''Cocktail'' is a 2010

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam was des ...

-language

thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre ...

edited and directed by

Arun Kumar Aravind Arun Kumar Aravind is an Indian film director, editor and producer who works predominantly in Malayalam cinema. Biography Arun Kumar Aravind, was better known as the editor of director Priyadarshan, owns to his credit a span of 10 years' ex ...

. The film stars

Jayasurya Jayasurya (born August 1978) is an Indian actor, distributor, Sponsor, Model, film producer, playback singer, and impressionist, who works in the Malayalam films. He has appeared in more than 100 films and has won several awards, including a N ...

Anoop Menon Anoop Menon (born 3 August 1976) is an Indian actor, director, screenwriter and lyricist. He worked in television before acting in Malayalam films and has acted in more than 75 films. Menon won the Kerala State Film Award for Best Supporting Ac ...

, and

Samvrutha Sunil Samvritha Sunil (born 31 October 1986) is an Indian actress who appears in Malayalam films. She made her debut in 2004 through the film ''Rasikan'' directed by Lal Jose before which she had also appeared as a junior artist in the film '' Ayal ...

in the lead roles, while

Fahadh Faasil Fahadh Fazil (8 August 1982) is an Indian actor and film producer who predominantly works in Malayalam cinema and has appeared in few Tamil and Telugu films. He has acted in more than 50 films and has received several awards, including a Nati ...

Aparna Nair Aparna Nair is an Indian actress, who appears in Malayalam cinema. Biography Aparna was introduced to cinema by the veteran Lohithadas in '' Nivedyam''. After ''Nivedyam'', she portrayed Panchali in the play ''Chayamukhi'', which had Mohanlal a ...

Innocent Innocence is a lack of guilt, with respect to any kind of crime, or wrongdoing. In a legal context, innocence is to the lack of legal guilt of an individual, with respect to a crime. In other contexts, it is a lack of experience. In relation ...

, and

Mamukkoya Mamukkoya (born 5 July 1946) is an Indian actor known for his work in Malayalam cinema, and has also appeared in French film ''Flammens of Paradise''. He has mostly appeared in comedic roles. His unique usage of the Mappila dialect and style ma ...

play supporting roles. The film released on 22 October 2010. The film was co-written by Anoop Menon and is an uncredited remake of the Canadian film ''

Butterfly on a Wheel ''Butterfly on a Wheel'' (US: ''Shattered'', Europe: ''Desperate Hours'') is a 2007 British–Canadian mystery thriller film directed by Mike Barker, co-produced and written by William Morrissey, and starring Pierce Brosnan, Gerard Butler, and ...

''.Rediff review
/ref>Sify review
/ref> It was the directorial debut of

film editor Film editing is both a creative and a technical part of the post-production process of filmmaking. The term is derived from the traditional process of working with film which increasingly involves the use of digital technology. The film edit ...

Arun Kumar. The film was remade in Tamil as '' Athithi'' (2014).

Plot

Ravi Abraham is one of the key brains behind the success of a construction firm. He has rivals within and outside the office, jealous of his success. At home, he has a blissful life with his wife Parvathy and daughter Ammu. One fine morning, things go terribly wrong for Ravi and Parvathy, with a stranger who asks for a lift in their car. For the first few minutes, the stranger appears to be a naive mild guy, but his tone changes soon, and he begins to blackmail the couple, telling them that their daughter is kidnapped and with just one phone call from him, the new babysitter will kill her. Ravi and Parvathy are forced to obey several bizarre instructions one after the other. First, the stranger asks them to withdraw the entire balance from their bank account in cash. Soon after, the stranger sets fire to the currency notes in a suitcase and throws the suitcase into a river along with their wallets. He then proceeds to ask for more money, so Ravi sells his wristwatch. As the day progresses, both Ravi and Parvathy are made to drive around and perform tasks, including leaking Ravi's firm's top secret business plans to their rival group, forcing Ravi to bargain with a sex worker Elsa. The stranger also traps them in a sleazy lodge where he begins to remove Parvathy's garments but stops short of proceeding further. At last, towards the late hours of the night, they reach the house of Ravi's boss Naveen Krishnamurthy. Ravi is asked to shoot Naveen if he wants to have his daughter returned alive. Ravi enters the house, and to his surprise, finds his colleague Devi there. Part of the drama is unveiled to the audience now: it is Devi's house, the stranger is her husband Venkatesh, and Ravi and Devi have been having an extramarital affair. In the subsequent few minutes, the audience realises that all of this was a drama plotted and enacted by Venky and Parvathy, both deeply hurt by their partners' deceit, in order to teach their spouses about the pain they themselves went through. The last shot of the movie shows Ravi and Parvathy a year later at a hospital for the infirm. They see a paralyzed Devi, a victim of a suicide attempt, being cared for by an affectionate Venky.

