Post 'Dil Chahta Hai', Indian cinema developed a young urban audience which was receptive to hip films. Trendy music, trendy fashion, trendy plots and trendy urban setting. Hum Tum, Salaam Namaste, Wake Up Sid, Rockstar etc. were targeted towards the same segment and were accepted by the audience as well. These movies made Saif and Ranbir stars of the multiplex audience while Khans, Ajay Devgan and Akshay Kumar remained the superstars of masses.

Cocktail is another film for the same audience, with the same cast and believe it or not, actually almost the same story line as previous films. Does this Cocktail have all the right ingredients to quench the thirst of the modern cine-goer? The answer is No. And it's a big flat NO.

With some inspirations from 'Vicky Christina Barcelona', Cocktail is a love triangle on the lines of 'friends with benefits'. Guy chooses one girl over the other, jealousy sets in and in the end one of the two girls offers a sacrifice. Co-written by the seasoned Imtiaz Ali and debutant Sajid Ali, Cocktail's weak script is its biggest weakness. I would put more blame on Imtiaz for not doing justice to his own original thinking by literally borrowing scenes, treatment notes and dialogues from Love Aaj Kal. Never mind the climax or even the name of the heroine i.e. Meera. Imtiaz's first four writing ventures were as authentic as film writing can get. He did take a few creative liberties in Rockstar but in Cocktail he goes the route writers like Robin Bhatt or Shiraz Ahmad (Knock Out, Prince, Jaanasheen) would take. Convenience of co-incidental meetings of Indian strangers in London, supportive Indian snobbish girl offering her apartment to a total stranger, nobody having a British accent despite being brought up in London, Deepika's multiple mental transitions and mysterious new injuries Randeep Hooda carried in every scene and much more.

The director Homi Adajania in his second ventures misses more targets than he hits. In some sequences he is brilliant but those sequences are rare and are mostly performance driven by actors. In others, he struggles to communicate his point with authenticity. The film has a poor first half hour with over the top and deliberate cheesiness of Saif's character and senseless turns of events that you would expect from a Salman Khan's no-brainer. The middle part of the film is good, has strong comic segments and the story develops fast but as the climax approaches, things become way too predictable and mundane. The kind in which you start looking for loo breaks or tweeting.

The one thing which does not disappoint much in the film is the acting bit. In fact, performances are the savior of this otherwise sinking ship. Surprisingly, these are not lead by the main characters but Dimple Kapadia and Boman Irani's supporting roles. Dimple has delivered an ace while Boman is not far behind either.

Saif, besides the first half hour, does well too even though he was a bit over-dramatic for my liking. Excellent comic timing nonetheless and effortless dialogue delivery. Whether you want to see Saif Ali Khan as a 32 year old bachelor or not is a different story. Deepika Padukone has never been a great performer but a bearable one and the status remains intact. Her outrageousness as a party girl was convincing but her emotional banters was weak. Diana Penty gets a good debut. She looked comfortable in underplaying her part with a charming screen presence. She needs to work more on her dialogue delivery and dancing but she is definitely far ahead of the disastrous Nargis Fakhri. As a debut, its somewhere between Nargis Fakhri and Parineeti Chopra. Randeep Hooda has been wasted.

Anila Mehta deserves credit for his camera work and breathtaking visuals of South Africa. Bosco's choreography is also good to watch. Do wait for the end credits after the film is over as they show some hilarious bloopers and 'Second Hand Jawani', very well shot on steadicam.

I don't want to call it a 'BAD' film because that word I have used for films like 'Tees Maar Khan' and 'Blue'. Also, the thought of calling a film written by Imtiaz Ali 'Bad' is a bit disappointing. Let's say, it's not a great film. It has its moments but the moments are very occasional. You should watch it in the theater only if you are a die-hard Saif, Deepika and Bikini scenes fan. If not, wait for the TV airing.

It isn't the first time Saif Ali Khan got paired up with the much younger Deepika Padukone in a love story, given his production house Illuminati Films had put them together in Love Aaj Kal, where he had to romance Padukone and Giselli Monteiro playing vastly different characters in two different timelines. Cocktail may seem to have adopted the same formula for the second time round, since Love Aj Kal had garnered relative success, so why not repeat it one more time, though now the characters all exist in the same, modern era, where one has to tussle between traditional values, and the sexier, open relationship offering that one can find someone else to agree to.

Saif Ali Khan once again turns on his act-cute demeanour. He can be all serious as seen in his last three films Kurbaan, Aarakshan, and Agent Vinod, but is in another dimension when he plays a character who has to balance suave, drama and a sense of humour. His Gautam comes across as a bazooka, constantly firing with little accuracy in his very blatant courtship rituals, that earns him the label of a flirt. In all honesty I prefer his serious roles a lot more when he has to ham it up, so you can guess it was sheer torture to see him dumbing it down, and trying his best to romance two different women when he falls for one, and then the other, sequentially. But I have to admit I was in stitches when he provided his rendition of Sheila Ki Jawani in a scene that almost modelled after Dostana's with mother (Dimple D=Kapadia) dropping in unexpected to catch her son in the most compromising of situations.

