ಟಾಕ್ಸಿಕ್ (Toxic) - Review

 Toxic is a Kannada pan India film allegedly directed by Geethu Mohandas starring, Yash, Kiara Advani, Nayanathara, Tara Sutaria, Rukmini Vasanth, Huma Qureshi and others.

PC: India TV News

Disclaimer

This review is in no way shape or form an attempt to defame the film Toxic, any of its actors, the director, producer or anyone associated with the film in any way shape or form. All I intend to do is to give readers a fair idea about the quality of various aspects of the film like acting, direction, screenplay, dialogues etc.

Also, this review will contain spoilers, I can’t review it properly without giving spoilers.

Premise

Toxic - A Fairy Tale for Grownups is an action gangster drama set in Portuguese ruled Goa between the 1940s to 1960s.

Short Review

Toxic is the worst film of Geethu Mohandas’s and Yash’s career. The film is subjectively and objectively sub-par and can be described as nothing less than a complete torture to sit through. Every single aspect of the film right from the story to the acting, to the direction, screenplay, editing, to the VFX is unbelievably and shockingly bad. I can’t think of a single major redeeming aspect of the film despite a 3 hour plus runtime. This is easily the worst Kannada film of the year and may be one of the worst Kannada films of all time right up there with Martin, Kabza and KD.

Positives

• Yash’s acting in the second half, and some other acting performances.
• Music by all of the composers - Vishal Mishra, Tanishq Bagchi, Arsalan Nizaami, Faheem Abdulla and Ravi Basrur. I personally enjoyed Tabaahi, Manamohaka, Aarada Gaya, Maharaya and Pekaboo. They initially felt okay but after repeated listening, they felt great. This being said, I didn’t like “His Aura Hits you” by Ravi Basrur, parts of it reminded me of “I am Villain”, specifically “His aura hits you … Dhaka dhaka dhaka dhaka” reminded me of “dhaka dhaka dhaka dhaka rajara hiri maga bittan nodo moorne kanna shankara ….. “ from “I am Villain”. I almost cringed, lol.
• Lyrics of the songs too were good. I don't know about other languages but the Kannada version songs, written by Yograj bhat were pretty awesome. Yograj has done a wonderful job. I personally liked the lyrics of Aarada Gaya the most.
• Scenes between Yash and Nadia were some of the sweetest scenes in the film. They worked really well for me, I wish they lasted longer in the film.
• Makeup was good. Mainly on Yash when he is playing the older Raya and ticket.
• Some of the dialogues intended to be funny did work in making me giggle.
• Gun fight sequences looked quite professional, mainly the way the guns were held, shot and reloaded, although the fight scenes themselves didn’t work.
• The original plot of the film (what Geethu Mohandas had in mind) seems to have had a good potential and I could observe that in the film despite the heavy alteration it may have went through.
• The character of young Ticket worked. I could connect with what he faced and genuinely felt bad for him. His Kannada dubbing is a different story though.
• The climax of the film partially worked and this is mainly because of the plot twist that comes at the end and a bit because the VFX was better than rest of the film.

