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The first movie from Rajkummar Rao’s production house Kampa Film fits right in with his recent filmography. Toaster is a Netflix Original dark comedy, just like other Netflix Original dark comedies starring Rao: Ludo, Guns & Gulaabs, and Monica, O My Darling. While the new movie gets a lot of things right, it fumbles some important parts of the story.
It also inadvertently makes a case against the current trend of starting a movie with a shocking in medias res scene to grab attention before flashing back in time. At the open, Rao’s character Ramakant is shown digging a grave in an abandoned theme park. Then the action flashes back to a few weeks earlier, as a supposedly upright politician Amol Amre (Jitendra Joshi) is shown philandering with a pair of white women. A junkie named Glen (Abhishek Banerjee) obtains a video of the affair and uses it to threaten the politician. Both scenes hint at problems to come, but we expect stakes to escalate as the story progresses. A preview isn’t always a hook.
Those scenes are followed by the audience’s chronological introduction to the miserly Ramakant, which would’ve been a much more interesting way to start the movie. While out on his morning jog, Ramakant swipes a bananas from a fruit vendor while complaining over the phone about a six-rupee discrepancy in his telecom bill. He demands a cash refund, pretending to be an elderly man near death while exercising next to an old man with a walker. We learn that he’s a guy who’s happy to lie in order to save a few pennies. The demonstration of his character is a much better hook than the two throwaway opening scenes.
For all his faults, Ramakant is devoted to his wife Shilpa (Sanya Malhotra). She’s ready for kids, but Ramakant thinks they’re a bad return on investment. That doesn’t stop him from lying to their landlady Mrs. D’Souza (Seema Pahwa) about starting a family in order to negotiate cheaper rent.
Shilpa hits her limit with Ramakant’s stinginess when he proposes spending 500 rupees (about $5) on a gift for their guru’s daughter’s wedding. Instead, she buys a fancy 4-slice toaster for 4,999 rupees. It pains Ramakant to spend that much, but he’s happy to brag about his generosity to the bride’s family.
The next morning, it’s revealed that the groom-to-be got his secret girlfriend pregnant, leading the wedding to be cancelled. Against all rules of decorum and human decency, Ramakant goes to the bride’s house to ask for his toaster back. He’s outraged to learn they donated the gifts to an orphanage, so he breaks into the orphanage to steal the toaster.
At best, Ramakant is a grey character, but his relationship with Shilpa gives hope that he can be a better man than he is. Things get more dangerous when his toaster thievery plot intersects with the politician blackmail subplot. Turns out junkie Glen is Mrs. D’Souza’s son, and Ramakant’s neighbor. Tragedy ensues, raising the stakes for Ramakant both legally and morally.
About halfway through, Toaster loses its way. Ramakant crosses a moral line that is very hard to come back from, at least not without some kind of confession, atonement, or karmic justice. But Toaster treats this as just a plot point, and Ramakant isn’t transformed by what happens, making for an unsatisfying conclusion.
There’s some very clever dialogue and really good performances, particularly from Malhotra and Farah Khan in a funny cameo as the owner of the orphanage. Upendra Limaye is also entertaining as the politician’s henchman. Rao’s performance is in keeping with the many other “ordinary man” roles he’s played over his career.
The film gets bogged down with a segment of the story that involves an elderly neighbor, Pherwani Aunty, played by Archana Puran Singh. Maybe the section will hit with Singh’s fans, but it overstayed its welcome for me and added to the sense that the filmmakers didn’t calibrate the story correctly. Of all of Rao’s Netflix Original dark comedies, Toaster ranks last.
Finally, I updated my list of Bollywood movies on Amazon Prime earlier this week with the debut of Riz Ahmed’s new English-language series Bait. Amazon also announced an April 3 premiere date for its new Hindi series Maa Ka Sum, starring Mona Singh and Mihir Ahuja.
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Netflix hosted their Next on Netflix India 2026 event to reveal the Original titles they plan to release this year. The lineup included eight brand new titles, with additional details about other previously announced movies and series. I wrote about all of the titles presented at the event for What’s on Netflix, incorporating the new information into our giant 2026 Netflix India preview. That’s a pretty objective piece, so I thought I’d write about some of the Netflix Original titles I’m most looking forward to in 2026, starting with the movies.
Accused
Konkona Sen Sharma and Pratibha Ranta play a couple whose marriage is strained by allegations of sexual misconduct. The fact that Netflix India is even putting out an LGBTQ relationship drama makes it worth watching.
Ikka
Sunny Deol makes his streaming debut opposite Akshaye Khanna in this courtroom drama.
Lust Stories 3
Check out the lineup of directors for this anthology series: Vikramaditya Motwane, Kiran Rao, Shakun Batra, and Vishal Bhardwaj. Absolutely insane. The cast is outrageous, too: Konkona Sen Sharma, Radhika Apte, Vijay Varma, Abhishek Banerjee, Gurfateh Pirzada, Sana Thampi, Ali Fazal, Radhika Madan, Aditi Rao Hydari, and Siddharth.
Maa Behen
Madhuri Dixit plays Triptii Dimri’s mom. ‘Nuff said.
Made in Korea
This Tamil-Korean cross-cultural coming-of-age story sounds fun.
Toaster
This is the movie I’m most excited about. Rajkummar Rao plays a guy whose new marriage — to Sanya Malhotra — implodes immediately, and he becomes obsessed with a fancy toaster they got as a wedding gift.
I was disappointed that Imran Khan’s comeback film Adhure Hum Adhure Tum wasn’t part of the Next on Netflix India 2026 presentation. Apparently, the executive who greenlit it isn’t with the company anymore, so the team is just waiting around to see if Netflix is still interested.
Now the series. Obviously, I don’t review many Indian series on this site, but a few of these Original shows look pretty good.
Family Business
Anil Kapoor plays a tycoon who hands the reigns of his company over to his successor (Vijay Varma), only to boot his protégé and retake the company. It sounds like a more contentious version of the Disney succession drama from a few years ago.
Musafir Cafe
I love that they’re offering something besides thrillers and crime shows. Netflix needs more romantic dramas.
Super Subbu
They also need more comedies. This Telugu show about an unqualified sex ed teacher sounds funny.
Then there’s the reality show Lock Upp from producer Ekta Kapoor. She had another show named Lock Upp that aired on her streaming service ALTBalaji in 2022, hosted by Kangana Ranaut. It’s unclear from the materials Netflix released if this is a reboot of the existing format, or if they are just re-airing the original 2022 season. The latter would be hilarious.
All in all, we’ve got four returning Original Indian series, 13 new Original series, and 11 Original movies confirmed for the rest of the year. That’s a lot, especially since only Season 2 of Kohrra and the new series Hello Bachhon (they Physics Wallah show) have release dates (February 11 and March 6, respectively). I guess we’ll have to wait and see what we get in 2026.
