Cocktail

Plot

Meera Sahni (Diana Penty) is a shy and traditional Indian girl who leaves her family in India to live in London with her husband Kunal Ahuja (Randeep Hooda). While at the Heathrow Airport, she meets Gautam Kapoor (Saif Ali Khan), a shameless flirt and playboy who hits on her and asks her out. Meera, disturbed by his over-extroverted behaviour, politely tells him that she is married and then leaves. Meera searches for Kunal and finally finds him, but he is angry to see her and explains that he only married Meera for money, telling her to stay away from him. This leaves Meera heartbroken and stranded in London with no place to stay. While in the bathroom at a diner, Meera meets Veronica (Deepika Padukone), an aimless party girl who sees Meera weeping and decides to help her. Veronica takes Meera to her apartment and explains that her rich, estranged father sends her a large amount of money through a cheque every month, which helps Veronica enjoy the life of a spoilt socialite. One night, Veronica takes Meera to a nightclub, where they run into Gautam. At the club, Gautam and Veronica dance intimately and make out. The next morning, after a job interview, Meera comes home to find Gautam on the couch. She learns that Gautam and Veronica slept together the previous night. Soon, Gautam moves in with Veronica and Meera, continuing his "no strings attached" relationship with Veronica. Although Meera initially dislikes him, she comes to accept him, and the three become good friends.

Eventually, Gautam's mother Kavita (Dimple Kapadia) and his uncle Randhir (Boman Irani) arrive, looking for him. Kavita is shocked to see Gautam's drunken escapades with the two girls and wants to know if he has found anyone to settle down with yet. She does not particularly like Veronica due to her lifestyle, while Randhir develops a soft spot for her. Gautam lies to Kavita and says that he is in a relationship with Meera because she is the "ideal Indian girl" who would meet his mother's approval. During this charade, Gautam and Meera become closer and end up falling in love. However, Meera is hesitant to admit it because she does not want to hurt Veronica, her best friend. Consequently, Veronica has fallen in love with Gautam and is trying to win Kavita's approval by becoming a "decent" Indian girl.

Unable to continue with the lie, Gautam sits the two women down and explains to Veronica that even though she loves him, he is in love with Meera. Meera apologizes to Veronica, but Veronica assures her that it is okay and insists that they all go to the club to celebrate. However, at the club, a drunken Veronica breaks down, telling Gautam that she will do whatever he wants, and tells Meera that no one has ever used her the way she did. The next morning, the three part ways. Meera decides to go back to Kunal. Gautam is unable to concentrate on his work or move on, and Veronica becomes depressed and engages in increasingly dangerous and destructive behavior. Thereby, the three of them are depressed. One night, Veronica is badly injured after being hit by a car. Gautam rushes her to the hospital. Meera arrives there with Kunal to make it look like she has gotten over Gautam, and makes Gautam promise to take care of Veronica.

Cast

Saif Ali Khan as Gautam "Gutlu" Kapoor

Deepika Padukone as Veronica Melaney

Diana Penty as Meera Sahni

Dimple Kapadia as Kavita Kapoor, Gautam's mother

Boman Irani as Randhir "Tinku" Malhotra, Kavita's brother

Randeep Hooda as Kunal Ahuja, Meera's husband

Tina Desai as Waitress at the cafe

Manoj Pahwa as Lovely Chaddha

Mia Uyeda as Air Hostess

Charlotte Quita Jones as Charlotte, Veronica's friend

Sophie Sumner as Sophie, Veronica's friend

Production

Casting

Priyanka Chopra was the original choice for the role of Veronica, but was ultimately not cast due to creative issues. Deepika Padukone and Imran Khan were initially signed on to play the leads in the film, after their chemistry in the promos of Break Ke Baad (2010) struck a chord with the youth. However, the latter declined the film and was consequently replaced by Saif Ali Khan, who decided to also produce the film under his production house Illuminati Films. Padukone was offered both the roles of Veronica and Meera, however the character of Meera was similar to her role in Love Aaj Kal (2009) and so she chose the role of Veronica as a challenge. Model Diana Penty, who was earlier supposed to play the female lead in Imtiaz Ali's Rockstar (2011), was later signed on to Cocktail instead, on Ali's suggestion, and thus made her debut in Bollywood.

Filming

Principal photography began at the end of May 2011, in London. Many scenes were shot indoors, although the crew primarily filmed on the streets of London. Locations of the filming in London included Borough High Street, Borough Market, Portobello Road, Leicester Square, Piccadilly Circus, Mayfair, Clapham Junction, Battersea Park, Bank Station, St. Paul's London, Colville Gardens (Notting Hill) and Brick Lane. The film was also shot in Cape Town, South Africa. Padukone had gyrated to a Punjabi party song ("Main Sharaabi") at The Clapham Grand nightclub in Clapham Junction, by dancing on a table. This is reminiscent of a dance sequence in the song "Chor Bazaari" from Love Aaj Kal. Whilst security was extra tight on the day to prevent outsiders entering the premises, a DJ was hired for the music and club lights were also used to make the scene look as real as possible.

Marketing

The trailer of the film was reported to be attached to the prints of Khan's previous home production Agent Vinod (2012), although the makers decided against this for unknown reasons. The official trailer was eventually launched on 21 May 2012, to a phenomenal response from critics and audiences, crossing 1 million hits on YouTube within 3 days.

Reception

Critical response

Cocktail received positive reviews from critics, who praised the direction, soundtrack, humor, cinematography, costumes and the performances of the cast, with particular praise directed towards Padukone and Penty's performances. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 67% of 6 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.4/10.

