Ravi Abraham is one of the key brains behind the success of a construction firm. He has rivals within and outside the office, jealous of his success. At home, he has a blissful life with his wife Parvathy and daughter Ammu. But things go terribly wrong for Ravi and Parvathy one fine morning, with a stranger, who asks for a lift in their car. For the first few minutes, the stranger appears to be a naive mild guy but his tone changes soon and he begins to blackmail the couple, telling them that their daughter is kidnapped and with just one phone call from him the new babysitter will kill her. They are forced to obey several bizarre instructions one after the other. First the stranger asks them to withdraw the entire balance from their bank account in cash. Soon after the stranger sets fire to the currency notes in a suitcase and throws the whole thing into a river along with their wallets. The stranger then proceeds to ask for more money, so Ravi sells his wrist watch. As the day progresses both Ravi and Parvathy are made to drive around and perform tasks, including leaking Ravi's firm's top secret business plans to their rival group, forcing Ravi to bargain with a sex worker. The stranger also traps them in a sleazy lodge where he begins to remove Parvathy's garments but stops short of proceeding further. At last, towards the late hours of the night, they reach Ravi's boss's house. Ravi is asked to shoot his boss if he wants to have his daughter returned alive. Ravi enters the house and to his surprise finds his colleague Devi there. Part of the drama is unveiled to the audience now: it is Devi's house, the stranger is her husband Venky/Venkitesh, and Ravi and Devi have been having an extramarital affair. In the subsequent few minutes, she audience realises that all of this was a drama plotted and enacted by Venky and Parvathy, both deeply hurt by their partners' deceit, in order to teach their spouses about the pain they themselves went through. The last shot of the movie shows Ravi and Parvathy a year later at a hospital for the infirm. They see a paralyzed Devi, a victim of a suicide attempt, being cared for by an affectionate Venky.
Even though Cocktail could not manage a bumper initial, the movie picked up after a couple of days of the release. It has the dubious distinction of raising a controversy about the box-office performance. In a box-office analysis, Sify said that the film did not do well. However, an article in Expressbuzz.com, published some days after its release, said that the film is a "sleeper hit" and had a "dream run at the box office".
