“Violence is my mother tongue, the universal language.” Indeed, this dialogue delivered ‘Toxic’, as the name suggests, is about repressed emotions, which in their own convoluted way define toxic masculinity. Before we arrive at this emotion-charged and relevant conclusion, there is a set violence piece in this gangster drama every 10 minutes.The film moves at breakneck speed, leaving you no room to breathe — and often not in a good way.

Just when you recover from the onslaught of the piling body count, yet another dance of death unfurls. Who is killing whom is not as important; half the time you don’t know either, as the symphony of violence unspools right through the film.The film opens with a high-powered scene involving one of its many heroines, the beautiful Kiara Advani as circus acrobat diva Nadia, and her son.

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While Director Geetu Mohandas Updates

For a while, director Geetu Mohandas keeps us guessing if it is the father Yash or his son who is playing the reckless and relentless killing machine. Yash, indeed, has a double role in the film that expectedly revolves around his mega stardom.With the directorial reins in the hands of a woman, who also happens to be the co-writer, and an impressive line-up of heroines in the fray, you are excused for erroneously believing that the film has been mounted from a woman’s point of view.

Not that they are cardboard cut-outs or their presence is merely perfunctory.Huma Qureshi is gangster Salvador’s (Darrell D’Silva) moll Elizabeth. Revenge is right up the alley of this woman scorned. Tara Sutaria is Salvador’s daughter who falls for Raya (Yash).

And then a few like Nayanthara’s Ganga do emerge as powerful rallying points. Rest assured, all women here are in service of Yash who as Raya and his son, Ticket, is simply superb.With his blazing intensity and charisma, he carries the film and its propulsive action. His emotionally malleable face too is a mirror to conflicting ache and pain.

Toxic Fairy Tale Timeline & Next Steps

Is that enough? Yes, if you are a Yash fan. Nothing that he does or says in the film, like “I am allergic to morality” or “Do I look civilised to you”, is bound to dent his fanbase.

Even if you are on the other side, you won’t grudge him or his acting prowess. But the recurring montage of mindless action and a wobbly script, which hops, skips and jumps from one violent scene to a sexually intimate one, would certainly test your patience.At three hours and 14 minutes, the film packs more than one penultimate moment.

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Now, hasn’t Yash already told you: “It’s over when I say it’s over!” So, it goes on and on, mostly confounding and screechy, occasionally bewitching. Yes, the climax has a beguiling twist.

You are taken But, it’s a classic case of too little, too late.Many Indian films centre around daddy issues, but here the father is haunted The psychological inflections from a traumatised childhood to lost love built in Yash’s character make him rise above the regular hero.

There is a chink in his armour which makes him a bit human and the film a bit offbeat… “We are both villains,” utters his seemingly unhinged son. And the contradiction between what the movie cares to say and what it aspired to be is obvious.The scale is undeniably stupendous.

From pre-Independent Goa to snowcapped mountains, cinematography The song ‘Tabaahi’ (lyricist Raj Shekhar and singer-composer Vishal Mishra) is predictor of a self-annihilation chain of events to follow.

Yet despite a few pluses, you can’t shake the feeling that perhaps the larger-than-life character of Yash was written first and the story fleshed out later.Despite much hullabaloo around the strong women presence, most heroines, including Tara Sutaria, are written out within the first half. Rukmini Vasanth as Mellisa enters in the second part with a bomb strapped to her body.

Only her fascination for Raya’s bad ways is not as inexplicable as her reason to safeguard her son from his evil shadow. Did she not know what she was getting into?Should you be forewarned in case you are opting to fall for Yash’s charming devious ways? Well, if violence is the only language you understand.

Otherwise, you’ll get trapped in the cesspool of bloodshed and find it difficult to emerge with your sanity intact.One dialogue compares the mind’s mysterious ways to a bhool-bhulaiya, getting out of which is impossible. Exactly our thoughts as our dimaag gets waylaid in this maze.Geetu had reportedly once told an interviewer, “I write something, I shoot something else and then I edit something else…” Now you know the genesis behind the chaos.