera a make-over, suddenly realises the virtues of salwar kurta in Cape Town, creating confusion for Gautam in the process. This is a Saif territory. He knows every twist and turn in this zone and brings alive Gautam’s wicked sense of humour. The only issue is age is catching up with him and the camera is unable to hide it particularly when he is flanked by two gorgeous babes. Some tight close-ups don’t help either. He is trying a little too hard to fit into a space in which he looked comfortable a few years ago. Any way, this is the best part of the film as Imtiaz’s dialogues and Adajania’s treatment make a potent comment on applying different yardsticks to picking live-in partners and life partners.
It is a step forward for Deepika in terms of performance though Anil Mehta’s cinematography and Anaita Shroff’s styling play a crucial part in giving her act a degree of credibility. Diana lets her natural beauty come through in a role where her silence has to do a lot of talking.
However, once you are done with gushing about the picturesque locales, the hollowness of the subject dawns on you and it is not a good feeling. All the gloss and sauce fail to make us feel for any of the characters because their transitions don’t pass muster. From the breezy first half, the film peters out into predictable situations, scenes that we have grown up watching. The pointless melodrama goes on and on, culminating in a resolution that is unbelievably cheesy.
Cocktail
Genre: Romantic comedy
Director: Homi Adajania
Cast: Saif Ali Khan, Deepika Padukone, Diana Penty, Dimple Kapadia
Storyline: Two girls with contrasting traits fall in love with a Casanova, who gets confused about whom to choose
Bottomline: More a mocktail
