Editor Arunkumar's debut flick as director 'Cocktail' is faithful remake of the Canadian flick, the Pierce Brosnan starer 'Butterfly on a wheel'. Though the scripts has even converted some of the dialogues from the original for the Mollywood flick, the director and his crew has certainly succeeded in planting the movie in Kerala landscapes with needed believability.
The movie set at Kochi has Anoop Menon as Ravi Abraham (Anoop Menon), a perfect family man and top architect of an construction firm, famous for skyscrapers. With a beautiful and sexy wife Parvathi (Samvrutha Sunil) and a lovely daughter, he lives a wonderful life that is often envied by others and expects to be promoted in his job sooner. When Ravi's boss invites him to spend the special day with him, he hires a nanny named Beatrice to take care of his daughter, as his wife Parvathi needs to join a party with her closest friend Ancy, the very same day.
Thing go out of control on the day as a stranger asks for a lift, while Ravi is taking Parvathi to Ancy's place. The perfect stranger who appears a little odd suddenly starts dictating things and blackmailing the couple as he informs them that their daughter is already in his custody. The couple who is forced to withdraw their entire money in the bank soon sees the stranger, later known by the name Venki (Jayasuriya), burning the currency and throwing the entire treasure into a river. In that disastrous day, the couple is made to obey a lot of weird things asked by the calculating sociopath who appears to have nothing to lose. But towards late night, the couple is also made to realise the biggest truths behind their perfect life.
The highpoint of 'Cocktail' is that as much as the original, this movie too succeeds in keeping you engrossed till the final scenes and suspense are thrown open. The movie has certain interesting dialogues and genuinely engaging sequences penned by Anoop Menon, (strictly following much of the sequences in the original) which doesn't give you any glimpse of what is following. The crew must also be applauded for taking such a gutsy theme for their debut flick. The very few diversions from the original including the opening placement of office rivalries and the short epilogue in the climax also work well for the movie.
Jayasuriya once again looks convincing with intensity filled eyes and looks, in a thickly grown beard. Samrvutha Sunil has the role of her life which she plays to perfection. Anoop Menon is appealing, but appears not too much perplexed with the situations that he is in, once he realises about the risks of losing his daughter. Fahad Fazil and Innocent also play to their characters.
Pradeep Nair behind the camera has used the best of the opportunity with quality frames while the songs by Alphonse are quite good. Ratheesh Vega's BG scores are engaging and lift the mood of the flick.
Altogether, director Arunkumar has succeeded in making out a quality redo of an international movie, with acceptable technical and narrative perfection. Find 110 minutes of free time and Go for this 'Cocktail'.
