Hindi
An almost perfect concoction
MUMBAI: Take a base of Archie, Betty and Veronica in their innocent (not so innocent here) early days, mix it with age-old 1960s films where the hero eventually falls for the girl embodying the Indian values and add a twist in the form of the other girl falling for him too. That is why this film, with London as its background, is called Cocktail; it is a combination of emotions, but a well-mixed and mostly enjoyable one.
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Producers: Dinesh Vijan, Saif Ali Khan, Sunil Lulla. |
This Archie Andrews, Saif Ali Khan, meets Veronica, Deepika Padukone (which is her character’s name too). She is fun-loving and rich; her idea of fun loving being to accommodate any guy who will be ‘nice’ to her for a ‘few days, a week or a month’, according to her own definition.
Meanwhile, Diana Penty has been done in by one of those dowry-seeking NRIs, Randeep Hooda. He came to Delhi to marry her for money, went back to vilayat and forgot all about her. She landed up to spring a surprise on him but he was not the kind who wanted her to pile on to him. His justification is that it was a fair deal: he needed money and Diana Penty, an orphan under the guardianship of her aunt, wanted to be in UK.
Stranded in a foreign land with nowhere to go and no contacts, Penty is spotted by Deepika Padukone, a couldn’t-care-less type whose parents have been too occupied with their own lives to remember her existence. This Veronica has a humane angle too; she may look full of life but thanks to the emptiness within, seeks the opportunity for a companion. She picks up the damsel in distress, takes her home and they forge a bond of friendship. Both complement each other as Penty turns Deepika’s house into home and Deepika, in turn, teaches her how to dress trendily and to enjoy life. That is when Saif Ali Khan enters their lives.
Saif Ali Khan is a compulsive flirt and anything in a skirt is good enough for him to flirt with. He tried his lines on Penty at the airport as soon as she landed in London but failed to get anywhere. So Deepika decides to pay him back in his own coin when they spot him with his associates at a restaurant; she gatecrashes their party and uses the same cheesy lines he used on Penty, claiming to be his pregnant wife. The incident adds a third angle to Deepika-Penty equation as Saif charms Deepika enough to move in with the duo and into Deepika’s bedroom. Both are convinced that it is a temporary affair like earlier ones. But Penty is uneasy because she can’t stand Saif and is not used to the idea of temporary live-in relationships.
As Deepika initiates simple Penty into London life, the three of them pack in all the fun they can together. This is the fun part of Cocktail. Boman Irani adds his bit every time he is on screen, playing Saif’s mama who has made tall claims about Deepika to Saif’s mother, Dimple Kapadia. She is keen to marry off Saif to a nice, demure girl. Boman has told Dimple that Deepika is all that she wants for Saif’s wife. But Dimple drops in to London to meet Saif’s choice at the most inopportune time: Saif is dressed by Deepika in a see-through dress, lipstick and the rest. He is dancing as Penty is shooting a video when Dimple enters the scene.
It is time to introduce his choice of wife to Dimple and instinctively, Saif introduces Penty as the girl. Deepika, in her tail shirt and panties, is not really dressed for the occasion. But now the fun and games are over as the story turns into one of love triangles hereafter. She was always around but Saif really notices Penty now and love happens. After all, with Deepika it was meant to be only an arrangement sans romance. Things become mushy as Saif now loves Penty, Deepika realises she actually loves Saif and it is melodrama time.
Cocktail, a joyride in the first part, becomes dull after the interval. The scenes look stretched and almost sink the film when, towards the end, it makes up with a plausible and justifying finish. Love triumphs and friendship survives. What works for Cocktail is its no-holds-barred youth appeal. It is not pretentious in projecting love and relationships as they are defined now. The casting is intelligent as is choosing London as the backdrop. Music, which plays a huge part in any romantic film working, plays its part here. The songs are appealing and well choreographed; Yaariyan….,Daru desi … are among the better ones while Tumi ho bandhu promises to be popular on caller tunes circuit. Dialogue is funny where needed.
Performances are generally good since all the actors play what they are good at and are close to their real selves. However, Deepika tops the list with an impressive act throughout; Cocktail is her film all the way. Diana Penty adds freshness and is comfortable in her role. Saif Ali Khan has done such roles before and mastered them by now, so he breezes through. Boman Irani is very good and so is Dimple Kapadia in a brief role. Director Homi Adajania generally handles this love triangle well, only losing grip for a while in the second half, but otherwise blending its ingredients ably.
