Animal

Ranbir Kapoor's introduction as a "superstar" in the film initially raised skepticism for me. However, as I reached the halfway point, it became evident that he truly deserved the title.

Sandeep Reddy Vanga's promise to showcase genuine violence in cinema was effectively fulfilled. In an era dominated by high-budget action films and contrived flashbacks, Vanga dared to create a world where everything is heightened to the maximum, making the violence seem normal and the behavior even more unsettling. One particularly striking scene involves Ranbir, who, after discovering a mole, compels the individual to lick his shoe as a bizarre demonstration of love. It's a level of intensity reminiscent of something Quentin Tarantino might appreciate.

Addressing the question of logic, it's acknowledged that the film, like many others, is inherently illogical. Drawing parallels with films like Vikram, KGF, and Bahubali, it's recognized that crafting a movie with absolute logical coherence is a formidable challenge.

However, the film does have its drawbacks. The character arcs of certain individuals, such as the mother, sister, and villain, felt underdeveloped. The hero's revenge arc could have benefited from more nuanced writing, and Rashmika's character, while an improvement from Vanga's previous works, still warranted additional depth.

In summary, while I wouldn't classify it as a masterpiece, the film has its merits, particularly in exploring the dynamics of father-son and husband-wife relationships alongside the intense action sequences. It's a unique cinematic experience that some may appreciate for its visceral yet somewhat polarizing elements.

If you squint, you can kind of see where Sandeep Venga's Animal is supposed to go. It's a character study about an unhinged man born into privilege but lacking in the most important qualities, obsessed with his father who never showed him the love he needed. He's drawn into a world of violence and crime, in a desperate attempt to impress him. That's an interesting concept; throw in some of the Successionesque business politics, and you could've had an incredible film. The movie certainly has the talented names - Ranbir Kapoor, Anil Kappor, Bobby Deol - to make it work.

Yet, Animal fails on basically every level. It feels like the creation of an annoying 14 year old Indian boy than a film, and can only be described as TOO MUCH. This 3 hour and 24 minutes feels like an eternity as we zip from scene to scene, moment to moment, without much time to breathe. Not to mention, the film just feels excessive and it's not entertaining. It's honestly an exhausting affair.

TOO MUCH brutality and gore. It's completely unnecessary, off putting, and difficult to watch. We're supposed to like our protagonist (more on him later), yet he's needlessly cruel and violent, like everyone at a certain point in this film. It feels really "off" tonally, and comes out of nowhere. The scene where Bobby Deol was introduced started off nicely, but then goes off the rails with the blood and gore, and it ruins it completely. Not to mention the unnecessary...sex scene. Yeah. More on THIS later too.

Ranbir Kapoor's Vijay is a psychopath, who is as mentioned before, cruel and violent, but unstable, rude, callous, condescending, misogynistic, and difficult to empathize with. We have to spend a bulk of the film with this man, and the movie is constantly asking us to sympathize and respect him, but he deserves none of it. I like films with "unlikable" protagonists, but a film has to give us a reason to connect with them from time to time. I don't want to hear anyone complain about Leo's Jordan Belfort ever again; a guy we know is terrible, but you can't help but like him. Vijay is not that.

The film is supposed to be about who is trying to kill Anil Kapoor's Papa (that's not his real name, but it might as well be, and to be fair, he's really good in this), and lead us into some corporate and maybe political intrigue. But the film wastes it with a paper thin, poorly told plot and villain's whose performers give it their all and are compelling via performance, but definitely terribly written. They're two dimensional and their motives feel rushed, and not to mention, the film can't help but be a bit Islamophobic as well. (There's subtext to these Modi era Bollywood movies).

But frankly, the worst thing about this movie is its celebration of toxic masculinity and misogyny. I'm no Bechdel Test wielding feminist, but my God, this movie really hates women. They're either doeish sex objects or lack any agency at all. There's a really dark and twisted attitude towards sex and relationships this movie portrays, glorifying domination, fear, and abuse, all whilst desperately trying to convince us the main couple have a happy and successful marriage. Vijay can't help but undermine and demean every other woman he sees, treating them as sexual objects, intimidating them, or insulting them. And what's disturbing is the movie seems to want to paint him as "the man men want to be, and the man women want to date."

