Review of Kannada Movie ‘Love Mocktail 2 ‘ directed by Darling Krishna

It’s rare to see a sequel for a movie where the first part ended with the demise of the lover. In fact, the first part of Love Mocktail didn’t hint at a sequel. But Darling Krishna, the director and the protagonist, has done a great job in writing and directing the sequel, which captures the emotional journey that the hero goes through after the demise of the lover.

To those of you who haven’t watched Love Mocktail’s first part, here’s a quick brief- Adi (Krishna), who is a happy-go-lucky guy from Mysore, is on a trip to Udupi. He describes his life story and how he meets the girl of his life to Aditi, who he rescues from rowdies. Adi has had two love chapters in life and he rushes into marriage with Nidhi (Milana), as he puts a ring on her finger right on their first date, at the compulsion of Vijay, Adi’s friend. They happily live together for a year and cancer takes Nidhi’s life away, leaving Adi alone. When Adi bids adieu to Aditi, he makes it clear that the true love can happen only once in one’s life and he has had one.

So the sequel start with Vijay and Sushma, (Adi’s friends), getting jolted by Adi’s message and they head to police station to file a missing compliant as Adi goes untraceable. And the movie unfolds as Vijay and Sushma narrates Adi’s life story post Nidhi’s death to the inspector. The movie has right mix of everything, with good dose of humor, especially the scenes involving Vijay and Nidhi.

What I liked most about the movie was the way in the which the bereaved husband’s character was written. Unlike the stereotypical ones, Adi goes into depression but doesn’t immerse himself into bad habits such as alcoholic addiction, drugs etc. or goes in search for a new love. The song ‘Ninadene Januma’ depicts profoundly the pangs of loss experienced by Adi. All the other songs are also soul soothing and refreshing.

The re-appearance of Jo (ex-lover of Adi) was somewhat an unnecessary digression in the otherwise flawless storyline. Nidhi anticipating her death writes a letter and instructs Sushma that it can be handed over to Adi subject to a certain condition. Adi, on reading Nidhi’s letter, with the help of Vijay and Sushma tries hard to find a suitable second-wife, though he still hallucinates about his dead wife. The hallucination scenes are so moving and Milana’s lively acting brings life to the dead character. So when Nidhi (Adi's hallucination) approves Sihi (Vijay’s cousin), who deeply expresses her love for Adi, as his second wife, a hurdle comes along their way, resulting in Adi and Sihi heading to meet her grandpa for his approval.

Whether Sihi and Adi get married despite his deep-rooted love for Nidhi is what we will get to know in the climax. If I had to pick two top-notch scenes in the movie it would be these – one, Adi describing how he is soaked in Nidhi’s thoughts, when probed by Sihi’s grandpa on his memories about Nidhi and the other, when Adi advises Vijay on the importance of realizing the value of time that one gets to spend with their loved ones and not to make a joke of it, given the glaring uncertainty of life.

On the whole, Love Mocktail 2 is a nice heart-warming movie with a valuable message and an unexpected twist in the end. It is not a typical love story with usual drama and masala but it goes beyond what is said in a run-of-the-mill love stories, which either ends happily or gloomily.  This portrays ‘true love’ in its purest form and wonderfully showcases how to fill the void with a meaningful purpose without succumbing to the irreplaceable loss. 'Love Mocktail 2' will surely leave you yearning for a soul mate like the protagonist.