By Taran Adarsh, August 28, 2009 – 11:30 IST

Gift an infant his/her favourite toy and see how the toddler plays it with glee. In TOSS, the camera seems to be the toy for debutante director Ramesh Khatkar. He plays with the camera so much, experimenting with zany frames, that you get put off after a point.

TOSS has an interesting thought that the urban junta would like to watch, but the screenplay blows the story to smithereens. This thriller thrills in bits and spurts and the final outcome is least exciting.

The culprit here, like most films helmed by debutantes, is that form overpowers content to such an extent that what you get to watch is a good looking film with minimal substance to offer.

In a nutshell, the subject goes for a toss in TOSS.

TOSS tells the story of a bunch of friends who, on their way back from a vacation, stumble upon a fortune. They decide to split the money and start dreaming a king’s life. Soon, before they realize the owners of the booty are after them, the law is after them and worse, they are after each other.

After a lot of camera jugglery at the start, the director takes his own sweet time to come to the point. The concept of money being the root of all evil is enticing and the writers could’ve come up with a riveting screenplay. Sadly, the writing is so childish at times that it fails to do justice to the subject.

Debutante director Ramesh Khatkar seems to have concentrated more on making a technically attractive project, instead of telling an absorbing story. Music [Sandesh Shandilya and Siddharth-Suhas] isn’t invigorating either. Background score [Ranjit Barot] is far more effective. The visuals [DoP: Anil Akki], of course, are good and that’s what you carry home.

Amongst actors, Prashant Raj is the best of the lot, followed by Ashmit Patel and Aarti Chhabria. Rannvijay is a non-actor and even the length of the role is minimal [he's killed before the interval]. Zakir Hussain irritates. Mahesh Manjrekar and Sushant Singh are wasted. And what did Vijay Raaz see in this role? Rajpal Yadav gets no scope either.

On the whole, TOSS is body beautiful minus soul.