There's legitimately a stretch of this film towards the end where I genuinely worried we'd see explicit violence against women, like some wife slapping or choking or worse, SA or the R word. I'm not joking. I saw this with three women. You can imagine how they felt.

Yeah, I'd maybe watch this high and laugh at with friends again, but for anyone else, PLEASE avoid this trashfire.

"Animal," directed by Sandeep Reddy Vanga, offers a captivating experience with impressive background music, memorable songs, and technical finesse. However, the film stumbles in terms of story strength and screenplay execution, featuring temporal shifts that lack coherence and fail to enhance the narrative.

While the first half engages with its fast pace, the second half unnecessarily prolongs the story, leaving the film feeling overly lengthy and lacking character development, especially with Ranbir Kapoor's character. His abrupt temporal shifts lack clear reasoning, contributing to a disjointed narrative.

Despite a touching emotional scene between Anil Kapoor and Ranbir Kapoor towards the end, it arrives too late, leaving the audience fatigued and eager for closure. The credit scenes, though appealing, add to the film's unnecessary length.

Ranbir Kapoor's character, portrayed as a hero, raises concerns due to his criminal actions, lack of respect for others, blatant misogyny, and attitude problems. The film's attempt to celebrate such a character is problematic, as it glorifies a man-child who in reality needs therapy.

Actress Rashmika Mandanna's performance is very poor, making her unfit for the role. She was struggling to deliver convincing dialogue and lacked depth in her portrayal.

It's disheartening to witness Bollywood failing with films like "Animal." The industry has the potential for impactful cinema but seems to fall for subpar narratives. They should strive for better storytelling and more nuanced character portrayals and should avoid the pitfalls of glorifying problematic characters for the sake of entertainment.

"Animal" is a cinematic travesty, epitomizing the nadir of modern filmmaking. Its narrative is a convoluted mess, utterly devoid of coherence or purpose. The film's relentless indulgence in gratuitous violence and misogyny is both abhorrent and indefensible. Ranbir Kapoor's performance, though earnest, is squandered in this vile spectacle. Director Sandeep Reddy Vanga's obsession with toxic masculinity renders the film a reprehensible glorification of brutality. "Animal" is an assault on the senses, leaving viewers repulsed and questioning the very state of cinema. I can't believe I wasted 3.25 hours on this steaming pile of diapers.

As a fan of gore and dark noir went with loads of expectations- first half was off to a near flawless flight but then the tailspin which began post-interval took down the whole movie.

Excellent BGM, magnificient cinematography and out of the world acting by Ranbir (what a brilliant actor he is!) fell short to save the movie ridden with lack of depth and emotion in the storyline. The loosely written plotlines and characters severely dilapitated Ranbir's character as well because the other characters were so underdeveloped. Lack of motive in even the central character resulted in a lack of conviction in the whole story to such a level that after taking in so much of grandly choreographed violence, one is left scratching head wondering everything happened for what exactly! Emotion got translated i nto only one sided shouting and the viewer is left alone to experience an exhausting and frantic TV debate show where only the TV anchor gets to shout.

Severe formula plotpoints and scenes , some of which are inspired from Godfather,OldBoy(2003), The man from Nowhere (2010) Rajneeti and even Kabir Singh were put together in such a way that one is left doubting whether the director wanted to copy from his own previous success just because it worked earlier. But it didn't result in anything like Kabir Singh because everything was so incoherent. The brilliant opening of the movie, by the director's own obcession of using pointless violence (or might be a desperate attempt to cover up the flaws in storyline) got reduced into one and only point- who can shout the loudest! Or thats what a predatory animal is supposed to do- a non-human who shouldn't be part of humane society but gets occassionally breaded by our society. It emanates an excruciatingly agonizing world around it; unable to love, empathize, dialogue & sense of integrity but is just filled with suffocating anger & treachery.