Negatives

• Plot (or the lack of it)
• The film, despite being 3+ hours long, lacks any semblance of a plot. Of course, some characters come and go on the screen in the first half, some names make a repeated appearance. But that’s it, if you seriously look for a coherent plot that makes any sense, you will keep looking till the film is over and you won’t find one.
• The plot of the film is more of an elaborate excuse for Yash to do his aura farming while stylishly smoking cigars, shooting villians and/or drinking. Unfortunately, not even once did his aura farming work in the entire film. Whatever plot even exists makes very little sense and has been shown in the most confusing way possible. In fact, till the end of the first half, we don’t even properly know what kind of illegal business the main bad guy is doing.
• Looking at things in retrospect now, makes me think that Geethu Mohandas had a plot that would be suitable for either a web series or at least a two-part film where each part would be 3.5 hrs long. The film however treats the plot as more of a background noise for aura farming or progressing towards the climax, you see, Geethu Mohandas had little to no creative control over the film.
• Acting
• As I have already written in the positives, Yash was surprisingly good in the second half, both as Ticket and as the older Raya, but the rest of the performances were a hit and miss.
• Kiara Advani was good in some scenes, but she simply failed in the scenes which required her to show madness and vulnerability leading to some of the most unintentionally funny dubbing in the film, both in Hindi and Kannada.
• Huma Qureshi and Tara Sutaria were simply bad, their dialogue delivery and acting was abysmal, especially in scenes where they shout their brains out. Horrible in every single way.
• Nayanathara’s face was largely expressionless. She delivered dialogues with a poker face most of the time. Rukmini however was adequate, not too good but good.
• Most of these acting related problems could have been avoided if the actors understood the lines they were uttering. All of the Hindi actors and Nayanathara simply did not understand the Kannada dialogue and hence could not emote properly. Understanding the dialogue you are saying is very important if the right emotions have to be brought out. Unfortunately, that didn’t seem to be the case for the vast majority of actors.
• You can observe this happening with other films like Sudeep’s Max (2024). A couple of key characters in that film were from the Tamil industry and simply could not deliver dialogues in Kannada while giving the correct emotions.
• Why the makers aligned the lipsync of the film in English instead of Hindi is a “Yaksha Prashne”.
• Casting
• I am dissatisfied with the film team for casting a majority of the cast from bollywood instead of KFI. This is not just an injustice to artists of KFI but also ruined the final product because of the issues I have mentioned under acting.
• Except Yash, Rukmini, and a few other characters who come and vanish in the first half, a vast majority of the cast is not from the Kannada industry. The argument used to justify this is that the film will make more money from the Hindi belt instead of Karnataka, but again, the filmmakers decided to shoot the lip-syncs in Kannada and English instead of Hindi. I guess only the makers will know why they did that.
• Makers of Toxic should have taken note of the casting of Pushpa-2. There was not a single Bollywood actor in the entire film even though they knew that the film would collect more from the Hindi market than the Telugu states. Even KGF 2 had only two major actors from Bollywood and they both had limited lines in Kannada.
• I personally don’t want to watch a Kannada film where 90% of the cast is from a different industry and can’t deliver lines in Kannada.
• Apart from the heavy Bollywood casting, the makers also have cast “random white people” for the roles of Portugese officers and made them speak English in random accents. They did speak Portugese, but that was literally like 0.5% of the dialogue.
• Screenplay and (Ghost) Direction
• When you truncate a plot enough for two films or a web series into a single feature length film, the screenplay tends to show the entire film as a highlight reel or a teaser. That is exactly how the screenplay of Toxic can be described.
• The screenplay pauses only for some important scenes, but largely skims over rest of the plot as if it’s totally unnecessary.
• The first half of the first half progresses entirely like this. Most of the plot related to the main bad guys like Salvadore, his brother, the parents of Raya and Ganga are not explored satisfactorily. We are never clearly shown why Raya’s mother kills her father, why Salvadore favours Raya over his brother, why Huma Qureshi and Akshay Oberoi’s characters plot a coup against Salvadore, where the fuck does Rukmini Vasanth come from and why Raya forgave her father’s debt etc. etc., none of this made much sense to me and almost all of this is treated as entirely irrelevant.
• Coming to the direction, Yash seems to have superimposed Prashant Neel like filmmaking over genuine storytelling that Geethu Mohandas follows in her films. Yash has copied every stylistic aspect of the Prashant Neel school of filmmaking but ignored all of the storytelling and character development aspects of Geethu Mohandas’s style of filmmaking.
• I am guessing that 20% of Yash and 80% of Geethu would have worked, but this film is the exact opposite. Yash has used his own brain where he shouldn’t have, and it has backfired completely.
• Aura Farming Over actual organic screenplay
• If I have not already made it clear, there is far too much aura farming in the film, especially in the first half.