Cast

as Venkatesh *

as Ravi Abraham *

as Parvathy, Ravi's wife *

as Naveen Krishnamurthy, Ravi's boss *

as Devi *

as Kalyan Krishnan *

Mamukoya Mamukkoya (born 5 July 1946) is an Indian actor known for his work in Malayalam cinema, and has also appeared in French film ''Flammens of Paradise''. He has mostly appeared in comedic roles. His unique usage of the Mappila dialect and style ma ...

as Hakkim Seth *

Kani Kusruti Kani Kusruti (born 12 September 1985) is an Indian actress and model. She first gained recognition in 2009 with the film '' Kerala Cafe'', where her performance was critically acclaimed. Kani won the Best Actress at Kerala State Film Awards in ...

as Elsa, the prostitute *

Lena Lena or LENA may refer to: Places * Léna Department, a department of Houet Province in Burkina Faso * Lena, Manitoba, an unincorporated community located in Killarney-Turtle Mountain municipality in Manitoba, Canada * Lena, Norway, a village in � ...

as the doctor *

Joju George Joseph George, better known as Joju George (born 22 October 1977) is an Indian actor, playback singer and producer who works mainly in Malayalam cinema. He has acted in Malayalam films and worked on Tamil projects as well. In 2015, he won the ...

as Anand, Ravi's colleague *

Esther Anil Esther Anil is an Indian actress who works primarily in the Malayalam-language films. She debuted her career as a child artist through the film '' Nallavan'' in 2010. She is best known for her role as Anumol George (Anu) in the 2013 drama-thril ...

as Ravi's daughter * Janardhan Athri as the singer *

Mohanlal Mohanlal Viswanathan (born 21 May 1960), known mononymously as Mohanlal, is an Indian actor, film producer, playback singer, film distributor, and director who predominantly works in Malayalam cinema besides also having sporadically appeare ...

as Manu, Ravi's brother in archived footage

Box office

Even though ''Cocktail'' could not manage a bumper initial, the movie picked up after a couple of days of the release. It has the dubious distinction of raising a controversy about the box-office performance. In a box-office analysis,

Sify Sify Technologies Limited (formerly Satyam Infoway) is an Indian information and communications technology company providing end-to-end ICT solutions including telecom services, data center services, cloud & managed services, transformation in ...

said that the film did not do well. However, an article in Expressbuzz.com, published some days after its release, said that the film is a "sleeper hit" and had a "dream run at the box office".

Soundtrack

The soundtrack of the film was composed by Alphons Joseph and

Ratheesh Vegha Ratheesh Vega ( ml, രതീഷ് വേഗ) is a composer, singer, and musician who works in Malayalam language, Malayalam films. His debut as a film music composer was in the 2010 hit film ''Cocktail (2010 film), Cocktail''. Career Rathees ...

. The album features seven songs written by

Anil Panachooran Anil Panachooran (20 November 1969 – 3 January 2021) was an Indian lawyer, poet and lyricist, who worked in the Malayalam film industry. While undergoing treatment for COVID-19 during the COVID-19 pandemic in India, he died on 3 January 2021, f ...

and Santhosh Varma.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cocktail (2010 Film) 2010 films 2010s Malayalam-language films 2010 crime thriller films 2010s road movies Indian road movies Films shot in Kochi Films shot in Telangana Films shot in Coimbatore Indian remakes of British films Films scored by Alphons Joseph Films with screenplays by Anoop Menon 2010s mystery thriller films Malayalam films remade in other languages 2010 directorial debut films Films directed by Arun Kumar Aravind