In these times of great crises, when Indian women are openly visiting pubs, demanding the rights to their own bodies, refusing to be commodified, challenging the structures of patriarchy in the most unholy way, and most dangerously, forming their own opinions and shamelessly asserting those, in tough times as these, bollywood gifts us a film like Cocktail (not an imitation of the 1988 Tom Cruise blockbuster)- right on time. Directed by Homi Adajania, and starring Saif Ali Khan, Deepika Padukone and debutante Diana Penty, Cocktail is the film of the moment. (Trivia: Homi Adajania is also the same dude who directed a film called 'Being Cyrus' in 2005.) To all those Indian women who have gone astray, I urge you to watch Cocktail, and you shall be blessed with the knowledge, that if you wear short clothes and are in the habit of visiting nightclubs, and drinking alcohol, you may be regarded as 'cool' or 'hot' interchangeably, and have all heterosexual males jump at the prospect of rubbing against you on the dance floor, but you stand very little or no chance of finding a suitor. The ones, who are not particularly keen on finding an eligible bachelor, drink on ladies.
To the guardians of morality, be not outraged by the title or the trailer of the film- it is a film that truly lives up to our Indian culture and traditions (read: Hindu traditions). It murders the individuality of its only woman character who did not suffer from identity crisis(initially) (the only character too), who was not a stereotyped bimbo, who didn't kill the audience with sicko one-liners, and who said the lone funny line in the film, righteously so!
Deepika Padukone plays the ubercool Veronica who along with sexy long legs, has a big heart too- she lets the petite beauty Meera (Diana Penty) move in with her in her apartment after knowing her for five (?) minutes in a public toilet. Also she doesn't like wearing pants indoors, even if its around our drooling perv-like hero Gautam (Saif Ali Khan) to the horror of Meera. So the first half is spent giving culture shocks to our desi kudi while pervy Gautam (Saif Ali Khan) delivers the trashiest one liners possible second only to Agent Vinod (Saif Ali Khan).
When I first watched the trailer of Cocktail, I encouraged the idea of it possibly having a bisexual or lesbian angle to it, knowing fully well that it was Bollywoody Khan film which hires models as actors and has a Punjabi song in its trailer. I even went to extent of imagining that it was perhaps a bad copy of Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona, considering the number of script and copyright purchasing that is happening these days in Bollywood. But certain things remain an impossibility and it will continue to be so- capturing Don, Karan Johar finally mastering the art of direction, Uday Chopra as a successful hero, and bollywood churning out a star-studded yet sensible entertainer.
As tradition documents, when everything goes right in the hero's life, in other word's when there is a clear lack of story, the lad's mother shows up, adding more to the heroin's misery than his own. Here, Dimple Capadia (I was glad to not find Kiron Kher) drops out of nowhere and a puzzled Gautam declares that Meera is his girlfriend- an obvious choice given her desi profile, which normally, should terribly wound the other girl's ego but here she chooses to make changes to gain acceptance from the in-laws.
So as predicted desi beauty Meera finally falls for the lame one liners of Gautam (which happens only in hindi films-do not ever try that on a woman) and Kiss happens after a Pritam song. Gautam who had always eyed Meera from the beginning (the kind of eyeing that your mother will warn you against) is all giddy with true lou happening. In the meanwhile Veronica has undergone a complete metamorphosis (a hint of possible bipolarity) and to impress Gautam's mother (Dimple Kapadia who is of the same age as Saif) starts wearing salwar suits- she even makes a desperate attempt in which she asks Gautam, main aise kapde pehnungi to teri maa mujhe accept karegi? and is treated with complete indifference from Gautam, which is enough to earn him a hard punch across his face.
To add to the audience's suffering, heartbreak happens soon, and Veronica deals with it, exactly in a manner a self-respecting independent woman would handle it. She goes on a drunken clubbing spree- YaY! Only this time on a more self-destructive note. Meera, as her profile suggests, makes the great sacrifice, and moves away from Veronica and Gautam. To some relief, Gautam no longer delivers his signature one liners as love has changed him. Veronica soon realises that Gautam and Meera are meant to be together and resolves to bring them together while dealing with her hangovers.
Happy ending takes over uniting Gautam and Meera and Veronica and her bottle. Moral of the story: you can either choose to be a doormat or step on one. Option one gets you the Man.
To the guardians of morality, be not outraged by the title or the trailer of the film- it is a film that truly lives up to our Indian culture and traditions (read: Hindu traditions). It murders the individuality of its only woman character who did not suffer from identity crisis(initially) (the only character too), who was not a stereotyped bimbo, who didn't kill the audience with sicko one-liners, and who said the lone funny line in the film, righteously so!
Deepika Padukone plays the ubercool Veronica who along with sexy long legs, has a big heart too- she lets the petite beauty Meera (Diana Penty) move in with her in her apartment after knowing her for five (?) minutes in a public toilet. Also she doesn't like wearing pants indoors, even if its around our drooling perv-like hero Gautam (Saif Ali Khan) to the horror of Meera. So the first half is spent giving culture shocks to our desi kudi while pervy Gautam (Saif Ali Khan) delivers the trashiest one liners possible second only to Agent Vinod (Saif Ali Khan).
When I first watched the trailer of Cocktail, I encouraged the idea of it possibly having a bisexual or lesbian angle to it, knowing fully well that it was Bollywoody Khan film which hires models as actors and has a Punjabi song in its trailer. I even went to extent of imagining that it was perhaps a bad copy of Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona, considering the number of script and copyright purchasing that is happening these days in Bollywood. But certain things remain an impossibility and it will continue to be so- capturing Don, Karan Johar finally mastering the art of direction, Uday Chopra as a successful hero, and bollywood churning out a star-studded yet sensible entertainer.
As tradition documents, when everything goes right in the hero's life, in other word's when there is a clear lack of story, the lad's mother shows up, adding more to the heroin's misery than his own. Here, Dimple Capadia (I was glad to not find Kiron Kher) drops out of nowhere and a puzzled Gautam declares that Meera is his girlfriend- an obvious choice given her desi profile, which normally, should terribly wound the other girl's ego but here she chooses to make changes to gain acceptance from the in-laws.
So as predicted desi beauty Meera finally falls for the lame one liners of Gautam (which happens only in hindi films-do not ever try that on a woman) and Kiss happens after a Pritam song. Gautam who had always eyed Meera from the beginning (the kind of eyeing that your mother will warn you against) is all giddy with true lou happening. In the meanwhile Veronica has undergone a complete metamorphosis (a hint of possible bipolarity) and to impress Gautam's mother (Dimple Kapadia who is of the same age as Saif) starts wearing salwar suits- she even makes a desperate attempt in which she asks Gautam, main aise kapde pehnungi to teri maa mujhe accept karegi? and is treated with complete indifference from Gautam, which is enough to earn him a hard punch across his face.
To add to the audience's suffering, heartbreak happens soon, and Veronica deals with it, exactly in a manner a self-respecting independent woman would handle it. She goes on a drunken clubbing spree- YaY! Only this time on a more self-destructive note. Meera, as her profile suggests, makes the great sacrifice, and moves away from Veronica and Gautam. To some relief, Gautam no longer delivers his signature one liners as love has changed him. Veronica soon realises that Gautam and Meera are meant to be together and resolves to bring them together while dealing with her hangovers.
Happy ending takes over uniting Gautam and Meera and Veronica and her bottle. Moral of the story: you can either choose to be a doormat or step on one. Option one gets you the Man.
