A Cocktail Party

When the first promo of Cocktail hit the screens almost a month ago,the song Tum hi ho bandhu became an instant rage.

Written by Sankhayan Ghosh
June 23, 2012 02:32 AM IST

3 min read

When the first promo of Cocktail hit the screens almost a month ago,the song Tum hi ho bandhu became an instant rage. Subsequently,other songs such as Daaru desi and Yaariyan,too,picked up. Small wonder,then that co-producer Dinesh Vijan,director Homi Adajania and music composer Pritam focussed on its music while attending the Screen Preview at Express Towers in Mumbai.

Vijan,who has a keen ear for music,spoke about the Sufi influences in Cocktails tracks. We wanted songs that would relate to the characters in the film and bring out their personalities and traits, said Vijan. Adajania,however,stayed away from the making of the music as he believed that he did not have a sensibility to make a movie with music. I never understood the logic of actors breaking into song in the middle of the film, he says. While picturising the songs of Being Cyrus,Adajanias first film,he played it according to his instincts,but here,with a love story as the films mainstay,he seemed a little lost. Vijan,however,praised the way Adajania had picturised the songs. The songs have been shot entirely from Homis vision,and the result has been fantastic, said Vijan.

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Pritam who has yet again collaborated with lyricist Irshad Kamil after their successful outing in Love Aaj Kal excitedly spoke about each composition. He also readily broke into impromptu renditions with his guitar. What I liked most about Cocktail is that it is not just about love,its a lot is about friendship also, he said. About his partnership with Kamil,he said he owed a lot to the phonetic quality of his words. Being a Bengali,my ears are more dependent on the sound of the words rather than their meaning,and Irshad bhai writes words that instantly appeal to my senses, he added. Pritam attributed the popular Tum hi ho bandhu to its catchy hook line that originated as a Sufi tune. The Sufi connect,he said,held true for the whole album. If you notice,the underlying theme of the soundtrack is very folksy, said Vijan.

During the conversation,Adajania and Vijan took jibes at plagiarism allegations made against Pritam. Pritam needs to get his own legal department now, Vijan joked. Adajania made fun of Pritams bizarre ways of making music,and also questioned him about drawing inspiration for the chartbusting Yaariyan from a Coldplay number. In his defense,Pritam said,It has become a trend to point fingers at me. The only similarity is a commonly used drum pattern,which might sound similar to another song.

Adajania confessed to having dismissed Cocktail during his first script-hearing session,as he felt he didnt belong to this zone. Later,I thought why not present it in my way? he said. With the lead pair of Saif Ali Khan and Deepika Padukone being repeated,many are terming it a sequel to Love Aaj Kal. Adajania refuted it by saying,The film has nothing to do with Love Aaj Kal. Had it been the case,then Imtiaz Ali would have directed it. Incidentaly,Ali has written the story for this one,along with his brother,Sajid.