An innocuous electrical appliance is involved in more action than a short circuit in Netflix’s new dark-comedy Toaster. Rajkummar Rao plays a jittery miser who would beg, borrow and break-in to retrieve his shiny possession. It’s a promising premise and with Rajkummar and Sanya Malhotra in the lead, expect some enjoyable acting on display. The film as a whole, however, can’t seem to go beyond the novelty of its logline. It often plays out like a constantly improvising skit. The humour is intermittent and is often undone by an animated, exaggerated depiction. Toaster starts off crunchy but gets soft and soggy by the climax, leaving behind a dry aftertaste.

Cast: Rajkummar Rao, Sanya Malhotra, Archana Puran Singh, Upendra Limaye, Seema Pahwa and Abhishek Banerjee

Directed by: Vivek Daschaudary

Written by: Parveez Shaikh, Akshat Ghildial and Anagh Mukherjee

Streaming on: Netflix

Rajkummar is Ramakant, a cheapskate who has the superpower to bargain even over six rupees. Everything about him oozes with parsimoniousness. He can choose the feebler one between two vanishing soap bars, he switches off the lights even before exiting the room and his idea of an anniversary lunch is a langar. He, however, lives with his wife in an apartment with a decently-sized balcony (the film is set in Mumbai). Sanya Malhotra plays the wife Shilpa who is constantly miffed with Ramakant’s display of stinginess, which she labels as a “sickness.” She, however, has her own addiction to true crime-shows, which has made her sort of an amateur private eye digging for a conspiracy in everything.

The events kick into motion after Ramakant and Shilpa give away an expensive toaster as a wedding gift. The marriage, however, falls apart and the scrooge that Ramakant is, he develops an unhealthy obsession with retrieving the appliance. For that he steals from an orphanage, becomes a murder accomplice and even gets blindfolded and blackmailed by an old lady. The film gets whackier as multiple players, including a cop, a politician, a drug addict and an orphanage manager, try to grab on the elusive toaster.

But most of what happens feels more orchestrated than organic. Toaster doesn’t unfold, it rather opens like a colourful but predictable Jack-in-the-box. The film often seems trying to work out a weak script. The little strength the material has also falls flat because of intrusive background music. Toaster has an interesting premise which thins out after being stretched for a runtime of over two hours. The film also resorts to repetitive set-pieces and often seems at a loss of ideas (Rajkummar’s Ramakant either steals or abets murders). The jokes land sometimes but often go amiss and character quirks seem to be incorporated only to be played for laughs.

Toaster marks the debut production of Rajkummar and his wife Patralekhaa’s Kampa Films. It is commendable that the actor-duo are backing a mid-budget script that mixes crime-comedy with relatable middle-class humour but the execution is where the film falters. They still have assembled an impressive ensemble which often elevates the material. Sanya is brilliant as the true crime-crazed Shilpa. She doesn’t fall into the trap of acting up a notch in a “crazy” film and thus is more convincing and more fun. Seema Pahwa nails the Bombay-catholic accent and is memorable in a brief role of a Christian landlord aunty. Rajkummar is all guns blazing but his performance often feels like a reheat of the small-town scaredy cats he has been playing for quite a while. Abhishek Banerjee’s act as a doobie-head also gives a Jaffa (from Rana Naidu) and Jana (from Stree) déjà vu.

Toaster had the potential to be a quirky, crazy ride but it gets derailed quite soon. Great premise, great actors, it gets two ingredients correct but the screenplay lacks spice. It joins the repertoire of Netflix’s middling brand of dark comedy which confuses being unhinged for humour. For those of us who have watched enough of this kind of content popping out from the streaming giant, Toaster is less crunch, more our daily bread.