Revisiting Cocktail in 2026, film that punished Deepika's Veronica for being herself

On Wednesday, the makers of Cocktail 2 released Bandhu 2.0 - a newer version of Tumhi Ho Bandhu from the original Cocktail (2012). There was nothing particularly new about it, which sent me straight back to the first one. I loved that song then, and I love it now. The only good thing about the new version is that they haven't changed much at all. But I missed Diana Penty's charm, Saif's goofiness and Deepika's sheer vivaciousness. This new version just reminded me how good the original was and sent me down a rabbit hole I probably should have seen coming.

So I rewatched Cocktail.

Released in 2012, the film starring Deepika Padukone, Diana Penty and Saif Ali Khan was a hit. It had some of Bollywood's most memorable music, turned Veronica into a pop culture icon and cemented Deepika Padukone's status as a stylish performer. More than a decade later, people are still dancing to its songs and quoting its dialogues.

Rewatching it, though, brought back something else entirely.

The moment Saif started flirting with the air hostess in the opening scene, I remembered exactly why I had a problem with this film the first time around. I was at my first journalism job when Cocktail released, and I watched it over a weekend. I came back on Monday and my colleague and I spent the better part of the morning going on and on about what a red flag Gautam Kapoor (Saif) was and why both women deserved so much better. We were being rage-baited before we knew what rage bait was.

Watching Cocktail in 2026, that fury hasn't gone anywhere. If anything, it's sharper.

The film feels like a lesson in how Bollywood often punishes women for not fitting into traditional ideas of womanhood.

Veronica was never the problem

Let's start with the obvious. Veronica (Deepika) was the most honest character in the film.

She drank, partied, wore what she wanted, said what she felt and never pretended to be someone she wasn't. She welcomed Gautam into her home. She helped Meera (Diana) when she had nowhere to go. She was loyal, generous, emotionally open and — if you look closely enough — clearly carrying some deep-seated abandonment issues that the film never bothered to fully explore.

And yet, the film treated her like a cautionary tale.

The narrative repeatedly suggested that Veronica's lifestyle made her unsuitable for real love or marriage. Her heartbreak didn't feel like something that happened to her — it felt like something she had earned. When Gautam's mother, played by Dimple Kapadia, visits their home, he introduces Meera as his girlfriend, making Veronica realise that she is not the woman considered "marriage material."

The message was difficult to miss: the wild girl can be exciting, but she is not the one you bring home to your mother.

For a film that marketed itself as modern and urban, that was a very old-fashioned idea.

Meera was rewarded as "the better woman"

Diana Penty's Meera is sweet, soft-spoken and gentle. There is nothing wrong with any of that. The problem is what the film does with those qualities. It uses them to create a contrast, and then it makes that contrast into a competition.

One woman is traditional, nurturing and emotionally controlled. The other is loud, impulsive and sexually liberated. The film builds the whole thing as if both women are auditioning for the same role and then gives the part to the one who fits society's idea of "the right kind of woman."

The contrast is almost comically drawn. The day Veronica brings Meera home, a stranger with nowhere to go, Meera immediately offers to cook. When she realises she can't, she quietly fetches a glass of milk from the fridge for a drunk Veronica. She is almost too good. Too selfless. Too perfectly cast as the woman who deserves to be loved.

Instead of celebrating two different kinds of women, Cocktail ends up ranking them. Partying and drinking: fun, but temporary. Doing the laundry, cooking, praying: that's wife material.

Gautam was the biggest red flag in the room

For years, audiences debated Team Veronica versus Team Meera. They were asking entirely the wrong question. Why wasn't anyone questioning Gautam?

Saif Ali Khan's character begins as a commitment-phobic flirt who treats relationships casually. He moves between two women, sends mixed signals and takes his sweet time figuring out what he wants. Yet the film rarely holds him accountable.

Veronica loses her confidence. Meera is pulled into emotional turmoil she didn't ask for. Gautam, meanwhile, gets a journey of self-discovery. The women suffer and the man grows. Bollywood has told this story far too many times.

The friendship that deserved more

The most interesting thing about Cocktail was always the relationship between Veronica and Meera. Two women from completely different worlds, finding comfort and companionship in each other, building something like a chosen family in a city that doesn't quite belong to either of them.

The film could have explored that bond in greater depth. Instead, it let the friendship become collateral damage in a love triangle. The film could have explored that bond in greater depth. Instead, the friendship becomes collateral damage in a love triangle. Cocktail ultimately decided that romance mattered more than female friendship.

It was the film's biggest missed opportunity and the thing I find most frustrating about it, even now.

Cocktail 2 releases this Friday, and early glimpses hint at something that at least nods towards the complexity of female friendship - perhaps even something more (we have an idea but let's wait for the film to release to discuss more on that). One can only hope it gives its women better material than the original did.

Veronica deserved better in 2012. Here's hoping the women of Cocktail 2 don't have to wait another decade to be seen properly.