Cocktail is aimed at the multiplexes-going youth and will be lapped up by them. The film’s opening response is heartening at multiplexes.
Hindi
Jio Studios unveils AI-powered Krishna teaser at NAB Show 2026
Global first look of Krishna uses Galleri5 AI pipeline on Azure, Historyverse slate as Jio’s Dhurandhar crosses Rs 3,000cr worldwide.
MUMBAI: Krishna has just dropped a divine teaser and this time the gods are powered by silicon, not just scripture. Jio Studios and Collective Studios’ Historyverse stole the spotlight at the NAB Show 2026 in Las Vegas with the world’s first teaser for their upcoming theatrical feature Krishna, directed by Manu Anand. The big reveal happened during Microsoft’s keynote “Powering Intelligent Media, From AI Experimentation to Real-World Impact,” where the film’s AI-native production pipeline took centre stage alongside Collective Artists Network’s in-house platform, Galleri5.
At the heart of this mythological spectacle lies a fresh cinematic workflow built by Galleri5 on Microsoft Azure’s advanced AI and cloud infrastructure. Forget bolting AI onto traditional VFX or animation, this is an end-to-end, production-grade system woven into every layer: world-building, character creation, shot design and final output. Yet the storytelling remains firmly director-led, emphasising emotional depth, stillness, music and performance rather than pure spectacle. The result? Large-format theatrical cinema rooted in Indian history and culture, but conceived in ways that were simply not possible before.
Collective Artists Network runs Galleri5 natively on Azure, leveraging Microsoft Foundry and cutting-edge AI tools to handle film, episodic and advertising workflows in a secure enterprise environment. Microsoft highlighted Collective as a “Frontier” organisation successfully moving AI from pilot projects to real production-scale deployment in cinema. The technology is also on display at Microsoft’s NAB booth in the West Hall (Booth W1731).
Jio Studios (Media & Content Business, Reliance Industries), president Jyoti Deshpande said the project advances the studio’s mission to take Indian stories global with scale, ambition and authenticity, “With Krishna, we are embracing cutting-edge AI-led filmmaking while democratising these tools to make them more accessible, intuitive and cost-effective for storytellers everywhere.”
Collective Artists Network founder & group CEO Vijay Subramaniam added, “We’re using technology developed in India to carry our culture and history to audiences worldwide at a scale never seen before.”
Microsoft, vice president for telco media & entertainment, gaming Silvia Candiani noted that the media industry has reached an inflection point, “AI is no longer about experimentation but delivering real impact at production scale… By building AI-native creative systems on Microsoft Azure, Collective exemplifies how storytellers can unlock new formats, move faster and realise a true return on intelligence while keeping human creativity at the centre.”
Krishna forms part of Historyverse, Collective Studios’ ambitious slate of history and culture-driven IPs. The slate draws from iconic figures and traditions that shaped the Indian subcontinent, including stories inspired by Kali, Karna and Durga. It builds on the already-released Mahabharat: Ek Dharmayudh series, showing how ancient narratives can be reimagined for modern screens.
Jio Studios, India’s leading content studio and the media and content arm of Reliance Industries, continues its blockbuster run. The studio’s Dhurandhar franchise led by Dhurandhar and Dhurandhar: The Revenge has become the first Indian film series to cross Rs 3,000 crore worldwide. It also delivered three consecutive years of India’s highest-grossing Hindi films: Stree 2 (2024), Dhurandhar (2025) and Dhurandhar: The Revenge (2026). In just eight years, Jio Studios has assembled a library of over 160 films and series, with more than 60 titles winning over 500 awards. Other notable successes include Laapataa Ladies (India’s official Oscar entry 2025), Stree, Article 370, Shaitaan and Mrs.
The NAB unveiling marks another step in Jio Studios and Collective’s push to blend Indian storytelling talent with frontier technology proving that the future of cinema may well be both ancient in spirit and thoroughly modern in execution. For audiences who love epic tales with a fresh twist, Krishna promises to deliver divine drama, this time with a little help from the cloud.
