Cocktail turned out to be an above-average rom-com flick which can be described as one-time watch. It started with a bang but looses the steam afterwards.

Written by Imtiaz Ali , the story revolves around 3 best friends staying in the same apartment and how their life is blended with a mix with love , friendship , emotions like COCKTAIL itself. Meera (Diana Penty)is a simple homely girl who arrives in London to search for her stone- hearted husband only to get dumped later by him. She meets Veronica ,played by Deepika Padukone, who is wild , care-free attitude , hot chick but has heart of gold. Sympathizing Meera over her bad situation , Veronica shelters in her apartment. Over a period of time , they become best chums. Enter Gautam , played by Saif Ali Khan, who is a Delhi-born , free-spirited , flirty guy . He gets involved with Veronica in a party and three of them started to stay together under the same roof. Over the period of time , the trio be-friends each other and enjoy every moment they share together until the things turns topsy-turvy when one of them fall in love with the other.

Directed by Homi Adajani ( Being Cyrus) , Cocktail was just a time-pass entertainer with nothing new to offer. Ofcousre , once expected it to be like Love Aaj Kal rom-com , considering it was written by Imtiaz Ali but a weak screenplay falls flat at the later point. However , it has share of glorious moments. Some of scenes really do stand out. Like the "sheela ki jawani" dance sequence by Saif and then falling over the sofa after Dimple Kapadia enters the room , the bar scene where Saif shouts Meera's name loudly offending the bar singer, the Yaariyan song picturization. All these efforts make Cocktail watchable. Direction wise , Homi is let down by weak screenplay as it dragged a little towards the end a little. He is still has to focus on pacing of the film. Production designs are glossy and visually appealing. Cinematography is eye- catching showing the glimpses of London and Cape town. Art direction is wonderful. Dialogues are just about fine. Music by Pritam is amazing with "Tumhi Bandi" and "Yaariyan" being the best among them. Coming to the performances, I felt Deepika steals the thunder among three of them. She was not only looking good but also carried her acting with ease. Watch out for her in drunken scene with Diane Penty. Saif was good but not great. I felt he could have done more justice to his role considering rom-com is the genre he is best at. Diana Penty is a complete refresh. The actor gets into the character of Meera with T. She is the one to look out for. Boman Irani and Dimple Kapadia do justice to their part.

I have been a fan of Saif's rom-com movies so I was expecting Cocktial to be like Hum-tum, Salam Namaste or Love Aaj Kal but was little bit disappointed. It was almost but missed the beat. Probably strong screenplay and direction could have made it more versatile. Still going by it performances , music and style-appeal , I would rate it 2.5/5