Toxic

 

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Toxic is not a fairy but a terrible tale for grown-ups, which lacks a decent screenplay and basic emotions. The gangster drama set in Goa gets the grandeur and aesthetics right, but nothing else supports the world-building. Yash is seen giving his all in the film, but the over-the-top nature soon becomes tiring. He rarely talks in normal human language; it's just one dialogue after another, in fact, this applies to all the characters. All the female actresses, including Nayanthara, Huma, Tara and Kiara, did well with their written material, but there's no character depth or value to these characters.

Rukmini is wasted. They just exist around Raya. "Daddy's Home" and the casino song by Ravi Basrur give elevation, but other than that, it's just loud music along with punches and gunfire. One minute you'll see Yash grabbing a woman and cut to a bed scene, another minute random, unnecessary killing scenes and bomb explosions without much context.

For most of the runtime, you don't know where the story is headed; you just feel like you're watching Raya fulfil his fantasies. The Hindi dubbing is terrible, and a few dialogues are outright below the belt. Don't know if the original carried the same thing. The screenplay is so lost amid the violence that there's no establishment of character motivations or emotional connect. The second half carries a major twist, but it comes so late that you just don't care about it. The action sequences have a few highlights, especially when the two Yash's take on each other and the circus fight. A few shots are virtually cinematic and beautiful, but the climax, set in the snowy world, is not shot well, with below-average VFX.

Overall, Geetu Mohandas' Toxic just ticks the checklist of violence, dialoguebaazi and sexuality and completely kicks story, emotion and screenplay out of the film.