Coming with the tagline ‘Sometimes good friends may be too good to share’, Cocktail is a love triangle as expected with Saif Ali Khan and 2 lovely women, Deepika Padukone and Diana Penty, being the protagonists. Directed by Homi Adajania, this film is presented by Eros International and Saif’s own Illuminati Films.

Three youngsters Gautam, Veronica and Meera congregate in London and as time passes by, they forge a lovely bond of friendship. While Gautam and Veronica are really chilled out and are casual about relationships, Meera is very conservative, ‘desi’ and is the victim of a hoax marriage. The similarity in their characters attracts Gautam and Veronica towards each other, while circumstances bring Gautam and Meera closer despite their diametrically opposite ideologies. Now, with love in the air, does their friendship suffer and finally who gets who are questions that Cocktail answers across 2 hours and 30 mins of its running time.

Cocktail is a heady combination of friendship, love and a whole lot of fun. There is a certain light hearted and flirty treatment that is there in most of the scenes. Saif Ali Khan is natural and underplays well. He is at home in the casual sequences and also while mouthing funny, sarcastic dialogs. Deepika Padukone is a revelation and this role would be a milestone for her. Her bikini scene is an added bonus for the male viewers. Diana Penty looks notoriously similar to Deepika and is very classy in her looks. She is understated in her acting style.

Boman Irani (as Saif’s mama) and Dimple Kapadia (as Saif’s conservative mother) impress in the scenes that they come in, and they add to the fun quotient of the movie. Randeep Hooda has a guest appearance as Diana’s husband.

Shot in London and Cape Town, the movie is very picturesque and Anil Mehta’s frames are picture perfect. Pritam’s songs are a rage already, ‘Tumhi Ho Bandhu’ in particular.  Sreekar Prasad’s editing could have cut down on some of the melodramatic scenes that crop up in the 2^nd half. The pace suffers as a result. The dialogues are realistic but at instances the characters babble too much and the pace suffers even more.

The movie as such is targeted entirely at the multiplex audiences and in that sense they have delivered what was promised in the impressive trailer. But there is a ‘Love Aaj Kal’ hangover in Saif’s character and the pace of the movie could have been better. Had the light hearted treatment been maintained till the end, Cocktail could have been a perfect stress buster. But, there are moments when the movie tests your patience and these could have been avoided.

Verdict: The light hearted fun and romance resurrect this cocktail.