Kampa Film’s Toaster is a comedy with a crime angle thrown in. Ramakant (Rajkumar Rao) and Shilpa (Sanya Malhotra) are a married couple who live in a rented flat in a housing society in which mostly live old people like Malini Pherwani (Archna Pooran Singh) and Mrs. D’Souza (Seema Pahwa). Ramakant is a stingy man who can do anything to not spend money. He gives a toaster as a wedding gift to the daughter of Shilpa’s guru, but when the wedding is called off on the same day due to a turn of events, Ramakant goes to the guru to get his toaster back. However, guru has donated all the wedding gifts to an orphanage run by Nandini (Farah Khan). When Nandini refuses to hand over the toaster to Ramakant, he steals the same from the orhanage. And that is the beginning of all his problems.
Malini Pherwani lusts for Ramakant and blackmails him to indulge in physical intimacy with her because she has a video which can prove that he had killed Glen D’Souza (Abhishek Banerjee), son of Mrs. D’Souza, soon after the passing away of Mrs. D’Souza. In the hope that she would delete the video from her cellphone rather than showing it to the police, Ramakant obliges Malini. There’s also a track of a politician, Amol Amre (Jitendra Joshi), whose sex video was in possession of Glen before he had passed away and now seems to be hidden in the same toaster which is stolen by Ramakant. Investigating police officer Balgaode (Upendra Limaye) is corrupt and promises to lay his hands on Amol Amre’s sex video in return for favours from Amre.
What hapens to the toaster and the two videos?
Parveez Shaikh’s story is interesting but only up to a point. The screenplay (by Parveez Shaikh, Akshat Ghildial and Anagh Mukherjee) is too stretched. The second half, especially, appears long and, therefore, a bit boring. The track of Malini Pherwani and the two burials are not as funny as they ought to have been. Besides, the change of tracks in the second half robs the drama of the innocence of a harmless comedy. Of course, the new track also has its share of funny moments but they are fewer and not as hilarious as the track of the couple (Ramakant and Shilpa) in the first half. Also, the crime angle appears too long and hence it gets a bit boring towards the end. But the last few minutes of the drama are once again very funny. Akshat Ghildial’s dialogues are very entertaining at a lot of places.
Rajkumar Rao does an extraordinary job as the stingy Ramakant. His sense of comic timing is outstanding. Sanya Malhotra is lovely as his wife, Shilpa, who has the mind of a detective. Archna Pooran Singh lends superb support as Malini Pherwani. Abhishek Banerjee makes his mark in a friendly appearance as Glen D’Souza. Seema Pahwa makes her presence felt in a brief role as Mrs. D’Souza. Upendra Limaye is lovely as investigating police officer Balgaode. Jitendra Joshi is very good in the role of politician Amol Amre. Farah Khan shines in a special appearnce as Nandini.Her acting underlines the fact that she is a supremely natural actress. Pratik Gandhi adds star value in a tiny guest appearance. Vinod Rawat (as Guddu A.M./P.M.), Chandan Kumar (as Bhola), Parnalekha (as S.I. Salunkhe), Naman Arora (as the gadgetry salesman), Karmveer Choudhary (as Guruji), Amita Pareva (as Guruji’s wife), Shivaansh (as Pichkoo) and the others provide the desired support.
Vikas Daschaudhary’s direction is okay. Aman Pant’s music is average. Lyrics (Yung Dsa, Akhil Tiwari, Deepti Sharma, Pratika, Akshay The One, Akhil Tiwari and Amrit Randhawa) are alright. The picturisation of the Husn ke laakhon rang remixed song in the end is eye-filling. Aman Pant’s background music is quite good. Aejaz Gulab’s action and stunts are up to the mark. Jishnu Bhattacharjee’s cinematography is nice. Mayur Sharma’s production designing is of a fair standard. Chandrashekhar Prajapati’s editing is fairly sharp but should have been sharper.
On the whole, Toaster is an average entertainer. It is good that it is being released directly on an OTT platform. Had it been released in cinemas, it would have found the going tough. But on OTT, it will find a sizeable audience who will like it.
Released on 15-4-’26 on Netflix.