Movie Review: Toaster Serves Up Burnt Bread and Cringe-Inducing Comedy
Star Cast: Rajkummar Rao, Sanya Malhotra, Archana Puran Singh, Farah Khan, Abhishek Banerjee, Seema Pahwa & others!
Director:Vivek Daschaudary
Language: Hindi
Available On: Netflix
Runtime: 2 hours
Rating: 1.0
If you were hoping for a crisp, buttery satire to celebrate the festive season, Rajkummar Rao’s latest Netflix offering, Toaster, is a major disappointment. Despite a promising premise and a stellar cast, the film ends up being a charred mess that tests the audience’s patience more than it tickles their funny bone.
The story follows Ramakant (Rajkummar Rao), a legendary miser who is forced by his wife (Sanya Malhotra) to buy a toaster as a wedding gift for a friend. When the wedding is called off post-dinner, Ramakant’s stingy instincts kick in—he wants his gift back. What follows is a “dark comedy” quest to retrieve the appliance from an orphanage, involving a chaotic neighborhood filled with quirky characters played by Seema Pahwa, Abhishek Banerjee, and Archana Puran Singh.
The biggest question hovering over Toaster is: What happened to Rajkummar Rao? The actor who commanded the screen in Newton and Shahid is reduced here to a caricature whose only trait is looking foolish.
- Sanya Malhotra: Unfortunately, Sanya is a victim of a “nothing” role. She spends the film looking for something to do, but the chemistry that should have sparked between her and Rao is completely smothered by a lackluster screenplay.
- Archana Puran Singh: If you thought her laughter on TV was a bit much, her role as a lusty neighbor attempting to seduce and then blackmail Ramakant is easily the most “cringe-inducing” sequence of the year. The film attempts to play this for “quirky” humor, but it feels outdated and deeply uncomfortable.
- Farah Khan: In a small mercy, Farah Khan’s meta-humor cameo as an orphanage owner provides a brief, refreshing breather from the surrounding weirdness.
A Script Burnt to a Crisp
Directed and produced under Patralekhaa’s new venture, Toaster aspires to be a slice-of-life thriller with a satirical edge. However, by the interval, the only thing truly “toasted” is the viewer’s patience.
The film’s attempt at dark humor is so thin you can see right through it. Instead of being sharp and observational, the “quirkiness” quickly becomes annoying. The script fumbles with serious themes—like the reversal of gender roles in harassment—and tries to pass them off as comedy, a move that feels tone-deaf rather than insightful.
