Animal

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.

A movie about a son's (RK) love for his father (AK) and to what extreme he goes to destroy and execute those who want to harm his father! The movies focus is on RK who nailed his role perfectly as the animal he becomes on the road of revenge! Anil Kapoor played his role well. Rashmika's role wasn't special could have been played by any actress the rest of the cast were good. Bobby Deol's extended cameo ( only came at the end part of the movie) was pure swagger mixed with rage should have used more time on his character. Overall first half was epic but slows down after the interval the movie could have been shorter but if u like RK and love brutal loud action scenes then go watch it! *Not one for the family (very violent and has repetitive pointless kissing scenes and partial nudity) 7.5/10 👍🏽

This is surely one of the best movies that bollywood has produced in the last 10 years in terms of entertainment. All things from storyline to music and from action scenes to quality of acting are brilliantly planned and executed. Even though the running time of the movie is almost 3.5 hours you actually don't feel its length.

RK has really nailed it this time. This performance can be surely counted as one of his very best in terms of quality of acting. As much as I want to say the same thing for Rashmika, the element of common sense is simply not allowing me. Firstly, the quality of acting displayed by her is disappointing compared to her previous performances. And further I am still not able to understand why someone like her accepted the movie after reading the script.(may be due to RK). The character she plays feels like a clown in the movie.

The adult scenes in the movie were forcefully forced into the script and felt very unnatural. The first half of the movie is the most striking and impressive aspect, but sadly it starts to lose momentum every minute in the second half. Unnecessary and untimely placement of songs further declines the experience. The movie deviates from its original plot & theme several times which can be frustrating. Another frustrating part is that several dialogues in English and punjabi language are said so fast that 90% of audience fails to digest them. Lack of twists and turns makes it boring at times. Boby deols screen time is not more than 25 minutes, and that too without a single dialouge, which is again disappointing and surprising because the trailer of the movie makes him look like one of the leads.

But all things said, we cannot deny the fact that it is something very fresh and unique, which the audience will love. One of the most aesthetically appealing & enjoyable movie from Bollywood in long time. The message it delivers between a father and son is very beautiful and climax makes up for all the faults it has.

Purely a theatre movie will not be that satisfying if witnessed on mobile or laptop.

Such a bogus movie at 600 cr. What are we up to? We have Sam bahadur and kadak singh in parallel which not even able to manage 100 cr.

Basically people want drugs over ghee is such a true analogy. Sad but truth.. There is only violence and bad story in animal which you can't even ask your family to watch.

I am against any boycotting but Indian cinema needs to come out of the 'break the skull with hammer' approach. In fact bollywood is now not able to make their own script or movies so no they are copying South Indian movies.

Jawan was good movie but what was there in Tiger3(total waste).

We need good movies with stories, acting, songs...

"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.