• The very first fight scene that comes in the film is too over the top and filled with illogical stuff. For those who haven’t watched the film, it’s the scene in the introducing Raya teaser. First of all, the whole graveyard scene’s beginning is fast forwarded just like in the teaser, on top of that, the arrival of Raya is just as cringe and illogical in the film. The drunk guy for instance could have crashed the car in any ditch instead of near the graveyard, Raya banging the chick in the back of the car could have been killed before he finished, also, Nayanathara and the others were literally waiting for Raya to climax so they can storm in and shoot everyone (as if that made the scene more credible). The overall scene did have some narrative importance, but the absolute cringe and poorly choreographed fight sequence made it one of the most frustrating sequences in the film. Apart from the cringe, this scene also had something that pisses me off the most, villains shooting the hero but none of their bullets hitting him. This is also by the way was supposed to be the hero entry scene.
• In the second half, Yash dresses up stylishly with a nice beard and black glasses and stylishly shoots bad guys in Macau (China). Again, not much context is provided.
• The circus fight scene also comes and goes with no explanation. The way Raya handles the gun is stylish, that’s all.
• More aura farming in other fight scenes. Thankfully this ends in the first half.
• Locations and set work
• Almost every single frame of this film has been shot in a set or a studio.
• Most of the scenes felt artificially lit or completely artificial. The scene that comes in the very beginning where Raya drowns his son, was pretty horrible. Especially the part we see the car stop at a cliff, again a studio shot.
• All scenes featuring Raya’s casino I the forest from the sky looked fake. It’s VFX and pretty badly done VFX.
• Right from the circus set to the climax, every single set felt fake AF. The circus was not that bad, since circuses are already artificial but the rest of them, like the set in the marriage sequence, the set of Raya’s Casino, the set where Nadia (Kiara Advani) is held captive etc, were all poor to absolutely horrible. Another point to be noted, for the set of a casino, not a single game or slot machine was shown in the film that I can remember. Poor detailing.
• Special mention to an evening scene of Raya and Rukmini Vasanth’s character. This is supposed to be an evening scene happening outside Raya’s casino, the background looked atrociously fake. A real outdoors evening/sunset shot will always look better than a green screen artificial sunset.
• Another special mention to every car ride scene in the film, I can bet that not a single car ride scene in the entire film showing characters sitting inside has been shot outdoors. There is one car ride scene with Yash and Nayanathara (I don't remember which female character exactly, forgive me if I am wrong) sitting inside that looked fake AF.
• Even a large part of the climax seems to be shot indoors in a studio. This is understandable considering what is shown in the climax but the VFX in the climax was not satisfactory (unsatisfactory but not totally bad). It would look better if the makers shot the climax partially outdoors and then enhanced it with VFX.
• This film stands in contrast with KGF chapter 1 and 2 where the films were made on a much much smaller budget but managed to get an output grander than Toxic. I wonder where the budget of this film was spent. Was the budget really 500 cr? Only KVN and Yash will know.
• Horrible VFX
• Again, for a film whose budget is 500+ cr and the hero hasn’t taken a 150 cr renumeration, I wonder where the money was spent.
• The VFX is pretty horrible or barely satisfactory throughout the film.
• The scenes showing bird’s eye view of vintage goa looked fake, the cliff scene featuring Raya and young Ticket looked fake. The car chase sequence between Salvadore’s goons and Raya-Ganga also looked fake.
• The interval sequence was just inexcusable in every single way. The VFX and set work featuring the abandoned fort looked fake AF (it was set during the night so as to avoid showing the background, but it still looked fake). On top of that the horrible acting and shouting by Huma Qureshi was like rubbing salt on wounds. The shots of Yash and a couple of side characters on a boat was completely fake looking. Yash shouting “neen tapp maadbitte Gangaaaa …. aaa” right before the interval gave me a cringe attack. On top of that Yash hating Nadia and even his own son for a choice she made under duress made Zero sense to me.
• Here is the scene, right before the interval, Ganga is captured by Salvadore’s goons and Huma Qureshi’s character points a gun at pregnant Nadia’s belly and tells her to either choose her son’s life or Ganga’s life, and she chooses her and her own unborn son’s life over Ganga. This makes perfect sense to anyone, even to mentally retarded people. I wonder why it was not the case for Raya.
• Coming back to the VFX, the VFX showing anything outside Raya’s casino was bad. The VFX showing the blast sequence of Nadia’s circus was also fake.
• The VFX in the climax was however decent. It looked fine but not something that can be expected from a 500cr+ budget, it was also, not something that comes out of a real locations + VFX enhancement approach, it was clearly a studio shooting + VFX approach, which no surprise, looked the way it did.
• Dialogues
• The dialogues of Toxic can be described as a combination of cringe mass and cringe philosophical.
• The cringe mass dialogues felt like they were written by Yash himself, and the cringe philosophical dialogues were probably written by Yograj Bhat.
