Toxic

Toxic Movie Review Rating:

Star Cast: Yash, Nayanthara, Kiara Advani, Huma Qureshi, Rukmini Vasanth, Tara Sutaria, and Yash again!

Director: Geetu Mohandas

What’s Good: Yash in a double role, and a climax that saves the film!

What’s Bad: Bloated runtime, unnecessary first half, and underwritten heroines!

Loo Break: Only in the interval. The film never pauses to catch its own breath!

Watch or Not?: Only if you are a Yash fan!

Language: Kannada dubbed in Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam

Available On: Theatrical release

Runtime: 3 hours 12 minutes

User Rating:

“Jab tak seh lo, tab tak reh lo” tells a brooding, yet filled with swagger Raya to a strong yet emotion filled Rukmini Vasanth, in one of the most important act change for Toxic, and this is where, the film actually changes its gear, to deliver a story that is equal parts classy and equal parts massy put together by Yash and Geetu Mohandas in a true-blue masala story that serves its purpose! How do you decide if a film has won its audience? Well, for me as a film critic, there is only one parameter – if the cheers, claps, whistles, and hoots in the theater are so loud that you cannot even listen to the dialogue. But then, is there a question about liking the film? Yes. because the hoots, the cheers and whistles all come for the progression maintained throughout – a sex scene, followed by Yash’s mother tongue in the film – violence! The universal language for rowdyness!

Written by Yash and Geetu Mohandas, the audience was promised a fairy tale for the grown-ups, and they got what they were promised! However, I agree that the film demands your patience and undivided attention to reach the climax that is one of the best plot twists of recent times! But yes, it takes a very long route to reach that class cinema delivered to the masses, and the masses do not want their equilibrium and balance to be shifted by then!

In one of the scenes, Yash asks Kiara Advani, “Am I a bad guy? And she replies, No, you are Toxic!” Now, I do not understand what you should expect from a film that defines itself in the title itself – Toxic! And so does it deliver the story of a narcissistic man, full of himself, so self-absorbed, that he does not bother about any woman in his life, a conclusion, his son derives in the climax – ‘Apne jeevan ki saari auraton ka jeevan kharab karke prachand itihaas likhe ho.’ Not exactly the same, probably, but something very similar!

Toxic Movie Review: Script Analysis

The story of Toxic is neither linear nor too easy to understand, and you have to be involved to understand it! But to cut a very long story short, Raya (Yash) and his sister Ganga (Nayanthara) have a troubled childhood, but they create their own world together with the help of some evil people in Goa. These evil people include Huma Qureshi, Akshay Oberoi, Tara Sutaria, and others! However, not very important to the story!

Now, Raya, in one of the gang wars of the drug lords of Goa, meets Nadia, a gymnast in a circus. They fall in love, and once a bad man falls in love and tries to find the good in himself, that’s where the story takes its massive turn, usually! This is where Toxic gets more toxic and obsessed with itself, and a lot of problems for the film arrive. Is Raya a good man? Does he turn a good man? Does he form a bond with his son? Whether Nadia and Raya’s love story literally turns into a fairy tale is all that gets answered in the second half and forms the crux of the story!

Toxic Movie Review: Star Performance

Toxic still works in parts mostly because of Yash, who is in career-best form here, as the father and son, both toxic men. As Raya, he is dangerous in stillness, where every raised eyebrow feels like a threat. As the son, he is a maniac, letting the anger turn messier. Yash uses body language and rhythm, not just VFX and makeup, to play the father and the son! It’s the kind of performance that reminds you why he became a pan-India phenomenon in the first place!

The women of Toxic are highly underused! Nayanthara, as Raya’s sister, controls the entire narrative, but there is nothing significant or mindblowing to her credit! Kiara Advani gets a role that promises intrigue in the first half and mostly delivers, even if the writing shortchanges her arc. Huma Qureshi is unpredictable in the little screen time, and it is not justified to keep her standing as one of the villains. If we are calling her so! People might be in awe of Kiara and Rukmini Vasanth, but it is Tara Sutaria who worked for me! However, unfortunately, all bear the brunt of the film’s structural problems! All are clearly meant to be pivotal, but all their arcs are overshadowed in Yash’s dual persona burden!