I think I finally understand why I love Marvel movies more than most movies from the DC Universe. It is not only about the superheroes or stories, it is also about the theme and design. Take Batman and many other DC movies, I almost hate watching action scenes hidden in darkness. When so much effort has gone into creating stylized action, why make everything so dark that I have to struggle to see it? The dark theme may suit the character, but for me, it does not justify hiding the action. AT ALL.
Then there is another problem, the set.
The moment a movie makes me think, “This looks like a set,” the world starts suffocating me. Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Saawariya made me feel that way. Rohit Shetty’s Cirkus did too. Unfortunately, Toxic: A Fairy Tale for Grown Ups gave me the same feeling.
I understand the historical reason behind the design. The story belongs to Portuguese era Goa, so naturally the buildings, streets, clothes and atmosphere cannot look like present day Goa. Production designer T. P. Abid and cinematographer Rajeev Ravi have clearly created a massive world. I could see the scale and effort, but I could also see the set.
Once that happened, the world stopped feeling alive to me. It felt closed, dark and artificial. In simple words, it suffocated me.
Yash After KGF
Yash is not entering Toxic as only an actor. He is entering after the massive success of KGF, with the Rocky Bhai aura still following him. Add the hype around his upcoming role as Ravana, and every movie he chooses now arrives with huge expectations. When an actor reaches this level, we no longer expect only a movie. We expect scale, style and something that explains why he chose this particular role. Toxic certainly has scale. It also has attitude, actually, it may have too much of it.
How Many Times Does One Hero Need to Enter?
Come on, even Yash’s first entry took too long. The movie kept building and building before finally showing his face. By the time the grand reveal arrived, I was already tired of waiting. A hero’s introduction should make the audience excited. This one made me feel like saying, “Yes, we know it is Yash. Please show him now.”
But the problem was not only his first entry. Yash seemed to receive another entry almost every time he walked into a new scene. Of course, most of them had to be in slow motion.
I mean, WHY?
Slow motion works when you want to show an important detail or give one special moment more time. Use it once or twice and it can create magic. Use it every time the hero enters, and my mind starts looking for the fast forward button, even though I am sitting inside a theatre.
It gave me bad nostalgia from 2024’s Singham Again. Ajay Devgn had so many entries in that movie, from the front, side, back and probably every possible angle, that it felt as if the movie kept forgetting he had already entered. Toxic gave me the same feeling. Yash already has enough aura. He does not need the camera to stop, Ravi Basrur’s BGM to announce him and time itself to slow down every time he walks into a room. A grand entry can create a high. Repeated grand entries only create traffic.
Yash Versus the Health Warning
There was another major distraction, the smoking and drinking warning in the bottom left corner of the screen. I understand why it is necessary. But almost every time Yash appeared with a cigarette or drink, that warning appeared again. Once I noticed it, I could not stop noticing it.
The movie wanted me to look at Yash, his slow motion walk, clothes, attitude and carefully designed aura. But my eyes kept going towards the bottom left corner.
“Smoking and drinking is injurious to health.” Again. And again. After a while, I was not following Yash, I was following the warning. Every time it appeared, it pulled me out of the scene. The makers spent so much money creating Yash’s aura, but the bottom left corner kept winning.
Does Everyone Have an Attitude Problem?
It felt as if almost everyone in the movie had an attitude problem while speaking.
Maybe the roles were written that way, but the dialogue delivery felt forced to me. I watched the Hindi version, so I am not sure how much of this came from the actors and how much came from the dubbing. Either way, most conversations sounded as though every character was trying to establish dominance in every sentence.
It reminded me of the John Wick world. John Wick is an assassin, the person walking past him may be an assassin, the beggar on the corner may be an assassin, and perhaps even the person serving coffee knows twelve ways to kill someone with a spoon.
Where are the normal people? In Toxic, almost everyone behaves like an important member of the underworld. When everyone carries the same attitude, the attitude itself stops having an impact.
Too Many Stories, Not Enough Connection
The first half runs multiple stories at the same time, but none of them connected with me properly. The movie kept introducing people, conflicts, places and more attitude, but it forgot to give me one emotional thread to hold.
