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Toxic: Yash, Geetu Mohandas’ crime thriller becomes the very monster it set out to destroy
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Toxic is a textbook example of the phrase, “you become what you hate.” Or, in other words, Geetu ambitiously tries to destroy the hypermasculine, misogynistic Indian star vehicles on their own turf, only to deliver a mutated version of the exact ultra-violent template.
Cinema Anatomy | Dear filmmakers, stop turning Mohanlal, other superstars into a joke with forced cameos The crime thriller may have started its journey by assuming it was Edward Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) from Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island (2010), and that it would tame the notorious Andrew Laeddis.
But Geetu Mohandas tries to add a psychological and emotional layer to the template, exploring the repercussions of the violent man’s actions. It struggles in finalising if it wants to be an elegant, chic noir-ish flick or a dramatic crime thriller.
Toxic opens with a long sequence showing Nadia (Kiara Advani), a dishevelled circus performer, giving an overly dramatic lecture to her young son, Ticket, hinting at why his father (Raya) doesn’t like seeing her face. Toxic confuses us, making us wonder what the heck is going on.
From the very first sequence, this bewilderment is evident. The film is also torn between what it initially wanted to be, what it could have been had it followed that path, what it is trying to be now, and where all this will eventually take it.
She instils in him the notion that his ultimate aim in life should be to get the man to call him by his name, thus accepting him as his son. Unfortunately, everything gets lost in translation, and what we are left with is a mishmash of grand ambitions.
But in the end, it must face the fact that Edward is Andrew. The Yash-starrer is essentially a mass entertainer.
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What's still developing
- Toxic is a textbook example of the phrase, “you become what you hate.” Or, in other words, Geetu ambitiously tries to destroy the hypermasculine, misogynistic Indian star vehicles on their own turf, only to deliver a…
- Cinema Anatomy | Dear filmmakers, stop turning Mohanlal, other superstars into a joke with forced cameos The crime thriller may have started its journey by assuming it was Edward Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) from…
- But in the end, it must face the fact that Edward is Andrew.
- The Yash-starrer is essentially a mass entertainer.
- But Geetu Mohandas tries to add a psychological and emotional layer to the template, exploring the repercussions of the violent man’s actions.
- Unfortunately, everything gets lost in translation, and what we are left with is a mishmash of grand ambitions.
- Toxic confuses us, making us wonder what the heck is going on.
- It struggles in finalising if it wants to be an elegant, chic noir-ish flick or a dramatic crime thriller.
Sources
- healthlink