Cocktail music review

4 / 5

Movie: Cocktail

Cast: Saif Ali Khan, Deepika Padukone and Diana Penty

Music Composer: Pritam

Director: Homi Adajania

Producer: Saif Ali Khan

Saif is back to doing a light entertainer after ‘Love Aaj Kal’. For ‘Cocktail’, he joins hands with the people who complemented him in ‘Love Aaj Kal’, Imtiaz Ali, Deepika Padukone and composer Pritam. This Illuminati Films’ presentation hits the screens on July 13^th. On to the music review now.

Tumhi Ho Bandhu … THUMBS UP

Kavita Seth & Neeraj Shridhar

A rocking number to kick start the album.  There is a slight touch of pathos in Kavita Seth’s voice which absolutely complements Neeraj Shridhar’s ‘Tumhi Ho Bandhu’ refrain. The beats are racy and it is sure to rock the dance floors in the country. Pritam is becoming an expert at such pacy numbers. The trailer has already made this song hugely popular. No wonder

Daaru Desi

Shalmali Kholgade & Benny Dayal

This song has a classy guitar presence and moves at a pretty fast pace. Very relaxing number with the 2 singers perfectly complementing each other. The female singer’s voice (of ‘Pareshaan’ from ‘Ishaqzaade’ fame) in particular is sexy. The musical arrangements are also trendy.

Yaariyan … THUMBS UP

Mohan Kanan & Shilpa Rao

This is a beautiful soft rock number with soulful vocals by Mohan Kanan. A totally poignant number that is high on feeling. Mohan shifts pitches very easily. This is one song where the vocals are a bit Hindustani while the arrangement of the song is totally western. A superb attempt at fusion with Shilpa Rao making a nice little contribution as well. The ending is terrific as well.

There is a reprise of the same song which is mellow and mushy with the piano taking over. Sunidhi Chauhan and Arijit Singh do the honors. Sunidhi’s versatility comes to the fore yet again. Arijit sounds like A.R.Rahman at parts and his range is wonderful. This one is a winner as well.

Second Hand Jawaani

Miss Pooja, Neha Kakkar & Nakkash Aziz

This one sticks out from the rest of the songs in that it is totally desi and local. An item number with a tune that will appeal to the snakes. Like other item numbers, this will make you groove and shake your head. But the tune is nothing great.

Tera Naam Japdi Phiran … THUMBS UP

Javed Bashir, Nikhil D'Souza & Shefali Alvaris

This is a beautiful fusion between soulful Punjabi and ‘Aqua’ style bubblegum pop. Tastefully done, upmarket and experimental.

There is a version 2 of the same song which has been made for the dance floors. This one sounds better than other remixes going around. Guess the fusion is just too good that even a remix can’t take the sheen away from it.

Luttna (Saif Ul Malook) … THUMBS UP

Masuma Anwar, Anupam Amod & Sahir Ali Bagga

This is yet another delightful number which is highly indigenous. One of Pritam’s best efforts. The sound effects in this song are random, heavy and psychedelic. There is a small ‘sufi’ touch as well to this song. All said, it is the vocals that do the trick. It is pretty uplifting. 

There is a version 2 for this song as well. The instrumentals for this one are much sober and pleasant with a slight rock touch. The vocals are terrific yet again.

Jugni ... THUMBS UP

Arif Lohar and Harshdeep Kaur

This song featured in Coke Studio Pakistan and is basically a Punjabi folk song. Pritam has reused it. It is addictive, foot tapping and will give you a high. Such is the passionate nature of the song. Both the singers are ‘A-Rate’. What a finish to the album

VERDICT: A smashing album from Pritam. After ‘Love Aaj Kal’, the Saif - Pritam combo has come up with another album that will rock the charts for some time to come. Scores high on variety and innovation. 

Desi Boyz (2011)

It is recession time in London in the year 2009 and 2 'cheddi' buddies Jerry and Nick lose their jobs. Nick has a demanding girlfriend Radhika to maintain while Jerry needs to take care of his sister's orphaned son Veer. They are desperate to find a job but don't find any. Then they come to know of 'desi boyz', a service where hunky handsome men escort and satisfy women with varying needs.

They make money, satisfy many desperate women but soon they lose Radhika (breakup) and Veer to a foster home, respectively. Nick convinces Radhika after persisting for long. Jerry goes back to college, graduates, finds his lady love, convinces the social services department and wins back Jerry. The movie ends with the premise for a sequel in Mumbai.

Hits

• Both the handsome hunks play to their strengths. John Abraham flaunts his body and his looks while Akshay flaunts his energy, charm and comic sense. The lead ladies are hot as well, Deepika Padukone and Chitrangada Singh. They match their Hollywood counterparts in style. The movie has gloss written all over. 
• Nice peppy songs by Pritam. 
• Light hearted movie. Good for killing some time. 

Comments

• The movie has 2 cameos by Sanjay Dutt and Omi Vaidya. While Sanjay is macho, Omi irritates with his gayish style. Anupam Kher plays another of his innumerable so-called funny roles. 
• The college romance scenes between Akshay and Chitrangada are similar to Main Hoon Na

VERDICT

Light hearted time pass movie with the 'male escorts' theme being particularly entertaining. 

Dum Maaro Dum (2011)

The Plot
How a lonely and aggressive police officer, Vishnu Kamath cleans up the drug racket in Goa is the plot. Kamath is after a major drug loot worth 670 crores that is stashed away somewhere in Goa.  He has his small team of 2 more cops. Lorsa Biscuta is the drug lord in Goa and many foreigners and locals work for him. Entire Goa is ruled by drugs and it leads to all the crimes.  Biscuta uses innocent, aspiring youngsters for his drug trafficking business. Lorry and Zoey are 2 such pawns that he uses. The former agrees for his education expenses and the latter agrees for her career as an air-hostess.

There is also a major mystery regarding Michael Barbosa, a mysterious character. In the end, everything becomes clear. Joki, Zoey's former lover is also involved in this as he wants to save Lorry. One of Kamath's trusted cops plays spoilsport and he is actually an informer to Biscuta. After many deaths, some needless, all the drugs are found and burnt in the end leaving Biscuta fuming. Joki also clears himself and Lorry of all the criminal charges and they get back to their normal lives in the end.

                                                                         
Hits

• Abhishek Bachchan is picture perfect as the aggressive cop. Top class show. He looks the part as well.
• Good songs by Pritam
• The film moves very well in the initial stages due to some stylish editing and great visuals. Quite daring for Indian film standards. 
• Rana Daggubati looks macho and mean but is very limited in emoting. Bipasha Basu again looks fabulously sexy. 
• Prateik Babbar as the young Lorry is a natural. His childish voice also suits the part he plays

Misses

• The film loses grip towards the end. A slow moving screenplay might be the reason. 
• The climatic twists are also not very shocking. They leave very little impact.
• The decision to kill the lead police character really backfires. That too for a movie of this genre and that too after showing him in all his glory for most of the film. 

VERDICT

Half baked attempt. Could have been much better given the promising plot and interesting initial scenes.