Rubina A. Khan of Firstpost gave the film 4/5 stars, saying that "Cocktail is a contemporary film that reflects life as it happens all around us…. just as crazy, twisted, beautiful, funny, weird and lonely as anyone's life can be. It's about easy choices and hard decisions and how life still goes on, despite it all. It's a cocktail you definitely wanna try!"

Khalid Mohamed of Deccan Chronicle gave the film 3.5/5 stars, concluding that "Whatever the flaws and dips in energy-level, Cocktail is a feel-wonderful film. Shake it, stir it and get nicely woozy." Meena Iyer of Times of India gave the film 3.5/5 stars, commenting that "What Cocktail should be truly applauded for is its permissiveness. As a film it breaks shackles and ushers in a new free spirit that Gen-Now will relate to." Aniruddha Guha of DNA India gave the film 3.5/5 stars, stating that "The best thing about Cocktail is that it is as different as a film can get within a very conventional format. My favorite scene has Gautam talk to Veronica and Meera together about his feelings towards each of them. "Look. You love me. I love her. Let's sort this mess out." A rare moment in Hindi cinema!" Anupama Chopra of Hindustan Times gave the film 3.5/5 stars, commenting that "This cocktail is full of fizz."

Nabanita Roy of One India gave the film 3/5 stars, concluding that "On the whole, Cocktail is colourful, fascinating and attention-grabbing. Though the film suffers a few loopholes, but, you definitely can't ignore the threesome magic of Dippy-Saif-Diana." Resham Sengar of Zee News gave the film 3/5 stars, stating that "Cocktail is worth a try!" Devesh Sharma of Filmfare gave the film 3/5 stars, concluding that "All-in-all, it's a nice urban romance. But again, this isn't how I would like to describe a Imtiaz-Homi collaboration. You expected something with a twist, what you get is a pat too sweet – a Bloody Mary without the Vodka." Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV gave the film 3/5 stars, commenting that "Cocktail has just the right mix of fizz and flavour to allow the occasional and inevitable crinkles of triteness to flow well below the surface. It is definitely worth a visit to the multiplex." Vinayak Chakravarthy of India Today gave the film 3/5 stars, concluding that "If Cocktail works, it is mainly for the characters Imtiaz has penned well as the cool with which the lead stars live them on screen." Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama gave the film 3/5 stars, saying that "On the whole, Cocktail has a fascinating first-half, charismatic performances, harmonious music and the trendy look and styling as its aces, but the second-half is not as tempting or intoxicating as the first hour. It pales when compared to the attention-grabbing first-hour. Yet, all said and done, this one's primarily targeted at the Gen Next, especially those in metros, who might identify with the on-screen characters." Blessy Chettiar of DNA India gave the film 3/5 stars, stating that "You can't hate a film like Cocktail nor can you love it in totality. If you've liked Ali's storytelling before, there's no harm in catching it at least once. Cheers!"

Music

The soundtrack was composed by Pritam, with lyrics written by Irshad Kamil. The rights of a famous Pakistani Sufi song were bought for the film. "Alif Allah" (a celebration of Allah, Islamic prophet Muhammad and other Khalifs), originally sung and popularized by Pakistani Punjabi folk singer Arif Lohar, was revised.

"Angreji Beat", a Punjabi song sung by Yo Yo Honey Singh and featuring Gippy Grewal, is also used in the title credits, as well as the trailer, though hasn't been included in the album. One of the songs "Main Sharaabi" has been composed by Singh and sung by Pritam. The background score is composed by Salim–Sulaiman.

The music album of Cocktail received highly positive reviews. "Tumhi Ho Bandhu", "Daaru Desi" and "Second-Hand-Jawaani", which featured the three leads became chartbusters. "Tumhi Ho Bandhu" paved the way to #1 at the Radio-Mirchi Top-100 Countdown.

Box office

Domestic

Cocktail had an excellent opening of 75–80% on average at multiplexes and having bumper opening at many multiplexes of North India at around 100%. The film had a very good first day as it collected around ₹108 million (US$1.1 million) nett on day 1. It showed good growth on Saturday as it collected ₹118 million (US$1.2 million) nett. Cocktail had an extraordinary weekend at multiplexes than single screens as it notched up business of around ₹36.7 million (US$380,000) nett from both. Cocktail held up well on Monday as it collected around ₹60 million (US$620,000) nett. Cocktail collected around ₹50 million (US$520,000) nett on Tuesday. The business after 5 days is approx ₹468 million (US$4.9 million) nett. Cocktail did good business in its first week as it collected ₹545 million (US$5.7 million) nett approx at the domestic box office, making it the first multiplex-targeted film to cross the ₹500 million (US$5.2 million) mark in the first week. Cocktail grossed ₹173 million (US$1.8 million) nett approx in week 2. Cocktail fell badly in its third week due to new releases. The film has collected ₹730 million (US$7.6 million) nett in 3 weeks. It was declared a box-office hit. In the domestic market, its final figures came at ₹750 million (US$7.8 million). The film's final all-India distributor share was ₹373 million (US$3.9 million).

International

Cocktail opened well in overseas markets. The opening collections was around $2.6 million. Cocktail dropped in its second weekend and has grossed ₹207 million (US$2.1 million) in 10 days. The film eventually collected US$4.50 million overseas.

Home media

Cocktail was released on DVD and VCD by Eros International on 13 September 2012. The DVD is a 2-Disc edition, having Bonus Features on a separate DVD along with. The Blu-ray of Cocktail was released on 29 September 2012, again a 2-Disc edition (Blu-ray + DVD) with Bonus Features on the DVD. The film is also made available on Eros Now.

Spiritual sequel

A spiritual sequel, Cocktail 2 was released on 19 June 2026, with Adajania returning as a director. It stars Shahid Kapoor, Kriti Sanon, and Rashmika Mandanna.