Cocktail that's actually a Mocktail

Cocktail written by Imitiaz Ali and Sajid Ali may not be strong enough if you’re looking for a high or to taste something new, but it sure is something you’ll enjoy in small doses. Directed by Homi Adijania the story is about three friends Veronica, Meera and Gautam.

Meera, played by Diana Penty, lands up in London to look up a husband that married her and disappeared.
At the airport she bumps into Gautam Kapoor (Saif) who when spanked by the nurse at birth, probably thought this is what life’s about. He tries to flirt with Meera who cuts him off by playing the married card, only later to realize that the husband doesn’t want her. while drowning herself in a drugstore restroom, she bumps into Veronica.

Veronica (Deepika Padukone), is a typical ‘ I have all this money in the world but I still can’t buy love’. Veronica decides to help Meera out and takes her home. In a bizarre event Veronica & Meera bump into Gautam, Veronica ends up sleeping with him and now the three start sharing room space and life. While Veronica & Gautam are very clear on being ‘friends with benefits’ he ends up falling for Meera. The film there on is a cocktail of friendship, anger, love, jealousy, caring and a cliche end.

A lot of people obviously didn’t see any of that and trashed the film for being regressive. I would have to agree with them if they said the characters were not well sketched out or the film had clichés, or I’d expected much better, but wouldn’t agree with it being regressive.Now here in the film have they portrayed or referred to Veronica as slutty, so what’s the back lash for? When Gautam ‘s mother suddenly lands up, he introduces Meera as his girlfriend only cause at that point Veronica was neither sober, nor appropriately clothed, seeing her son in hot pants and lipstick the mother was in ‘freak mode - gear three’ already.

Veronica wanting to wear a salwar kameez to get accepted by the mother – people said was regressive. Please note mother accepted Meera in a pair of shorts, so it was only Veronica’s insecurity thinking ‘maybe this is why mom likes Meera’ . When she’s drunk in the club and says she’ll cook for him, she’ll do anything – regression would’ve been Gautam or his mother’s character expecting that, but the scene purely showed the state of a girl who thinks she’s perfect otherwise and the only reason acceptance is eluding her is this. I envy my friends who run homes. Every man expects that, besides having a life of her own, his wife will also make his home. Someone once learnt how to make butter chicken for me, cause I couldn’t find the perfect one anywhere. I’d do the same for him. I think it’s romantic not regressive.

Gautam was very clear he wasn’t in love with Veronica, being ‘in a no strings attached’ relationship does not mean you can never fall in love with someone else – with her roomie, ok so twist of fate. Yes, Meera and Gautam kissed, they shouldn’t have. But they were honest and when Meera realized what Veronica truly felt, she left, without making Veronica look bad - so there was a lot of confused emotions but no backstabbing.

There are some scenes that make no sense in the movie but those you’ll easily figure out anyway. Besides that some beautiful moments and amazing camera work in the film. My favorite is the one which defines Veronica’s frame of mind (when she realizes she’s in love with Gautam) packed club, surrounded by people but still alone – for the director and DP to communicate a non tangible, wow!

Performance wise, the director has not let anyone overplay or underplay their characters. Saif does go a bit over the top but only when he’s playing the carefree Gautam kapoor, I like his switch post interval. Deepika I think is awesome in all the scenes where she portrays, I think I’m ok, no wait- I’m not ok, oh shit I’m too cool to not be ok, fuck off I’m not ok and I’m gonna be like this. I really think directors should start using her more than just a pretty pair of legs to pan up from. Diana Penty held her own , in no scene was her body language insecure screaming look at me! Look fwd to seeing you the next time Diana.

The recipe for Saif’s Cocktail may not have gone down well with people but he’s definitely hit the nail with his choice of music. Irshad kamil whose lyrics created magic in ‘Aaaj Din Chadiya’ , does it again with ‘Jag mujhpe lagaye pabandi, main hun hi nahin is duniya ki’. The album has truly lived up to its title as it brings together a cocktail of contemporary, Sufi, classic, Punjabi. While Pritam’s 'Tum hi ho Bandhu’ is a bit trippy, 'Yaariyaan' is very soulful with an electronic touch to it. The borrowed famous Sufi track 'Jugni' has been used well as background score. 'Daaru Desi' is a nice contemporary number about friendship. Yo Yo Honey Singaaaa’s 'Angreji Beat' is an awesome Punjabi number. So yeah this album scores very high on my ‘loopometre’