Archive · 26 Aug 2026
Toxic Review: Yash Leads an Excessive, Spectacle-Rich Crime Saga
Toxic is a very large action movie directed by Geetu Mohandas.
Yash plays both Raya, a powerful gangster, and Ticket, his angry son.
The story begins in Goa in 1947 and later moves through several decades.
Raya fights rival gangs and has complicated relationships with several women.
He falls in love with Nadia, and their relationship leads to Ticket.
Ticket grows up angry at his father, creating a father-and-son conflict.
Reviewers say Yash and Kiara Advani give the movie some of its best performances.
They also like the colorful sets, exciting fights, camera work, and music.
However, they say the movie is too long, too loud, and often difficult to follow.
Geetu Mohandas’s Toxic stars Yash as gangster Raya and his estranged son Ticket in a story spanning Goa from the 1940s to 1960s.
Raya’s gang conflicts, relationships with Rebecca and Nadia, and reunion with Ticket drive the crime drama.
Reviews praise Yash’s contrasting performances, while Kiara Advani is widely identified as the strongest among the supporting cast.
Lavish sets, vivid cinematography, action sequences, visual effects, and energetic music receive significant praise.
Critics fault the film’s excessive violence, sexualization, crowded plot, stylized dialogue, and lengthy runtime, reported as 194 minutes or roughly three-and-a-half hours.
- Who
- Yash stars as Raya and Ticket; Geetu Mohandas directs and co-writes, with Nayanthara, Kiara Advani, Tara Sutaria, Huma Qureshi, and Rukmini Vasanth in supporting roles.
- What
- Toxic: A Fairy Tale for Grown-Ups is a stylized crime action drama about gangster Raya, his family and relationships, rival gangs, and his conflict with his son Ticket.
- When
- The story spans the 1940s to the 1960s, beginning in 1947; the film follows Yash’s return four years after KGF: Chapter 2.
- Where
- The story is set largely in Goa, with parts of the narrative moving to other locations, including a snowy mountain area.
- Why
- Raya’s pursuit of power, gang conflicts, romance, family history, guilt, and Ticket’s desire for revenge drive the narrative.
What Reviewers Praise
What Reviewers Criticize
Scale and technical craft
What Reviewers Praise
The film offers lavish sets, vivid cinematography by Rajeev Ravi, large action sequences, visual effects, grand locations, and high-energy music.
What Reviewers Criticize
The spectacle is described as excessive, with arbitrary action scenes, overwhelming visuals and sound, and a scale that obscures the story.
Performances
What Reviewers Praise
Yash is praised for creating distinct personas as the charismatic Raya and rougher Ticket, while Kiara Advani is singled out for bringing emotional weight as Nadia.
What Reviewers Criticize
Some reviewers say the screenplay limits Nayanthara, Rukmini Vasanth, and Huma Qureshi, reducing their roles to enabling or stereotypical characters.
Themes and storytelling
What Reviewers Praise
The film attempts to combine crime, romance, family drama, father-son bonding, and questions about masculinity and redemption on an epic scale.
What Reviewers Criticize
Critics argue that the crowded screenplay, manufactured dialogue, excessive violence, and long runtime prevent the emotional themes and redemption story from developing convincingly.
- Film
- Toxic: A Fairy Tale for Grown-Ups
- Director and co-writer
- Geetu Mohandas co-writes and directs the film with Yash also credited as a co-writer.
- Lead roles
- Yash plays Raya and Ticket in a double role.
- Setting
- The story begins in Goa in 1947 and spans the 1940s to the 1960s.
- Runtime
- The reviews describe the film as 194 minutes, three and a half hours, or about three hours and 20 minutes.
- Praised elements
- Yash’s performance, Kiara Advani’s emotional role, production design, action, cinematography, visual effects, and music.
- Main criticisms
- Reviewers cite excessive violence, a crowded and difficult-to-follow plot, loud dialogue, sexualization of female characters, and an overlong runtime.
