Toxic review: Yash's big comeback is style over substance, a frustrating let-down

Yash's big, bad return to the big screen is finally here. The wait for fans and other enthusiastic Indian cinephiles to see what Yash's next move would be after KGF has been long. The payoff is Toxic, with Toxic: A Fairy Tale for Grown-ups. How big is this gangster drama with a female gaze? What's good, what's bad and, more importantly, does it live up to our expectations? Let's find out!Toxic is simply all about Raya. He is the plot, the star, the hero and the villain. Everyone else is merely a cog in his story, entering at crucial moments and shaping his actions in ways that ultimately push the narrative forward.Ganga (Nayanthara) is his elder sister, his partner in crime and his protector. Rebecca (Tara Sutaria) is his betrothed, the life Raya loves and aspires to have. Nadia (Kiara Advani) brings love wrapped in chaos and chaos wrapped in love, at the same time. Elizabeth (Huma Qureshi) is the fox seeking vengeance. And then there is Rukmini Vasanth, who is simply his 'permanent'. Or is she? Ticket (also Yash) is a loose cannon, just yearning to take over Raya's mind.The plot of Toxic is simply too complicated to convey through a synopsis. On one end, the story and the depth of its characters get buried under the film's fast-paced edits. On the other, whenever the director slows down to explore these moments, the film loses pace and engagement, becoming too immersed in emotions that it hasn't quite earned. The story finds itself stuck between a rock and a hard place, with Yash's commercial sensibilities as the rock and Geetu Mohandas's eccentric, Fight Club-style experimental direction as the hard place. Eventually, the film ends up caught somewhere in between — neither here nor there. Yash undeniably deserves credit for his role in Toxic. The risk of signing on to a film like this was huge. After investing four years, a significant amount of money as a co-producer, and the goodwill he earned from audiences nationwide after KGF Chapter 2, the payoff may seem like a distant dream, with Ramayana arriving in November.Keeping all of that aside, Yash the artist and actor shines in the film. It isn't all swagger, style and mass dialogues; there is a serious acting performance here as well. A particular sequence in the second half, where Raya and Ticket face each other in an intense emotional confrontation, is a standout. Yash, who plays both characters, simply steals the show. The action sequences, particularly those presumably choreographed by JJ Perry, are among the film's biggest strengths. The ambush on Raya at Nadia's circus is a standout, showcasing the kind of sharp, inventive and visceral action that the film could have used more of. Yash's weapons training, which went viral in 2024, finally gets its moment to shine, and the result is a sequence that feels refreshingly different from the more conventional mass-action choreography the film falls back on at several points.If only the rest of the action had carried the same innovation, energy and sheer excitement packed into that 10-odd-minute stretch, Toxic could have been a far more fun and satisfying experience.The supporting cast also puts in impressive performances, even if the writing and direction don't always give them enough to work with.Nayanthara, as Ganga, is particularly good in a role that feels frustratingly underutilised. She brings an inherent strength to the character without relying on overt dynamism. At times, all it takes is her presence and that poker face, with a storm of emotions hidden in her eyes, to make an impact. Her performance is so effective that Ganga's underutilisation ends up becoming one of the film's biggest frustrations.Kiara Advani also makes the most of her role. Her character goes through a discernible arc, requiring her to evolve with its changing shades and state of mind, and the actor handles that transition well. Rukmini Vasanth shares an interesting chemistry with Yash, too. Given that she is introduced as Raya's 'permanent', one expects her character to have a far greater impact on the overall proceedings. Unfortunately, that potential remains largely unexplored.Huma Qureshi and Tara Sutaria, meanwhile, put in decent performances. Both actors are clearly giving their roles everything they have, but the direction doesn't quite do justice to what they bring to the table.Visually, Toxic is simply stunning to look at. Rajeev Ravi's cinematography, production designer T. P. Abid, art directors Mohan B. Kere and Sandeep G. Sharma, along with the rest of the respective departments, have done a brilliant job of creating a visual spectacle. Every frame is meticulously designed, and there is no denying the sheer beauty and aesthetic appeal of the film.However, visual beauty cannot exist in isolation. The aesthetics of a frame need to add value to the story, the characters or the emotions being conveyed. If they don't, then no matter how beautiful a frame looks or how interesting a particular shot is, it ultimately doesn't serve the film.The editing, at several points, is simply intolerable. Editor Ujwal Kulkarni opts for some of the most random, abrupt cuts, often relying on basic transitions to move from one scene to another. That said, not all the blame can be placed on the editor. The director ultimately makes the choices about how a scene is cut, structured and connected to the next.There can be several reasons for an awkward transition — perhaps a scene connecting two segments doesn't work, or a creative decision made during the edit doesn't translate on screen. But it isn't the viewer's job to sit through a film and defend why an underwhelming job has been done by a particular department. When the editing becomes this distracting within the first 15 minutes itself, it becomes difficult to simply digest it as part of the film.Geetu Mohandas misses the mark by a mile with Toxic. For all the confidence she displayed in the various speeches leading up to the release, and given the expectations of audiences who loved her work in Moothon and Liar's Dice, Toxic comes across as a major let-down.The biggest problem is the film's lack of clarity about what it wants to be. Is it a gangster drama? An emotional drama? A psychological thriller? It tries to dabble in all of these, but never quite commits to any one of them. Being a jack of all trades and master of none can still work if the film manages to keep you invested. But what happens when the card you're dealt is a dud? That is, unfortunately, what Toxic feels like.All the underwhelming aspects of the film ultimately point towards the director. The overindulgence in the central idea, the underutilisation of the female characters despite the film's heavy emphasis on its female-led casting, the questionable editing choices, the lack of genuinely impactful scenes and an eccentricity that often feels excessive all contribute to one larger problem: Toxic becomes a case of style over substance. At the end of it all, the elevator pitch sounds far more exciting than the film itself.The anticipated convergence of two different schools of cinema simply doesn't happen. Not because one has a bearing on the other, but because the makers fail to manage both sensibilities and turn them into something genuinely pathbreaking.The film was also pitched as a gangster drama with a female perspective, promising female characters who would stand on equal footing with the protagonist rather than merely orbit around him. But that promise remains largely unfulfilled. Raya continues to dominate the narrative, while the women around him, despite being played by some of the industry's strongest actors, rarely get the space or agency their characters seem to demand. And that is perhaps the biggest disappointment of Toxic. There is ambition everywhere — in its world-building, performances, action, visuals and the sheer scale of its ideas. But ambition without cohesion can only take a film so far. And when the credits roll, what stays with you is not the bold experiment that Toxic promised to be, but the frustrating feeling of a film that came tantalisingly close to being something special — and failed.- EndsPublished By: Sanjay Ponnappa CSPublished On: Aug 26, 2026 12:33 ISTMUST WATCH: