Toxic: A Fairy Tale for Grown-ups
Action Crime Drama Kannada
A powerful drug cartel pulls the strings behind a facade of sun-soaked beaches as a gritty, violent underworld power struggle emerges during the crumbling of Portuguese colonial rule.
| Cast: | Yash, Nayanthara, Kiara Advani, Rukmini Vasanth, Huma Qureshi, Tara Sutaria, Sudev Nair, Akshay Oberoi, Balaji Manohar, Darrell D'Silva, Amit Kumar Tiwari |
|---|---|
| Director: | Geethu Mohandas |
| Writer: | Geethu Mohandas, Yash |
| Editor: | Ujwal Kulkarni |
| Camera: | Rajeev Ravi |
All Guild Reviews of "Toxic: A Fairy Tale for Grown-ups"
The Indie Director-Star Nightmare Continues
A Fairytale for Grown Up……men
Tabaahi Tabaahi Tabaahi
There are bad films, then there are really bad films. And then there is something like Geetu Mohandas' Yash-starrer Toxic — a lavish spectacle with everything except a story strong enough to hold it together.
There are many bad films. I’ve seen bad films week after week. But there are bad films, and then there are really bad films. And then there is something like Geetu Mohandas’ Yash-starrer Toxic. The biggest problem with Toxic is not the lack of resources. In fact, it’s the opposite. The makers had everything you could possibly need to make a big, ambitious film: a superstar, a producer with money, a fantastic technical team, some of the biggest actresses, good music, huge sets, international locations and all the money required to create a spectacle. What they didn’t have was a good story.
Confused and Dense Film That Mistakes Pomposity for Style
Toxic is a three-hour ode to a hero who insists he isn't one and never notices the contradiction.
Of course, Toxic has a narrator. How can it not? How can it not have the lazy storytelling device that’s quintessential of this brand of film that’s basically ‘stuti puranam’ (hymn of adoration) of the protagonist. How can we just have an introduction scene of Yash without a narration in the background that is all talk and no sense. How can he make a direct entry, without teasing the fans with glimpses of his hands, neck tattoo and cigar, before finally revealing his face. So, yes, Toxic has a narrator, the bazooka gun, small guns, big guns, big cigars, small joints, women, more women, beheadings, blood splattering, mutilated hands, mutilated legs and for good measure, also another Yash! What it doesn’t have is the depth and style it so badly attempts at.
Yash’s Raging, Visually Electrifying Gangster Epic Is Too Rushed to Find Its Footing
Director Geetu Mohandas probes how far men with vain, violently maniacal impulses can go, but her design is almost cartoonish and her voice is dulled by studio artillery, despite DP Rajeev Ravi’s extravagant mounting.
Toxic: A Fairy Tale For Grown-Ups stomps to theatres with a busload of expectations and curiosity. The pairing of a distinctive filmmaker like Geetu Mohandas, who can twist and interrogate genres as she did in the wrenching Moothon (2019), and a superstar, Yash, is one of the most provocative bets to have surfaced in mainstream Indian cinema. It’s a great pity then Mohandas’ voice gets sanded under the crushing, loud antics of this blood-soaked saga around men, guns and guilt. There are stray glimpses that the filmmaker wants to say something about the nihilism of the violence that carry on from one generation to the next in a tired, self-defeating cycle. In a departure from genre staples, Mohandas also seeks to voice the intense self-loathing hidden underneath men on bloodthirsty rampages. However, Ujwal Kulkarni’s scattershot, frenzied edit constantly drains both poignance and any sustained mood.
Latest Reviews
