Animal movie review: Ranbir Kapoor's film is 'Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham on acid'

A few weeks ago during the trailer launch of his new film Animal, actor Ranbir Kapoor called the film an 'adult-rated Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham'. The actor was putting it mildly when he described the film, helmed by Sandeep Reddy Vanga.

It makes the toxicity of Kabir Singh and Arjun Reddy (both versions, in Hindi and Telugu original respectively, made by Vanga) seem negligible. Animal is not for the faint-hearted as the violence that you see in the trailer is merely a small portion of what unfolds on screen for three hours and 21 minutes. 

What is the plot of Animal?

Ranbir Kapoor plays Ranvijay aka Vijay aka Animal who has had a problematic relationship with his father Balbir Singh (Anil Kapoor). The problem is not ego clashes between the two though. Vijay has always obsessively loved his father, a bit abnormal for everyone's comprehension, and his father has always been too busy to spend some quality time with him. He grows up as an angsty son craving for his father's approval in everything. A successful businessman, Balbir Singh has always tried to discipline his son, but to no avail.

Vijay returns home from the US with family in tow after eight long years when there is an attempt to kill his beloved father. Vijay then turns barbaric and goes on a killing spree until he finds the real culprit and motive. For him, nothing can be more important than his father and he is ready to put his marriage with Gayatri (Rashmika Mandanna) at stake to protect his father. 

The basic plot of avenging one's parents is not new to Bollywood but it is Vanga's treatment that makes Animal different. I am using the word 'different' for the lack of a better word to describe the emotions I felt going through that long gore fest that Vanga has indulged in. 

How much violence is too much violence?

Writer, editor, and director Sandeep Reddy Vanga had said in an interview that he would teach India how action films are made and he was not joking about it. Stylish and elaborately choreographed with a great background score, the action scenes are completely new to Bollywood. Especially a scene where hundreds of masked men come charging at Ranbir (dressed in a white kurta and dhoti)  with first guns and then axes as our man-child protagonist goes gleefully charging at them with an Indian-made bazooka. It's a long scene where guns, violence, and gore have just been thrown in like it was being distributed at some store for free and you think that Vijay has finally done avenging the attack on his father. But it is just the first half and Vanga has more to showcase. 

By the second half, everything becomes too much. The gore, the violence, the bloodshed, the toxicity and even Ranbir Kapoor himself. Vanga was criticised for showing toxic love in his previous outings on screen - Kabir Singh and Arjun Reddy. Looks like the man took note of the criticism and became brazen about it. Because in Animal, the relationship that Vijay and Gayatri share is alarming from the beginning. 

Sandeep Reddy Vanga hates women

The first encounter between Rashmika and Ranbir's character is uncomfortable. He makes a crass remark on her body and then the next moment she has called off her engagement and left her family for him. The women in Vanga's world are charmed by men discussing women's anatomy with a straight face (remember Kabir Singh?) In Animal, he does try to show Mandanna's character to have a spine and speak up in between, but everything somehow is forgiven in the name of love. The toxicity, the bloodshed, the beast mode because hey the man is good in bed. Tripti Dimri plays a key role in the film but is also literally treated as a sex object and by the time her character comes on screen, you have given up on the man and the story itself. 

There is also a lot of below-the-belt talk and at one point I could not help but wonder why Vanga is so obsessed with the groin area of the human body.

There are long-drawn scenes and discussions on the groin area, underwear which makes the penis hard, and whatnot.

And the people had problems with dementors flying in Adipurush? Not this?

Performances in Animal

It is rather conflicting to see Ranbir Kapoor play the troubled man-child with such ease. He has delivered to the part so well. Kapoor is excellent in the film and bound to win a few accolades in the upcoming award season but the film overall is so flawed that one isn't sure whether to laud the artist or not for taking up the role in the first place.

Anil Kapoor too is splendid and restrained as the man who never had time for his son and who now regrets it. Both the actors perform their parts well. 

The women, Rashmika Mandanna, Charu Shankar, Saloni Batra, and Tripti Dimri are all great even though they are written poorly because the director only wants to highlight a skewed version of an alpha male. 

There is also Bobby Deol playing an equally barbaric man much like Vijay. Deol's character is mute and he delivers to the craziness of Vanga's vision ably but he too has limited screen time. 

The film is technically very sound. Shot stylishly by Amit Roy, it also boasts of a stupendous background score by Harshwardhan and Rameshwar and good music by a gamut of composers.

The scenes where Ranbir visits his pind (village) to get his brothers to protect his family and the sequences that follow afterwards are well-written and enacted. 

Despite good performances, great music, and technical finesse, Animal is deeply flawed. In some moments, I was going back to Kabir Singh - a film I had huge issues with - and finding it mild in comparison to what was being shown on screen. Animal makes Kabir Singh feel like child's play or let me rephrase what Ranbir Kapoor said- Animal is Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham on acid.