Cocktail 2 - Film Review

 *spoilers alert* (even though there is not much really to spoil)

Because very few have the confidence (or is it lack of imagination) to release a new movie that is not a sequel or some reference to a successful story from the past, in comes another one from Bollywood, following the success of the 2012 Saif-Deepika-Diana rom-com riot.

First out, it’s not a sequel, or have any connection to the first film. Apart from the name and the plot of a love triangle set in beautiful foreign locations, there is nothing in common with the first film. The story is about Kunal (Shahid) and Diya (Rashmika) in a steady and happy 16 year relationship, where marriage is inconsequential. A trip to Sicily to get away from the constantly prying uncle-aunties, they hit it off with Diya’s old friend Ally (Kriti). When Diya enrolls Ally into seducing Kunal as a test of his commitment to their relationship, amidst the gorgeous locales of Italy, the obvious unfolds leading to unintended consequences in their age old relationship, as they prepare finally for their wedding, towards the eventual emotional drama and dilemma of who will Kunal finally choose to spend the rest of his life with.

Now we know Homi Adajania is no Imtiaz Ali, so the expectation is not a nuanced and soul-stirring love story (Cocktail 1 being case in point), but entertainment, fun, laughs and beauty IS an expectation. The film unfortunately does not deliver on either of those.

The central idea of a young woman testing her relationship that goes wrong, by itself, is an interesting idea and perhaps hits a chord with the youngsters today, where self-evaluating and testing one’s limits/ideas/values has a bonafide place in the lives, especially at a time when it’s difficult to figure out what’s real and what’s not. And this central idea could have led to a deeply entertaining and engaging story, given the big budget production with big stars and beautiful foreign locations. See the runaway hit ‘Obsession’ playing in cinemas right now, as an example. Simple idea of ‘be careful what you wish for’ that goes completely wrong.

But, the film does not do that. The story meanders through the pretty landscapes of the Mediterranean coast, with some engaging but mostly meh moments, that deliver neither chemistry, nor romance, nor comedy. Even post interval, when there seems to be a hopeful twist in the story, reminiscent of My Best Friend’s Wedding ploy of winning the groom away, it amounts to yet-another sequence of mostly blah telling. Even ChatGPT could have written a more engaging script.

Shahid looks terrible and acts as if he is sleep-walking through all of his scenes. Apart from a few comic moments, he is depressingly absent from making any impact in the film. A far cry from Saif’s hilarious performance in the first film. The least he could have done was be funny, or give a brilliant dance performance on a song, that we know he’s capable of. But we get nothing from Shahid. Rashmika, struggling with Hindi delivery and emotions, tries hard but is perhaps keener to get back to her more exciting real life marriage that’s waiting for her at the end of the film shoot. Kriti is the only one who feels invested in the film, looking great and delivering a decent performance by her own standards (though she is no Deepika, ofcourse). 

And then the music. OMG! Why is it so difficult for Bollywood to deliver good music these days? The last big Bollywood soundtrack success of Dhurandhar (which, I have to say, was bloody fantastic) also relied on remixes of old songs than original music. They could have just taken the Cocktail 1 soundtracks and remixed those. Atleast that would have been something. A movie like this NEEDS good music to make the experience complete. Apart from the mildly hummable Mashooqa, the rest of the song and dance numbers are borderline intolerable. Such a pity.

The one redemption in the film is the end sequence and the dialogue writing, when Kunal, fed up of the situation, makes his final decision between his long term steady-but-boring committed relationship and the new-found-passionate-exciting possibility. The only other moment that is done really well is a brief moment between Kunal and his father (Tiku Talsania) in the last scene when Kunal is frought with emotions and confusion, reminding us of what good, experienced talent looks like on the screen.

If you’re looking to get a love story fix, I recommend watching Dharma Productions and Vivek Soni’s Chand Mera Dil (starring Lakshya and Ananya), or perhaps Imtiaz’s latest Main Waapas Aaonga (which I haven’t seen yet, but for Imtiaz, will watch soon). 

Cocktail 2, however, ends up being a forgettable blip of a movie in the year, not because it was a bad movie, but because it didn’t even try!

Masters of The Universe, 2026 - Film Review

A super hero with a vague distant memory from the collective childhood of our generation, He-Man and the Masters of The Universe franchise comes alive on the big screen, with this mega big Hollywood release for the summer holiday season.

This film is the first in what Sony, Amazon and Mattel would hope to become an MCU-equivalent multi-film franchise and tells the story of the making of He-Man, the fantasy world of planet Eternia, and the entire myth and characters of this whole new’ish universe. Born as a short, frail and weak Prince Adam to King Randor and Queen Marlena, and then lost in Earth for fifteen years, after the evil Skeletor conquers Eternia and establishes his reign of doom, he returns with the powerful Sword of Power, transforms into the strong and powerful and in case you missed it, muscular, He-Man and after a series of fights, setbacks and personal growth, he beats the bad guys and re-establishes the reign of good, giving Eternia back its lost glory.

Now there are three types of audiences that this film can potentially appeal to. First, a small group of Gen X’ers who actually have a nostalgic hit of the animated series or comics and/or the toys they played with in a world before smart phones or even cable TV existed. Second, (and I fall into this one), a

 group of people who have been craving a good super hero action fare, with MCU and DCU both having disappeared and nothing on TV either that really gives a fix. Third, and I suspect, this is what the producers are betting on to get the boxoffice going, are the new and young audiences, with an attempt to giving a new hero for the new generation for the new times.

