Toxic ending explained: Geetu Mohandas’ gangster film, Toxic: A Fairy Tale for Grown-Ups, was released in theatres on Wednesday amid much hype. The film starring Yash in dual roles as Raya and Ticket has received a lukewarm response from critics and the audience alike since its release. The film features a twist towards the end that changes everything one has watched. Toxic’s ending explained. *Spoilers ahead*
(Also Read: Toxic movie review: Yash’s film is a soulless nightmare, a sensory overload that tests your patience)
What is Toxic all about?
Toxic features Raya (Yash) and his sister Ganga (Nayanthara) as the protagonists. Having grown up in difficult circumstances, the duo are now looking to gain control over illegal trade in Goa that is still under Portuguese control. Ganga wants Raya to assume power by any means possible. And if marrying Salvador’s (Darrell D’Silva) daughter, Rebecca (Tara Sutaria), will help them get closer to the goal, she wants him to pursue it. However, he soon grows close to Nadia (Kiara Advani), which complicates matters in more ways than one.
What happens in the second half of Toxic?
Raya and Nadia have a child named Ticket (also Yash), who narrates the story of Toxic. He grows up away from Raya as the couple grows distant due to an incident. At his stalled wedding to Rebecca, Raya kills Salvador to take over his Goan empire. The gangster later has another child, Adam, with Mellisa (Rukmini Vasanth). But as he grows older, he begins to believe his older son, Ticket, is out to ruin everything he has built.
Through the second half of the film, we see Ticket antagonising Raya, who tries his best to keep him at bay while expanding his empire to Macau. When he kidnaps Adam and tries to kill him in a similar manner to how Raya had tried to kill him, his plan is foiled. Despite his insistence on hating the father who tried to kill him as a child, Ticket turns away from killing Raya when he gets the chance, and even saves him from an attack. But soon, there’s a twist in the film.
Toxic ending explained
The fag ending of Toxic throws a twist that questions everything the audience has seen thus far. Ticket, who was narrating the film, turns out to be a part of Raya’s imagination and thus, an unreliable narrator. Raya had really killed Ticket years ago, and couldn’t save him when he changed his mind. As he’s already down from Ganga and Nadia’s deaths, this seems to push him to the brink as the years go by.
It is the ‘Ticket’ part of Raya that was ruining everything he had built, from his career to his family. His partner, Mellisa, and members of his gang, like Karmadi (Sudev Nair), seem aware of his mind slipping. Mellisa also tries to leave with Adam at one point, which leads to ‘Ticket’ kidnapping him. The film ends with Raya becoming aware of what has happened all along and surrendering to the chaos. Even as a snow avalanche races towards him, he finally ‘embraces’ the son he always kept at bay. And the scene cuts to black.
What does it mean?
If taken literally, the ending of Toxic means that Raya’s mind has broken, but he has accepted the child he previously failed to acknowledge due to vengeance. He points out in a previous scene that he has no self-preservation after losing everything he has loved, which seems true in the end.
Once he accepts his mind, he sees flashes from his past that continue to haunt him. A ‘toxic’ man sees his own downfall and the consequences of his actions, as well as the actions of those he loves. But given that most of the film is narrated by ‘Ticket’ and later seen through Raya’s eyes, it could mean that much of what has been shown might not have happened. The ending is open to interpretation.