Toxic: A Fairy Tale for Grown-Ups will be released on August 26.
A gangland action saga spread across five decades, Toxic: A Fairy Tale for Grown-Ups runs 194 minutes but plays like a trailer for something else. While it’s technically a complete story — a rarity in the modern South Indian blockbuster landscape, where every other major release is actually a “Part 1” — the film is edited with the kind of snappy impressionism that becomes completely disorienting when you need to make sense of who’s who, or quite simply who’s standing where. Granted, the presence of bearded A-lister Yash of the KGF duology (often credited as “Rocking Star” Yash) goes a long way toward making it tolerable at times. The actor has layered charisma and explosiveness in his dual roles as ruthless mafioso Raya, and eventually his spurned son Rumi or “Ticket,” who seeks revenge for his abandonment. However, making sense of Toxic visually and narratively is a major challenge.
On the plus side, Toxic has a visual splendor given its period setting. The story runs from the 1920s all the way through India’s independence in 1947, and even goes a few decades further, tracing the changing face of the former Portuguese port of Goa as a reimagined haven for a heightened drug trade awash in slick suits, fedoras, tommy guns, and lavish speakeasies. S. Rajamouli’s RRR follow-up, Varanasi, arriving in April, and the Hindu epic Ramayana: Part 1, also starring Yash and releasing in November). Alas, all this effort feels wasted on a completely unfocused movie whose soul resides in its opening and closing minutes but whose intervening three hours are a headache and a half.
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