"Cocktail" is another experiment that brings back the genre of metrosexual romance with the chemistry of a much publicised starcast - Saif Ali Khan, Deepika Padukone and debutante Diana Penty. Homi Adajania is the director and he ropes in the writer-director Imtiaz Ali and another writer to pen the story. Imtiaz Ali is quite unpredictable in his scripts; most of his movies in the past from "Jab We Met" or "Love Aaj Kal" or "Rock Star" have been fluent opuses on love that remains unrequitted till the very end. In this movie, "Cocktail", Imtiaz Ali harnesses his talent at tweaking emotions of love a bit further, he creates a rapport between two girls - Deepika and Diana - then creates a rift between them later through Saif because both the girls want all of him. All this with some common and some bizarre family extensions for all the three.
The treatment is different and title-apt. Homi Adajania uses the laisse~z fare settings of London to weave the characterisations of the three principal actors the way he moulds the story - Deepika as bold and tempestuous, Diana as cautious and conservative and Saif as the quintessential Don Juan - till they all decide to do a flip-flop, in the interest of a happy ending that comes after 146 minutes of a cocktail of emotions. Pun intended. In between, the roles of Bomman Irani and Dimple Kapadia which could have infused variety and connectivity with elderly audiences had they stayed on course a few more minutes. There is also a constant tussle between the BGM score of the impressive duo Saliem-Sulemaan and the intermixed loud jingles of Pritham - despite one or two sonorous songs by Pritham towards the climax, BGM by SS is defining the key moods and moments of the film.
All the three Deepika, Saif and Diana get their share of hogging the limelight but Diana's character is weakest and inconsistent - it is because she is a looker and not an actor. Deepika shines brightest in the second half and tries to carry the film as if it is hers - with audacious dressing, bikini, uninhibitive acting. But at crucial competitive camera movements, our ageing hero Saif Ali Khan shoots from the hip every line that lingers. What he delivers with his eyes and face make it one of his best - he dominates even the hyperactive Bomman Irani sometimes. On the whole, the movie is a multiplex biopic with fast music, good visuals from London and Cape Town and easy fun that is a little more complicated. Could have been shorter - wonder what the Telugu Editor Sreekar Prasad was doing.
The treatment is different and title-apt. Homi Adajania uses the laisse~z fare settings of London to weave the characterisations of the three principal actors the way he moulds the story - Deepika as bold and tempestuous, Diana as cautious and conservative and Saif as the quintessential Don Juan - till they all decide to do a flip-flop, in the interest of a happy ending that comes after 146 minutes of a cocktail of emotions. Pun intended. In between, the roles of Bomman Irani and Dimple Kapadia which could have infused variety and connectivity with elderly audiences had they stayed on course a few more minutes. There is also a constant tussle between the BGM score of the impressive duo Saliem-Sulemaan and the intermixed loud jingles of Pritham - despite one or two sonorous songs by Pritham towards the climax, BGM by SS is defining the key moods and moments of the film.
All the three Deepika, Saif and Diana get their share of hogging the limelight but Diana's character is weakest and inconsistent - it is because she is a looker and not an actor. Deepika shines brightest in the second half and tries to carry the film as if it is hers - with audacious dressing, bikini, uninhibitive acting. But at crucial competitive camera movements, our ageing hero Saif Ali Khan shoots from the hip every line that lingers. What he delivers with his eyes and face make it one of his best - he dominates even the hyperactive Bomman Irani sometimes. On the whole, the movie is a multiplex biopic with fast music, good visuals from London and Cape Town and easy fun that is a little more complicated. Could have been shorter - wonder what the Telugu Editor Sreekar Prasad was doing.