Geetu Mohandas and Yash are credited as writers, while Ujwal Kulkarni handled the editing. Somewhere between the screenplay and editing, the first half lost me. The movie kept moving, but I was not moving with it.
That became a bigger problem because of its 3 hour and 14 minute runtime. I do not usually have a problem with long movies. If the story pulls me in, I can happily stay there. But when the story does not connect, every additional scene starts announcing its length.
The first and second halves also felt like two different movies in terms of storytelling. A twist in the second half, no spoilers here, gave me a small sigh of relief. At least something had finally changed. But the twist also felt as if it had come from nowhere.
Maybe I watch too many movies and that is why it did not surprise me as much as expected. Still, I kept wondering what Geetu Mohandas wanted me to feel at that moment. The twist changed the direction of the story, but it could not repair my connection with it.
First Tell Me Who Is Fighting Whom
The action team includes J. J. Perry and Anbariv, so the movie carries some serious action experience. There are individual movements and sequences that look genuinely good. But some fights appear so suddenly that, for a while, I had no idea who was attacking whom, or why.
Who is this? Who attacked first? Why are we fighting now? Before I could enjoy the action, my brain was busy trying to understand the reason behind it.
Yash certainly has the physical presence and agility to carry these large action scenes. Still, not every action sequence worked for me. The darkness also hid some of the style that I wanted to see.
BGM, Hits and Misses
Ravi Basrur’s BGM has its moments. When it hits, you can feel the scale that the movie is chasing. But it was not consistent for me. A movie like Toxic needs the BGM to become the pulse connecting its characters, attitude and sudden action. Here, it sometimes lifted a moment and sometimes felt disconnected from it. The other songs were mostly forgettable and did not add much value to the story.
Then came “Tabahi.”
When Toxic Finally Opened a Window
“Tabahi” was one of the few times when the movie allowed me to breathe. Suddenly, there were real locations. There was the ocean, greenery, a blue sky and colourful clothes. After spending so much time inside dark sets, seeing actual colours felt refreshing. Rajeev Ravi’s cinematography finally had space to come alive. The screen did not feel like a set trying to convince me that it was a real world.
It simply felt alive.
The same thing happens during the scenes involving Ticket. There is more colour, visual energy and a different rhythm. Yash’s agility and action in these scenes were worth watching, especially because the cinematography finally allowed me to see them properly.
But Ticket’s performance was too over the top for me. The shouting, expressions and constant high energy felt unnecessary. The character already had the appearance, movement and physicality. He did not need every expression to arrive with an exclamation mark.
So Many Actresses, So Little to Carry
The movie brings together Nayanthara, Kiara Advani, Huma Qureshi, Rukmini Vasanth and Tara Sutaria. That is a huge lineup. But personally, except for Nayanthara, most of the actresses felt like fillers to me.
They were present, beautifully styled and placed inside important looking parts of the story. But they did not create the impact I expected. With so many characters and parallel stories already fighting for space, they felt more like parts of the scale than essential parts of the experience. Nayanthara was the exception. She had enough presence to remain visible even when the movie around her became crowded.
The Best Thrill Came Before the Movie
Toxic is massive. You can see the money, ambition, technical effort and the weight of Yash’s success after KGF in almost every frame. But scale and impact are not always the same thing. For me, the artificial sets closed the world. The first half failed to connect its different stories. The dialogue delivery carried too much forced attitude, and the repeated slow motion entries tested my patience. The BGM had its highs and lows, while the long runtime became tiring because the story never pulled me in strongly enough.
The second half brought colour, some better action moments and a twist that offered a little relief. But by then, the movie had already kept me at a distance. This is not me telling anyone whether to watch or not to watch Toxic. That decision belongs to every moviegoer. I can only share what happened during my time with it.
And here is the fun fact. I missed the first five minutes of Toxic. I was rushing from the parking area towards the theatre, worried that the movie had already started. That run, the panic, the urgency and the thrill of reaching my seat…
That was probably the most exciting five minutes Toxic gave me.