For the first audience, it probably delivers the goods, ticking the memory lane and giving a good reason to take their kids to theatres telling them all about their childhood. For the second audience, it delivers a mild fix at best, with some fun action sequences, some light humour and new characters with new powers. Not exciting, but not too bad either. Think Thor: Love and Thunder or AntMan: Quantum Mania. That level of entertainment. 

For the third audience, and perhaps the most interesting, it probably fails to deliver. Logically, they’ve ticked all the boxes. OTT and insta popular Nicholas Galitzine as the main lead. A well-gymed-out body, with a whole load of muscles never seen before on the actor, as the film dialogues very obviously keep pointing it out. A painfully self-conscious narrative of masculinity being not just about physical strength and muscles (never mind the irony!), but about emotions and sensitivity as well. And a sense of humour that is taking the piss of the very story it is telling. And yet it when it all comes together, it doesn’t feel like something that a Gen Z would really enjoy. The story doesn’t really go much further than Adam coming back and taking back Eternia. A lot of characters that start out well, fade away behind just playing support role. And the story telling fast becomes childish and banal with a quick fight to the finish. And oh, what a fantastic waste of Idris Elba!

At a time when the world does need super heroes, and Marvel and DC characters have outlived their utility to us, there clearly is a fiction gap that is waiting to be filled. Mattel-Amazon-Sony have an opportunity. And in fact, Sony has done it before, with the Spiderverse franchise which was brilliant Gen Z story-telling that hit the spot with its new imagination, fresh story-telling, distinctively different animation, and endearing and authentic characters. But right now, Masters of the Universe is far away from that spot, and if it means to continue, it will really need do some non-AI soul searching to find the answer. Here’s hoping…

Michael, 2026 - Film Review

As an ardent 𝓜𝓙 fan for years, the drop of the much-awaited music rockumentary epic exactly on my birthday month, was a too-good-to-be-true gift from life. I couldn’t have asked for more.

The film tells the story of the early years of his life, and his journey from being the star of the Jackson 5 band, controlled by his ambitious and dominating father, to being his own independent music sensation that “Rocked With You”. From being Jackson to becoming Michael. It covers the time period roughly from the late 60s to the early 80s, if that helps the chronologically minded reader. And as the movie ends, we are left hoping there will be a part 2, that covers the next phase of his life and his music.

Now, being a fan is a funny thing. Walking into the movie hall, we are already hyped up, pre-sold, love what we’re going to see, and ready to enjoy the next two odd hours of sheer magic that we know we will be a part of. Why? Because we know 𝓜𝓙, we know his stories, his music, his movements, his dance (oh his dance!!!), his genius, his talent, the skeletons “In the Closet”, the controversies, the love he had, the hate he got, the icon he was and continues to be. We’ve seen-there-done-that. We’ve listened-there-danced-that. We’ve felt-there-moved-that. In short, when it comes to 𝓜𝓙, we’ve done it all, over and over again. We “Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough”.

And because we can never get enough of 𝓜𝓙, we soak it all in. We hang on to every scene, every moment, every music note he creates, every dance move he invents, every genius inspiration he has that changes the course of music industry, every obsessive perfection he seeks in every frame. We feel for him for the rough childhood and adolescence he had, driven and abused by his father. We smile with indulgence for his obstinate reluctance to grow up and stay a Peter-Pan’ish-child-at-heart. We are intrigued when he loves and connects with animals more than human beings. We applaud when he takes on the mission to help children as his main cause. We cheer for him when he finally tells his father to “Beat It”,and breaks free. And ofcourse we sing along and dance on our seats for all the music and dance and the BTS stories, that cover the period of his albums from ‘Off the Wall’ to ‘Thriller’. 

But the other side of being a fan, is that our expectations are higher and we want more. We want to know stories that we didn’t already know. We want to explore dimensions of his personality that have not been common knowledge. We want to go deeper into the rationale for the choices he made his life - both the great choices and the disastrous ones. We want to feel sides of his music creation that we’ve not felt before. We want to be moved out of our seats so much that we can’t resist the temptation of getting up and dancing. We want to see 𝓜𝓙 the person, not just 𝓜𝓙 the perfect, flawless, poor-little-do-gooder angel. We are fans, not fanatics. We know “He’s Bad, he’s bad, we know it”. We accept the imperfections in our heroes, as much as their magic. Alas, the the movie makers are not as ambitious as we, as fans, are and as a result the film settles for a sanitised, mildly superficial, instagram version of story-telling of the phenonmenon that 𝓜𝓙 actually was. He may have been the King of Pop, but his story was nothing short of rock-n-roll. And it leaves us just that tad-bit unsatisfied. Sigh. What do it. Tell em that it’s “Human Nature”.

However, for non-fans, who are probably the majority of the viewing audience now in 2026, the film hits the spot. For those who are seeing his story, his music, his genius in detail for the first time, it’s a great experience. It ticks all the boxes that an 𝓜𝓙-noob would love and get addicted to. It’s what we, as fans, felt all those years ago when we started. Just for that, the film is a 10/10 and as fans, we cheer that the 𝓜𝓙-magic is spreading more widely to a whole new (Pepsi, sic!) generation. For them, it’s a whole new “Wanna Be Starting Something” and we say ‘Welcome to the party folks’.

But fans, or no fans, what hits the ball out of the park is Jaafar Jackson. He IS Michael Jackson, through and through. His body language, his voice, his moves, his performance, his moon-walking, his emotions. It’s an absolute “Thriller” to watch him. He is the biggest part of the reason why the film works. Absolutely brilliant.

In the end, did we like the movie? Ofcourse. We LOVED the movie. We are fans. And We will always be. And whatever the level of satiation we got from the movie or didn’t, we know nothing has changed, nothing will ever change. We will continue listening to his music, dancing to his beats, feeling in our hearts “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You”.