Toxic Movie Review

Yash is back to testing his luck at the Pan-India Box Office after KGF 2 with Toxic. His choice of going with Geethu Mohandas raised many eyebrows and the movie has become a talking point with bold scenes in the Promotional material and postponements. Let us see how the movie goes!

What is the Movie About?

Raya (Yash) and Ganga (Nayanthara) are siblings deserted and deceived by their own parents and the society. Ganga wants her brother to be the King of Goa and in that pursuit, they enter the Underworld there getting involved in the Opium trade there. Multiple women come into Raya’s life and what happens next forms the rest of the story.

Performances:

Yash looks majestic and regal in the character of Raya. With a tall, lanky, and bulky figure, his persona screams the Pan-India appeal. There is another young character in the second half and the transformation for that role reveals the hard work Yash had put in.

But then, when it comes to the Performance, Raya character gives an impression that Yash is still in KGF hangover. He talks, walks, emotes, as if KGF Rocky refuses to leave him. The Slo-motion shots makes the impression even more.

Nayanthara is a terrific performer but she barely leaves an impact in a poorly written role. Even her screen presence is disappointing.

Kiara Advani looks stunning and performs well in places but overall, her character lacks the meat to register an impression. The other female characters – Rukmini Vasanth, Tara Sutaria, and Huma Qureshi are also victims of poorly written characters. There are numerous other artists who barely register.

Technicalities:

Geetu Mohandas and Yash have jointly written Toxic. The movie is all style with no substance with a story resembling KGF but set in a different backdrop. The emotions do not land and the action though composed well does not engage. The music, composed by Ravi Basrur, Vishal Mishra, Tanishk Bagchi does not land as the songs do not help in any way. The background score, however, works terifficly at places. Rajeev Ravi’s cinematography is brilliant, giving the film a lavish feel. The lighting is brilliantly used in many places. The locations are pristinely fresh. Ujwal Kulkarni’s editing is a big letdown. The movie tests patience at 3 hours 16 minutes runtime. The production values from KVN Productions and Monster Mind Creations are excellent.

Positives:

1.⁠ ⁠Granduer
2.⁠ ⁠Yash’s Screen Presence
3.⁠ ⁠Cinematography

Negatives:

1.⁠ ⁠Aimless Writing
2.⁠ ⁠Painfully Bad Second Half
3.⁠ ⁠Patience-Testing Narration
4.⁠ ⁠Excessive Runtime
5.⁠ ⁠Lack of Emotional Connect

Analysis:

After the phenomenal success of KGF: Chapter 2, there were multiple directors across India reached out to Yash and narrated scripts. But, with an intention to live up to the standards set by the KGF film series, Yash rejected so many directors and finally selected Geetu Mohandas to direct his next film. It indeed is a once in a lifetime opportunity for the director. Both the actor and the director took almost four years to come up with, Toxic. It was very evident from the promotional material that the film is made on a massive scale. Unfortunately, apart from the grandeur, the film failed to live up to the expectations in every other department. Shockingly, the three-hour and fifteen minute film gives you a feeling of watching KGF yet again but with a confused screenplay.

In the KGF series, we had mother who wishes to make her son a king, and here we have a sister wishing the same. There Yash goes to KGF, here the hero lands in Goa Underworld. The shifts from one backdrop to another and irritates with aimless narration. A big world that doesn’t get set up, a bundle of characters that doesn’t get established, a vast span that doesn’t feel utilised, extraordinary visuals that don’t feel impactful, a story that doesn’t have any soul and doesn’t really start anywhere, a screenplay that doesn’t feel engaging.

During the initial portions, we see numerous characters played by unknown/not-so-familiar artists coming one after the other which confuses the audiences. The dust settles down after the sometime when story revolves only around a few characters. We do not understand the story even then but with few characters around, we feel comfortable. We get to see numerous slow-motion shots, action episodes, intimate sequences and poetic dialogues coming one after the other, throughout the first half. And, the second half introduces the young Yash character. Raya character becomes sluggish and lost and the audience could not connect with Young Yash character. The story does not move and even the occasional excitement created in the first half due to traits in the Raya character disappears. The scenes that come one after the other without proper emotion or coherence will only test the patience of the audience. The intimate scenes give any unnecessary feeling even though they are trimmed to a large extent in the Indian Version. There is a twist towards the end but by that time, the audience is already exhausted. One more mishap is the Telugu dubbing. The Poetic dialogues are lengthy and hard to grasp. The dubbing quality is also not to the level of Yash’s ambition.

Overall, everything that could go wrong had gone wrong for the Toxic. Except for lavish filmmaking with some technically brilliant portions here and there, there is nothing for the audience to get engaged with. It tests your patience and makes you restless with its confused screenplay.

Bottomline: Painful Watch!

Rating: 1.75/5

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