Huge opening disguises major disaster
You’ve only have to look at the box office collection in the first day. Cocktails 2, which was released in over ten thousand screens, reportedly collected about 13.5 crore on its Friday and the makers are going on and on about the numbers on every possible platform. It seemed like it will prove to be one big success on paper. Within its second day, the film already garnered more than 27 crore.
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But what one witness after entering the theatres. What can be seen on the internet paints entirely the opposite picture.
The reviews are brutal. The critics as well as the general audience are lambasting the film right, left and centre. After a fourteen-year wait, the audience was given what they got: two and a half hours of torture in return for 2012’s sensational blockbuster Cocktail, which set new standards for modern Bollywood romance for the generation.
The movie on a whole is being severely critiqued on social media for its broken script.
The makers attempted to make the movie modern with a lot of contemporary touches. In the process, however, the entire screenplay becomes extremely out of sync from reality.
With its slick visuals, featuring breathtaking drone shots, the film explores the scenic locales of Sicily in Italy where characters are seen enjoying exhilarating car rides in a sparkling BMW convertible – all of this seems like an excessively pricey travel advertisement, ending of praises.
A story that completely collapses
Let’s delve a bit into the actual plot. The story revolves around a trio. Shahid Kapoor, who plays the role of Kunal.
Rashmika Mandanna portrays the character of Diya.
These two have been dating for sixteen long years and have navigated all the ups and downs, from long distances and global lockdowns, only to avoid marriage simply because they’re against the idea that a legal marriage document is the only form of proof of commitment, or what, at best might pass as solid modern romantic dialogue.
And this is where the film completely and utterly falls to the floor!
A drunken confession from Diya causes her to feel increasingly insecure, which leads to her running into an old friend Ally, essayed by Kriti Sanon. Though the two haven’t met in over a decade, Diya – wait for it – asks Ally to seductively try to seduce Kunal to test his fidelity.
Read it again: A woman in a stable, sixteen-year-old relationship requests an estranged friend to try to sleep with her boyfriend to test his loyalty. This is the core plot of the film and audiences are vehemently rejecting this entirely artificial conflict. The characterizations feel completely unreal.
The entire script plays out like a cringe reality television show rather than an A-list romantic comedy.
The shift in the second half is also a huge letdown from the light-hearted vacation setting into a heavy and dragging psychological battle.
The actors are completely lost
You cannot blame the cast because they tried to make the project work, and by that, I mean they did their best to give what they could. However, the script of the movie turned out to be nothing but an empty vessel.
Shahid Kapoor plays a ‘green flag boyfriend,’ making ‘kadhi chawal’ for his girlfriend and consistently mentioning ‘choosing’ his partner but remains passive. He seems lost as he spends most of his time responding to the chaotic behavior of the two ladies. Viewers also observed that Shahid looks uncomfortable in several scenes and his attempts to inject gravitas into the emotional moments are instantly ruined by some nonsensical bantering. His grand monologue at the climax, which holds significant weight, unfortunately lands way too late to save the film’s pacing.
Out of the lot, Kriti Sanon seems to have been receiving good remarks for the character of the glam woman who goes and creates trouble. Her entry sequence received massive cheers in some theatres, but as far as the characterization of Kriti is concerned, she goes to extremes as one moment she can be an independent woman with high aspirations, but then instantly she can be so shallow as to commit acts of blatant selfishness that is irritating as hell. She is essentially just used to create confusion in the movie, there are no real substance.
As far as the trio is concerned, Rashmika Mandanna appears to have gotten the shortest straw. The audiences are widely criticising Rashmika’s portrayal as an insecure girlfriend who appears clueless. Kriti is being portrayed as the glamorous and smart lady opposite Rashmika who appears plain and clueless.
In addition, a large chunk of the online comments target her performance in Hindi as her dialogues sound extremely forced, which completely spoils the flow of her dialogue at crucial junctures.
This is then compounded by the fact that the film relegates her role to the background in the latter half, ceding the spotlight to Kriti.
A mismatch between makers and the film
Director Homi Adajania was given the mantle of directing Cocktail 2 after successfully helming the original, along with screenplay by Luv Ranjan and Tarun Jain. One might explain many aspects of the mess with just these two names alone.
The script has the classic ‘Luv Ranjan signature’ of treating female characters in the manipulative kind, which clearly shows its mark all over Cocktails 2. The movie makes attempts at portraying modern dating concepts for millennials and gen-z, and at times uses sophisticated therapy terms such as commitment issues and open relationships, without truly exploring or understanding them deeply. The film seems to portray romance and commitment as nothing more than ephemeral trivialities.
At over 150 minutes long, the movie painfully drags in its second half, with endless and irritating arguments that go nowhere and completely shatter the experience.
Ultimately two successful and modern independent women fighting over a man in 2026 feels extremely regressive.
Given the A-certificate, which in itself raised some eyebrows as there’s not much that justifies a censor certificate, the film has been packed with forced jokes and vulgar innuendoes that do not land well with the audience.
Living in the shadow of the original
The main concern for the makers probably lies in living up to the immense popularity of the first film, despite having had a share of flaws; yet Cocktail 1 did have some substance as people related withVeronica, one of its central characters. Although an extremely messy and chaotic, Veronica’s flaws never prevented her from appearing like a human being who is plagued by immense loneliness.
Here however, there is no emotional connection whatsoever and people seem to move on screen merely to serve the weak and monotonous plot, just as they please. Before the release, there were numerous reports that hinted at an homosexual affair between the two female leads, which the actors had to publicly deny stating there’s just a love triangle involving an additional dude – honestly who really cared or noticed!
While the box office collection remains steady, the film faces stiff competition in the coming week with a new release ‘Toy Story 5’, and one really wonders how it will manage to survive.
