Hello! Focus!

There have been very average reviews for this movie. But personally, after watching a spate of flops, waiting through all the hype, going all the way 20 miles and having to think of nice comments to sit through the 75 mins of utter nonsenses that these days movies are becoming, Cocktail was 2.5 hours of  enjoyment.

Breezy, light yet original. Three friends, 2 of them extremely out to enjoy the world, while the other is the conservative-yet-understanding part of the gang that keeps them together and sane, have to come to terms with matters of their heart too.

I went in with zero expectations, and was in fact expecting another rom-com with cheesy lines. But half-way through when the movie started getting funny with the scenes where Veronica catches flirt-boy Gautam off guard with his own drama, I started gaining interest. I knew it was a regular rom-com love triangle, but  the way it was executed was way better than I expected. It plainly showed how matters of the heart can catch anyone off-guard but without dramatizing it more than necessary. Well, even if the characters are crazy enough to make Gautam dance about with ridiculous make up and whatever-costume-that-was, they are still people with hearts, and you never know how it ends up getting everything you already knew as complicated as it can get. They enjoy every moment that life has to offer and it is all hunky-dory until Ms.Kavita Kappoor arrives on 'this side' :). And then the drama becomes real and all that stuff which we expect in such movies, of course. The two who were poles apart find themselves wanting to keep the drama that they put up for the Mom to get real, and then the story starts off getting serious. Diana Penty could've used a little more emotions to keep us grounded, but given that her character is already a muted version, we can live with it.

There are some really hilarious moments in the movie, that I was almost thrown out of the hall for laughing that loud. The place when Gautam is found dancing by his mom, or where Mrs. Kapoor (Dimple Kapadia) tries to save Veronica's life surely would've had anyone laughing off their seats. The movie doesn't delve too much into the characters' work or other social life much, but keeps it within those three only. That was the only negative part that I could think of.
The songs have all been placed with enough sense not to bore the viewer and still letting the movie move along. In many places in the movie, the characters are shot brooding over the happenings in solitude, and we find ourselves also brooding along and speculating how this love triangle will sort itself out. The song 'Luttna' was one of the songs that I loved for the way it has been shot, with very short shots of Veronica standing all alone in the bar which is actually full of people interspersed with the club scenes, and how she tries to come to terms with her situation, and what is really going on inside her.
The conflict that the characters face to keep their friendship and love from not breaking off has been shown nicely. They don't want to lose what they had, but cannot run away from what they feel right now. They never expected it to happen, but now that it has, it can never go back to what it was before.
All songs keep the mood of the movie intact and don't let the audience move out of it. The locations and cinematography is again very good, in fact the actual locations might've been just normal and not as good as in the movie.

Deepika Padukone has given an impressive performance. Maybe it is her eyes that help her express her happiness or agony in equal terms I'm not sure. But she was Veronica in and out there. Saif goes on in the role that he does best. But the best part of the movie that keeps it real for us are the dialogues. It is light, funny and sometimes hilariously casual. Well, 'To phir tu hi propose kar le na' would be exactly what I would expect out of Gautam when Veronica doesn't let him finish his already terrible attempt at a proposal.

It is not a mindless comedy where they show three friends having fun and doing crazy stuff and never being adults. They are normal adults who enjoy life and still have to fight the same matters of the heart as anyone else.
All in all a nice movie which has it's heart in the right place, while the characters go around finding theirs. A modern age love triangle which keeps it light but real.

P.S: Though this movie has received it's own fair share of average to very bad reviews, I liked it, and hence my reviews says it too. Well, this is my blog so why would I really care what the critics think. :D