Cocktail Review

Director: Homi Adajania

Cast: Saif Ali Khan, Deepika Padukone, Diana Penty, Boman Irani, Dimple Kapadia, Randeep Hooda

Cocktail is very openly regressive in the 2nd half. It pretty much says you have to dress the Indian way, cook, pray and take care of your guy if you want to marry the man. It even shows Veronica praying like Meera. Inspite of a lot of issues the movie is still likable.

The movie should have never been set abroad. I think it would have worked much better if it was set in India. Software Engineer going around flirting and having flings right from the flight – yes this is what our desi software engineers usually do. He is even hitting on his boss in a company meeting. Imtiaz Ali once again shows that he knows jack about how they work in companies.

Deepika takes a British woman’s hand and places it on her womb and says “it is his bun in the oven” and the women reacts in a way a typical old Indian woman would. I think that scene was written with a Indian setting and in Hindi and then translated into English. Imagine Deepika going to Saif and telling that cliched line “Mere Pet Mein Tumhara Bachcha Pal Raha Hai” by placing some old Indian woman’s hands on her womb.

Diana comes to London to meet her husband but he does not show up. Now why does he even invite her to UK if it was a sham marriage? And the mother shows up for a few days and they all go to Cape Town, South Africa from London. Why? Because the producer had enough money and wanted to shoot in Cape Town.

The movie is also very Love Aaj Kal-ish in second half.

Saif is good in some emotional scenes but very annoying in a lot of other scenes because he clearly looks too old for the part. They try to pass him off as a 32 year old but he looks more like a 40 year old. He seens so wannabe when he is trying to be cool like a fresh out of college grad. There is a stupid scene where he keeps talking in Hindi to a some British girl and another where a drunk Saif keeps screaming while a lady is singing.

Diana is technically the main female lead – she has a bigger role lengthwise too. She looks very pretty and has acted really well especially for her first movie.

As the already established star, Deepika could have easily gone for Diana’s role but she chooses the more challenging acting part. She acts very well but her accent is nothing like that of a girl who is living for quite some time or was probably born in UK. Accent wise Katrina would have been better. But she is absolutely brilliant in one scene – the scene where she is drunk and breaks down.

Deepika’s character seems very easy going and carefree type on the surface but the breakdown scene reveals that the devil may care attitude is all a pretense of hiding her hurt. She is hurting beneath that her parents dont really care for her. She is hurting that the person she trusted most – the one whom she considered her best friend and more than family betrayed her. Diana’s character has self doubts because she was rejected by her husband. So the characters have layers – their own insecurities.

Boman Irani is quite annoying. Dimple is good in a brief cameo. Randeep has a brief part too.

The first half is pretty entertaining even with some of the above mentioned issues and bad jokes. The pace drags a bit in the second half because of the drama but it is still not bad. All the songs are very good. Instead of harping on the Indianness or lack of it the movie should have made it more a case of guy falling for the best friend.

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17 Comments
  1. hithere 12 years ago

    “I think it would have worked much better if it was set in India. Software Engineer going around flirting and having flings right from the flight – yes this is what our desi software engineers usually do”

    I laughed very hard 🙂

    The movie has some good light moments and couple of songs and you have a hit movie.

  2. narad_muni 12 years ago

    Sputnik,

    Thanks for the review!
    You said the movie is overall likeable but you have devoted almost 90% of the review to bashing the movie 😀

    A bit more balanced, may be, to justify the overall likeability!

    • Author
      sputnik 12 years ago

      That’s what so strange about it. I did not like so many scenes in the first half and yet in the end I ended up liking the movie 😀

      May be it has something to do with the characterization or may be it was because how good Deepika and Diana looked 😉

      I think with the movie set in India and with a younger male lead (Ranbir/Shahid may be) and by avoiding some of the unnecessary regressive stuff the movie could have been very good.

      I watched half of Bol Bachchan and it was so unfunny except for a couple of scenes. Everyone was being loud – it was like watching Comedy Circus which I dont like either.

      So may be it has to do something with watching movies like BB/RR & TMK that I ended up liking this more.