• The “Route, route, Root”, “gandasthana”, “mancha muriyana”, “nannanna bisi madok coffee salalla” dialogues were pure gems (Probably Yash’s brainchildren).
• The mass dialogues do work, but only in some rare scenes. The philosophical dialogues on the other hand didn’t work at all for me.
• Editing
• Toxic has the same editor as KGF Chapter 2, Ujwal Kulkarni. We all know his famous blackout editing from the car chase scene in KGF chapter 2, well that makes a comeback in this film as well.
• Well, despite the scale of KGF Chapter 2, we need to know that the film was made on a significantly lower budget of just 120 crores. Using editing to hide some of the budgetary constraints is not a bad approach in such films.
• But toxic, being a film with a 500cr budget, has no excuse for using shitty and headache inducing editing.
• The cut to black style of editing didn't look good in KGF and it didn't look good in Toxic. I urge filmmakers to stop using this approach altogether.
• Scenes that make no sense
• I will start from the beginning, there is a scene where we are shown that Raya and Ganga’s mother sells Ganga into prostitution. Raya is upset by this, someone goes into Ganga's room and the door is being guarded by someone with an axe.
• In the next scene Raya has killed both his mother and the guard using the same axe and apparently the guy inside Ganga's room is also dead somehow. No explanation is given for this.
• Nadia (Kiara Advani) randomly strips naked in front of Raya and slits her wrist. Someone please explain why doing either was necessary. May be this was so that Raya could then deliver his gandasthana dialogue.
• Entry scene of Rukmini Vasanth is a completely brain dead sequence, I am again 80% sure that was Yash’s doing.
• Apparently the character of Ticket is Raya’s alter ego/imagination. Someone please explain to me how Ticket is able to fight the military at the end.
• The sudden change of heart in Rukmini Vasanth with respect to Raya. She suddenly starts saying “It's over Raya” to Raya and takes away her son from him. She does this as if she already didn't know Raya was a complete nutjob when she married him.
• The highly equipped modern looking army hunts down Raya at the same place where Raya’s and the rival gang are having a full scale gang war.
• The ladies and ladies scene comes out of nowhere and breaks the flow of a perfectly good romantic scene. Again, this is almost certainly Yash's brainchild. Literally the worst scene of the film.
• Visualization of songs
• The songs of this film needed good visualization. They would have allowed us to absorb the romances even better.
• But again, where is the mass aura farming in that? The songs end abruptly to jump to another scene.
• Yash is like, “Hope you got the point. They romanced. Let's move on”.
• While Tabaahi song was played full, Manamohaka and Aarada Gaya were only played partially.
• Songs were good, they should have stayed on longer. Filmmakers should give preference to the audience absorbing the film and connecting with the characters instead of fast cuts.
• Zero connect with the characters
• The completely fails in making us feel for any character.
• All characters feel like cardboard cutouts, even the main character Raya.
• Due to a combination of reasons, the sister sentiment between Raya and Ganga which happens to be the main emotion driving the film in the first half, fails to land.
• Chemistry between Raya and Nadia works, and I would have liked to watch more of them together, but alas, Yash had to ruin the romance between them with the god horrible Ladies and Ladies scene and the completely unnecessary wrist slitting scene followed by the gandasthana dialogue.
• The only character that I could feel any empathy for or connect with in the film was that of Young ticket.
• Random Climax
• The climax of the film has many appreciable qualities and certainly was the better part of the film, but I really need to talk about its other aspects.
• Climax takes place in the Himalayas. This is because Nadiya’s travelling circus was camped in the Himalayas for some time many years ago and Raya bangs her there once. Ticket apparently brings Raya to that place in the climax.
• The climax has a fight between what seems to be soldiers and Yash, both Tickets and Raya versions. It is hinted that Rukmini Vasanth’s character has something to do with it but it's not clearly shown.
• The military level armed guards are defeated by Raya and a non existent Ticket.
• Raya for some reason suddenly wants to keep his son for himself and his wife (all the time knowing that Raya is a total nutjob) wants to take her son away from him.
• Raya’s and the Chinese gang luckily and conveniently have a gang war in the same place, in the Himalayas where Raya banged Nadia long ago.
• The climax also ends abruptly. It just felt like the climax fight scene between Raya's goons and the Chinese goons was only meant to serve as a backdrop for Raya's internal state of mind.

Overall

Toxic is a very good example for why actors directing a film is not a good idea. If you are an actor, leave the creative stuff to the director and submit to his/her vision. Toxic could have been a wonderful two part film if Geethu Mohandas had the creative control, but since Yash hijacked the film, the end product came out like this.

This will also be a lesson to other filmmakers to stop trying to emulate Prashant Neel’s style of filmmaking. His film work because of a specific combination of creative choices. I am not a fan of his filmmaking but I do acknowledge his ability to use the fast screenplay and elevation method to present a film. If you are a fan of elevation and mass, you can't go wrong watching a Prashant Neel film.