COCKTAIL: Right proportions of mixture a hunting quest
July 14, 2012 03:09:20 PM IST
By Enkayaar, Glamsham Editorial
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As the name suggests, COCKTAIL indeed is to be savored when the mixtures that constitute the COCKTAIL are added in correct proportions. From the time when the film unfolds, where Saif Ali Khan goes upside down to try to undertake antics and patao her, as it is a long flight to London, it becomes apparent that the film is going to be a saga of flirting, romance striking and then attempts to convert romance into marriage.
The name of the lady characters chosen in COCKTAIL are give away in their own about the kind of personae that the characters would be etching in the film. So a Deepika Padukone as a Veronica is a flirtatious girl who drinks, dances, does not bother about the societal norms associated with a girl hailing from India, even not having any inhibitions about entering into physical relationships. On the other hand, the new kid on the block Diana Penty, who is Meera in the film tries to be as virtuous, prim and proper as the name ordains, and is again portrayed as a role model, a girl should aspire to be, eventually Veronica also veneering to the norm, which is where the admixture to make the COCKTAIL loses its fizz.
COCKTAIL has another stereotype of loud Punjabis, now Dimple Kapadia donning the role, probably with an aim to pander to the Diaspora, but it is high time the stereotyped notions were broken as Punjabis apart from being loud and "desi", have also gone beyond the notion and have attained certain levels of sophistication, that needs to be injected through the cinematic oeuvre as well.
COCKTAIL began on a very good note of how brides from Punjab are duped into marriage and when they arrive in London, find that the husband to which they have been betrothed does not want them at all. Many a families in Punjab have been destroyed owing to this, and this aspect also should have been highlighted, but it lost out or rather the argument was turned on the head so to say in COCKTAIL. The maxim is being put forward, as one could interpret a subtle message from the film that for a girl who has been duped into the marriage and finds herself abandoned in places like London, she should fight back to make her place. But the apparent contradiction stems from the fact that Meera is an educated girl, and if she is educated how has she been lured into a marriage of this kind?
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Saif Ali Khan has tried to pander to the funny bone and the drag act performed by him invites guffaws from the audience. There is a subtle hint about seeking inspiration from the speech in Hindi of Chatur in 3 IDIOTS, as when Saif Ali Khan realizes that he has fallen in love he starts speaking in pure Hindi.
Deepika Padukone as Veronica is sort of elaborate etching of the character that she had portrayed in DUM MARO DUM, a typical high society girl who has gone astray as the parents do not have time for her. Reformation however is the requiem as the system does not accept such kind of aberrations in our country, so an accident starts her process of reformation. Till the time that she is portraying the bindas character, she is in her real elements, especially in the scene where she tells Diana- when have you seen me wearing trousers in house- and she cares two hoots about it even when Dimple Kapadia has arrived at her house. But the rebel streak had to be tamed, as society does not like it, so she also undergoes transformation.
Songs of COCKTAIL are thumping and hummable and it is a redeeming feature for the film. All in all, COCKTAIL is a good visual treat, with elaborate shootings of London and South Africa, but the mixture of this kind now needs peppering of some new flavor to make one yearn for these themes.
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