      • narad_muni 12 years ago

        Sputnik,
        I think I got the reason for your liking –
        “may be it was because how good Deepika and Diana looked 😉 ”

        I am absolutely bowled over by Diana without even watching the movie. She has an amazing freshness which I find addictive.. feel like looking at her time and again..will watch this movie for her! 😀

        About BB, I know it is not my type…so, given it a miss.
        I liked Golmaal (1) but found the later 2 instalments of the Golmaal series pretty terrible.

  3. Baba Ji 12 years ago

    Some good points sputnik.

    Just saw the movie on camrip.I dont know if it was the bad A/V but I could hardly find anything entertaining.May be not the film I was wanting to see.I was looking for some adult jokes and sex scenes.and kept FFing to get glimpse of atleast some kissing scenes.There were two of them i think but dont know if the lighting was poor or it was just poorly shot.

    Diana was good.Deepika acted well in some emotional scenes.Saif was woefully out of form.looked like sugar daddy trying to woo daughters.

    There was scope of a lesbian angle in the film when Deepika says to diana “Gautam (saif ali khan) to aate jaate rahenge life mein,tum mere liye important ho” and her plans for the “awesome threesome”. 😉

    • Author
      sputnik 12 years ago

      Its clearly not the film you wanted to see 😉

      Yes the scene on the bench had some lesbian undertones. After saying those dialogues Deepika moves apart from Diana 😉

    • narad_muni 12 years ago

      Baba Ji, LOL

      you expected a porn or what ?

  4. Milind 12 years ago

    Live Review as I am watching the film:

    1. Saif seems uncomfortable and awkward. he has done such roles before and this one is a routine.

    2. In his scene of flirting with his boss–he is damn out of place!!

  5. Milind 12 years ago

    3. Deepika in that dramatic give-back scene in that restaurant– Bun in Oven scene– is good.

    4.Diana seems at ease in her first film.Atleast much better than likes of Diya Mirza etc.

    5. Hate this scenes of trying to make a girl dance on the table with men around to make her look lively and cool.It defies the whole essence of a carefree and lively woman. Carefree was Meg Ryan in SiSeattle!

    6. Why is Deepika making everyman’s hand reach her bums.Is that definition of being breakaway from world.Such utilisation of sexuality to demonstrate the particular attribute is damn regressive!

    7.W/O any certificates and LOR “THE BIGGEST GRAPHIC DESIGN COMPANY” offers Meera a Job!! Wowwwwwwwwwwwwwww [ In Saif’s style]

    8. An unlikely friendship between Meera and Veronica seems damn undercooked. You cannot feel the bond. There was a film “Thelma and Louise”– one should see it for bondage between two female leads.I do not expect such camaraderie but then I didn’t even get 1%.

    9. Boman Irani is not convincing. This film is going nowhere.I rarely dislike films.This film is seriously dis-interesting!

    10. Daru Desi has somewhat prevented my mind from getting distracted. Guess now I know why Indian Cinema has songs..

    11. The firts real laugh of the film happens– Saif dancing in that attire and Dimple arriving!

    12.Now the film has started with some sense….but still this representation of urban NRI class is damn idiotic.

    • Author
      sputnik 12 years ago

      Milind watch the movie and then write a review. If you live tweet after every scene how can you enjoy the movie?

      • hithere 12 years ago

        You can combine all tweets in one comment 🙂

  6. Milind 12 years ago

    Three Indians making a whole beach party in SA swing to Tum Hi Ho Bandhu!! Wowwwwwwwwwwwww.. Kjo has certainly ruined a few aspects of film presentation.The worst part is that we all have become comfortable with it!

  7. Milind 12 years ago

    Phoolon ka Milna…making fun of a thing that the film actually tries to achieve!!

  8. Milind 12 years ago

    Strange,…. I can count 99 bad things about this film… I liked maybe 1-3 stuffs..still I ended up liking the film..It left me unirked and gave me a moderate smile too!

    Is the critic inside dying? Fellini——– come to rescue Lord!

    • narad_muni 12 years ago

      Milu, loved your live commentary.
      Something different and interesting.

      Going by the audience reaction, I don’t think the movie will trend that well..may be 85 cores life time

    • aryan 12 years ago

      @Milind
      I missed your comments on TQ since 2 weeks nice to C U once again.
      tomorrow i am going to watch Cocktail.

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