Cocktail 2 Review: Style Over Substance as Kriti Sanon Saves the Day

Cocktail 2 Review: Stylish, Glossy and Predictable, Saved Only by Kriti Sanon

Love is rarely neat. It is messy, selfish, confusing, irrational and often contradictory. The idea of love, however, is something else entirely—beautiful, cinematic and endlessly romantic.

Cocktail 2 is in love with that idea.

The film looks stunning. Every frame appears carefully curated for Instagram, every outfit seems straight off a luxury fashion campaign and every location postcard-perfect. But beneath all that glamour lies a familiar Bollywood love triangle that never quite finds the emotional depth needed to make its relationships feel real.

What remains is a visually attractive but emotionally shallow romantic drama that relies heavily on old tropes while offering very little that feels fresh.

The story follows Kunal, a chef, and Diya, a corporate professional, who have been together since their university days. After surviving long-distance challenges, career pressures and even the pandemic, they appear to have built the ideal modern relationship.

The only problem? Everyone around them wants them to get married.

Tired of questions from family members, the couple escape to Sicily using money they saved by avoiding an extravagant wedding. There they reconnect with Ally, Diya’s former university roommate and friend, setting in motion a love triangle that can be seen coming from miles away.

Diya, plagued by insecurities about Kunal’s commitment, asks Ally to test his loyalty by trying to seduce him. Unsurprisingly, things do not go according to plan.

The setup promises complications, but the screenplay rarely explores them with any real complexity.

• Kriti Sanon Is the Film’s Biggest Strength
• The film comes alive whenever Ally is on screen.

Played by Kriti Sanon, Ally is clearly designed as a spiritual successor to Veronica from the original Cocktail. She is carefree, charming, emotionally guarded and seemingly allergic to commitment. She drinks, dances, flirts and carries herself with the confidence of someone determined not to let anyone get too close.

Unlike the script, however, Sanon gives the character warmth and vulnerability.

She injects energy into scenes that would otherwise feel routine and manages to make Ally far more interesting than what is written on the page. Even when the screenplay falls back on clichés, Sanon finds ways to keep the audience invested.

The problem is that Ally remains more of an archetype than a fully developed person.

The film hints at emotional scars and abandonment issues but never meaningfully explores them. Her eventual feelings for Kunal arrive because the plot requires them to, not because the story convincingly earns them.

• Characters Trapped Inside Familiar Templates
• Diya and Kunal suffer even more from underwritten characterisation.

Diya is presented as ambitious, organised and emotionally invested in her relationship, but the film never digs deeper into her motivations or insecurities. Unlike Meera from the original film, she lacks the backstory necessary to make her choices feel layered or compelling.

Kunal fares worst of all.

While the film repeatedly insists he is the perfect partner, it never fully explains why. He is pleasant and attractive enough, but lacks the charisma, humour and unpredictability that made Gautam such a memorable presence in the original film.

As a result, the central conflict often feels less convincing than it should. The audience understands why the two women are important to the story; it is harder to understand why Kunal inspires such emotional chaos around him.

Style Takes Priority Over Substance

At nearly two-and-a-half hours, Cocktail 2 rarely becomes boring, but it frequently feels repetitive. The film moves smoothly from one picturesque location to another, supported by polished cinematography, fashionable costumes and an attractive soundtrack. Yet it spends surprisingly little time examining the emotional consequences of the choices its characters make.

Every opportunity to explore something deeper is replaced by another montage, another romantic sequence or another beautifully lit conversation. The result is a film that is easy to watch but difficult to feel strongly about.

There is nothing particularly wrong with Cocktail 2. It is polished, watchable and occasionally charming. But it never escapes the shadow of the stories that inspired it. For all its modern packaging, this remains an old-fashioned love triangle dressed up in designer labels.

Kriti Sanon emerges as the film’s clear standout, bringing personality and emotional weight to a character that deserved a better script. Unfortunately, one strong performance is not enough to elevate a romance that feels far more interested in looking beautiful than saying anything meaningful about love.