This Cocktail is all about its ingredients: the sultry Veronica (Deepika Padukone), whose life is one party after another. The timid Meera (Diana Penty), who stumbles off a plane from India and into Veronica’s life rather accidentally, when her initial plans go awry. And then the skirt-chaser Gautam (Saif Ali Khan), your typical Casanova with no intentions of settling down. These three come together to bring a certain kick to this Cocktail – but the question is, is this the kind of concoction that’ll give you a good buzz, or just a nasty hangover? Read our Pros and Cons list to find out.

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Pros:

1) The performances. Deepika steals the show in this one – she made the perfect decision by picking the wild-child role, because she really got to push the boundaries and grow as an actor. Not to mention that she looks so hot, it’s almost a sin. Diana Penty looks pretty as a picture and does a great job for her first role. Saif Ali Khan is… well, admittedly he takes the OTT route, but somehow he’s so reminiscent of Kal Ho Naa Ho and Hum Tum, I couldn’t even find myself minding that. Dimple Kapadia and Boman Irani in their respective roles are fantastic and add an extra dose of humour to the mix. Randeep Hooda suffices in his guest appearance (and who’s complaining about a little extra eye-candy?)

2) It’s fun. At least, the first half is. Some comic moments fall flat on its face (like the Saif Ali Khan/air hostess scene in the beginning), but for the most part you’ll find yourself smiling and giggling – especially since all three of them seem to share a camaraderie that makes their acting in comedic scenes easy and natural.

3) The music. By far one of the best albums of recent times, and if you’re already in love with the soundtrack you’re going to fall even more in love with it after the movie. Tum Hi Ho Bandhu gets some fun, energetic choreography that’s even better to watch on the big screen.

4) It looks great. The movie is packaged perfectly – good-looking people (I thought even 40+ year old Saif looked cute; but that’s a totally personal opinion), fantastic cinematography (Anil Mehta does a commendable job with the club scenes in particular), great direction (Homi Adajania) and fabulous clothes/styling (Anaita Shroff Adajania).

Cons:

1) It’s predictable. It’s the age-old love triangle concept, and this one also has stereotypical characters: a good girl, a bad girl, and the guy who inexplicably gets to choose (when really, these two girls are hot enough that they could have just about anyone eating out of the palms of their hands). You know where the film is going, and it follows that exact path, making use of several clichés along the way. One wishes that this contemporary tale had a contemporary handling of the plot as well.

2) The post-interval half dips. Unfortunately, this film too succumbs to the second-half syndrome, taking the usual dramatic route that takes too long to get resolved. Ideally, the second half should have been kept shorter: the first half is also long, but one doesn’t notice or mind too much since there’s a fun vibe that keeps it light and enjoyable. The post-interval portion though,weighs down the film and should have been trimmed.

Verdict:

The film has its flaws, but is still definitely worth at least one watch. It’s enjoyable and packaged so well that a theatre-watch is recommended, especially if you take along your buddies!