three years. it took so much time toxic To finally show the women who were promised to be at the center of its “female gaze” narrative. And when the nearly two-minute teaser arrived on July 1, it didn’t answer the film’s biggest question — it only raised it further: Where are the women?

Ironically, the first thing the teaser establishes is that it’s not really about women at all. It’s about fame.

Not because he dominates screentime, although he certainly does. But because most of the nearly two-minute promos exist only to show how women want them. they take off their clothes for him. They fight him but fall on their knees in front of him. They also define themselves through it. Even in the teaser titled Ladies and Ladies, women never become the subject of its story. They remain satellites revolving around a human being. For a film that has spent three years selling itself as a gangster drama seen from a woman’s perspective, this is a staggering contradiction.

This becomes even more problematic as you delve deeper into how it all started.

On June 30, teasing the release of the women’s video, Yash captioned his post: “The women take time to come!” Harmless joke? Perhaps. But it also sets the tone.

It’s 2026, and one of the biggest stars of Indian cinema thought it would be the right move to take a dig at women for taking the time to present them to the audience. It’s ironic that it took the makers three years to even give these women a teaser, apparently it slipped their minds.

That caption isn’t just a throwaway social media line. This subtly reveals the attitude that the teaser reinforces.

And then there is everything that this teaser shows.

The July 1 video begins with a clear disclaimer about keeping “everyone” away. Within seconds you understand why. The camera tells you exactly whose perspective the film privileges. It does not introduce women. It introduces their body.

The camera pans towards the women taking off their clothes. Then dismissing Yash with one. Then another. Then more of the same, repackaged with a woman’s voice that wants to sound like commentary. It also leaves you with this question: Is this the same female vision that the film promised?

We learn almost nothing about these women. We don’t know what they want or who they are. We only know how they look around Yash.

The voice-over tries hard. “Love makes monsters of women,” it says – a line that, in itself, holds real weight. On paper, it’s an interesting idea. The suggestion that love can consume, corrupt and destroy women is fertile emotional territory. But the visuals tell a different story. The camera shows almost no interest in who these women are. There is interest in how they look – their back, legs, body and their desire for Raya. His identity remains a mystery.

That is not a female vision. This is the same old male form equipped with a female description.

Then comes the line that demolishes whatever the teaser was trying to build: “We’re fighting for what remains of her devotion.” Read it again. In the teaser, designed to center the film’s women, they are defined by their competition for a man’s attention. Not his own desires or contradictions, but his devotion.

Women do not exist independent of Raya. They exist because Raya exists. Remove him from the equation and the teaser leaves them with almost nothing.

Perhaps the biggest misconception here is what the “female gaze” actually means. Over the years, filmmakers have increasingly used the phrase as shorthand for stories focused on women. But just putting women on screen does not create a female gaze. Nor are they given voice-overs while the camera continues to consume their bodies.

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The Female Gaze asks what women see. This teaser is only interested in what the women look like. There is a huge difference between the two.

The closing line, “Don’t forget the predicament of men and their dicks”, is the final nail in the coffin. The scenes of Yash’s character fighting with women come across as an aimed provocation of male behaviour. While the dialogue mocks men for treating women as objects of desire, the visuals are busy doing exactly the same.

It’s just sexist, yes, but it’s sexist while insisting it’s doing the opposite. A film that objectifies its women without openly using the “female gaze” would at least be honest. What toxic Instead the same product is being offered in different packaging: women as objects of desire and obsession, now with voice-over that sounds like criticism.

fraudsters who were cheated

Another irony needs to be mentioned. The teaser presents its women as dangerous – mysterious, manipulative, capable of causing destruction in a few frames, which it displays without objectifying them. The framing wants you to see them as deceivers in this world, women who seduce, scheme, and consume.

But look at what the teaser actually shows: women trapped in one man’s orbit and fighting over the scraps of his attention. These are not fraudsters. These are women who were duped – by the writers (Yash and Geetu Mohandas), who promised them a film with their own perspective and presented the same old story on a more expensive budget.

In the teaser he has been described as a cheater. But the only betrayal is being done to them on screen.

Teaser leaves behind questions

During those one minute and 44 seconds, the women of toxic Exist solely in the world of fame – reacting to it, desiring it and competing for it. The camera follows their gaze, not theirs. The story presented is his. Women are not running this film. They exist only to help move it forward.

For a project that announced itself as a gangster drama seen from a woman’s perspective, the teaser raises an uncomfortable but inevitable question: what? toxic Is male power really being examined or is it just making male power more glamorous by giving it a female voice?

Three years later, that question deserves a straight answer. And this teaser is not the only one.