And Dimple Kapadia provided the narrative catalyst after the first half hour languished at doing its best to introduce all the characters. The two women in the story are your classical opposites, one a partying, carefree soul, while the other a more conservative, naive girl who found herself caught in a marriage sham, and became homeless in London. Deepika Padukone was given a choice to play either role, and she picked the former just so as to dabble in a role she hasn't tackled before. She did vamp it up in an item for Dumb Maaro Dumb, but that was nothing more than to show off her sensual, gyrating moves on the dance floor which got repeated a lot more times here as the perennial clubber whom everyone knows on first name basis.

Her Veronica is that poor little rich girl, who holds no relationship with her parents other than with their bank account, and flits from night to night in the different arms of random men she picks up in the clubs and bars. One particular scene which I thought was brilliantly done, was to bring out this distinction and to highlight her loneliness against a typical busy night, that her relationships account for nothing since they're superficial, and served as a wake up call as to what should be more valued in her life. Gautam's mother also served as inspiration for the girl who prances around the home without pants (a chance to show off a lot of leg, really),as her yearning for motherly love pushes her in the direction and provides incentive in trying to become someone whom she isn't really cut out to be.

While Saif Ali Khan and Deepika Padukone are old hands now in Bollywood and can play their roles with their eyes closed, attention therefore turned to newcomer Diana Penty, who plays Meera, finding herself from Delhi to London, and in a series of coincidences, becomes Veronica's housemate and best friend, and then rival in love when her initial dislike for Veronica's boyfriend Gautam turned into something else when they all had to play pretend to throw Gautam's mom off their tracks for a few days in a Cape Town holiday. The biggest transformation in character here, it provided Diana Penty with enough bandwidth to showcase her acting chops, from demure to being proactive, from frail to confident, taking charge of her own affairs, and even devising schemes to fend off stalking attempts. If she does make it big, then cocktail will have bragging rights for first having discovered her, and providing her a chance with the most challenging role of the lot.

There's no lack of urban and exotic locales balanced for the characters in this romance to develop in, and naturally the best scenes involved the song montages where they get to frolic under new environments, which sets the stage for the foundations of friendship first, which will later get undermined when emotions start to get stronger and get the better of some of them. With the usual assumptions and lack of awareness, things get to boil over and the story by Imtiaz and Sajid Ali seem to languish under its own weight of beating about the bush, followed by desperate attempts to throw almost every conceivable scenario at the story and characters so that neither will get to lose face, and fighting really hard, and long, to reach a win-win situation.

Ultimately there isn't much in the narrative to move you, or to sway you to the plight of the characters, since it is they who got into a fix themselves, not being strong to try and play out a no strings attached relationship. It sinks to deep melodrama into the last act, and by the you couldn't really care too much about the trio and interest to see it out - who will Gautam eventually end up with - will start to wane. If it had kept its narrative crisp, and had director Homi Adajania focused more deeper emotions, this might have become an instant classic. Thank goodness for Boman Irani to punctuate the film with humour each time he gets to come on.

Homi Adjania who gave us the refreshing BEING CYRUS(2006) which didn't work but got great accolades is back with COCKTAIL

COCKTAIL may not be similar to LOVE AAJ KAL but does have some resemblances. The plot is nothing novel but well played out, however this time Homi Adjania too wants to play it safe by adding mass appealing light scenes, hit songs.etc The film starts off well, The Introduction of Saif, Diana and Deepika is well handled, it does take some time to get used to the film Slowly it sucks you into their lives, the on goings are predictable but well handled mostly. There are several funny scenes like Saif-Boman scene where Dimple calls Saif, Also their sudden emergence into Saif's house where he is in a drag Also the slowly growing friendship between the three is well handled, Saif and Diana's love angle(interval point) is superb The second half gets melodramatic and slow paced though but there are several scenes well handled like Saif talking it out to Deepika and Diana and Deepika's breakdown at the disco However the Randeep Hooda track does seem half baked and the climax is typical formulaic stuff reminiscent to LOVE AAJ KAL

Direction by Homi Adjania is superb though at times the writing could be better Music by Pritam is awesome, Daaru Desi, Tumhi ho Bandhu are already chartbusters, while Angresi Beats is superb and also Tere Naam Japdi and Luthna, The disco song where Deepika feels alone is superbly edited Camera-work as usual is fantastic Dialogues are good too

Saif Ali Khan has played this kinda roles too often yet he plays it up well, in the first half he plays to the gallery and does a great job and in the second half too in the serious part he does a great job again However age is showing up and he doesn't look 32 in the film Deepika Padukone plays her part to the T and does a great job Her drunk scene is superb Diana is decent for her debut Randeep Hooda has a small role and is sort of wasted Amongst rest Boman Irani is as always brilliant, Dimple Kapadia adds a refreshing spin as the loud Punjabi Mom