Animal movie review: Ranbir Kapoor goes for the big hunt in Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s ‘jungle’ and emerges victorious.
Cast: Ranbir Kapoor, Anil Kapoor, Rashmika Mandanna, Bobby Deol, Tripti Dimri
Director: Sandeep Reddy Vanga
Writers: Sandeep Reddy Vanga (story), Pranay Reddy Vanga and Suresh Bandaru (screenplay), Saurabh Gupta (dialogues)
As a young Ranvijay narrates how he is in awe of his father, a fellow classmate shoots him a question- “How do we measure love?” The young boy replies, “Time.” and goes on to add, “Time batayega mere papa ke liye mera pyaar fail hain, pass hain ya duniya mein sabse first hain.”
Off screen, it’s Sandeep Reddy Vanga who is deeply in love with his baby- Animal and the flawed characters that inhabit in that world. That love trickles in every red-filtered frame of the film. Unhinged! As the clock ticks, its hue only grows deeper and deeper until there’s a bloodbath on screen.
What’s Yay: Ranbir Kapoor, Bobby Deol, pre-interval block, music
What’s Nay: A couple of objectionable dialogues, Rashmika Mandanna’s dialogue delivery
Story
‘A father is a son’s hero’. It is for a young Ranvijay as well. Meanwhile, his super wealthy industrialist-father Balbir Singh (Anil Kapoor) is busy growing his empire and barely has any time to reciprocate to his son’s love and affection. With every passing time, Ranvijay’s hunger for validation from his father only grows stronger and stronger.
With Balbir being an absentee in the daily happenings, Ranvijay (Ranbir Kapoor) slowly takes it upon himself to become the next man of the house. After an unpleasant incident, he is packed off to the boarding school which further strains his relationship with his father.
Years later when he returns back home, the old wounds resurface. To add more to it, there are cracks in his equation with his brother-in-law Varun (Siddhant Karnik) as well. Amidst all this, Ranvijay woos and marries his college sweetheart Geetanjali (Rashmika Mandanna) and the couple shifts their base to the US.
However, their happiness is short-lived as they are forced to relocate back to India after Balbir gets shot by unidentified assailants. With danger looming upon his loving ‘papa’, Ranvijay sets out on the big hunt to prey upon those who wish ill for him.
Direction
Right with the film’s title, Sandeep Reddy Vanga is quite clear what he is about to serve you on your plate. The premise is his ‘jungle’ where there is no room for law and order (moral compass) and his characters are animals prowling in it.
His protagonist Ranvijay proudly calls himself an ‘Alpa male’ whose idea of courtship equates to that of an animal kingdom. Just like an animal, he doesn’t flinch from expressing possessive and territorial sentiments (his discomfort when his brother-in-law addresses his father as ‘papa’). Later, when someone pushes boundaries with him (in this case, a deadly attack on his father), he views it as an ‘encroachment’ into his territory and sets out on a hunting prowl.
If you look at Animal as a ‘father-son’s bond carved in blood’ like the tagline suggests or a blood-thirsty revenge story, you are bound to get disappointed. Rather, Animal looks most effective when you change the lens a bit and view these two things as major plot devices which plunges the protagonist into deep darkness and turns him into an ‘deranged’ animal by the end of the film.
While the first half of Animal is all about Ranbir Kapoor’s character enjoying the taste of blood for the first time (the brilliantly-shot pre-interval block), the real meat lies in the second half. Unfortunately, it’s here where the writing drags a bit in places. But fret not, there’s still a lot to chew as we finally get to witness the metamorphosis of Ranbir’s Ranvijay into a dangerous beast.
Like for example, there’s a scene in the first half before ‘Hua Main’ song plays out. Both, Ranvijay (Ranbir Kapoor) and Geetanjali (Rashmika Mandanna) are seated on a swing as the latter’s parents begin to chide them for their relationship. While Ranvijay has already made up his mind, you still feel some nervousness in the air.
Cut to post interval, when Geetanjali’s parents pay a visit to her, there’s a shot of Ranvijay at the dining table, with his paunch peeking out of his robe. All the nervousness seems to have disappeared. This time, it’s almost as if he is mocking them for stepping into his den. The tables have turned.
Later, when Ranvijay strolls in his garden naked, you know the lines between right and wrong have blurred for him. His pursuit for his father’s attackers is now just an excuse for him to unleash his feral fury; whether it’s a man or a woman opposite him.
There’s a fleeting moment in the pre-climax where Ranvijay becomes self-aware of what he has become and makes an offer. But guess what, in Vanga’s world, there’s no room for redemption this time and his man goes for the final kill which seals his fate. One of the biggest relief in Animal is that there is no easy getting away with the wrongdoings unlike the filmmaker’s previous outings- Arjun Reddy/Kabir Singh. Here, the protagonist has a heavy price to pay for all the bloodshed.
On the flip side, your appetite for the film suppresses a bit when Vanga and team chooses to ruffle some feathers with a few objectionable dialogues and gestures. At times, they seem to be directed at his naysayers who tore his previous films. If Animal had gone a little easy on this, it would have been a much better product.
Performances
Raw, insane and restrained when needed! That’s Ranbir Kapoor for you in Animal. The way the actor dissolves that slight hint of vulnerability as his character progresses in the film into something twisted and emerges as a bellicose beast, is gutsy and commendable.
The ever dependable Anil Kapoor forms a solid team with Ranbir. Watch out for their final confrontation scene where they let their talents speak for themselves. Bobby Deol is a killer in Animal, both literally and figuratively. With just his evil stares and slashing skills, he sends shivers down your spine even in a limited screen time. How I wished he had more scenes in the film.
‘It’s a man’s world’, quips a character in Animal and Rashmika Mandanna’s Geetanjali is the only female one to have some nerve there. The actress messes things up in the first half with her stoic expressions and poor dialogue delivery. Thankfully, she undoes some of that damage in the second half where her character stands up to her cheating husband.
Tripti churns out a sincere performance despite not getting the best piece of the meat. The rest of the cast including Siddhant Karnick, Shakti Kapoor and Prem Chopra deliver what their respective roles expected out of them.
Technical Aspects
Santhara Krishnan Ravichandran and Amit Roy capture the gory and madness of Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s world in a compelling way with their camera lens. Vanga goes a little easy on his editing scissors because he is too close to the material. The result- the story-telling gets a little tedious at places.
Music
Animal has some impressive dishes in store when it comes to music. Starting with the Roja-inspired music composed by a Hyderabad-based rock fusion band called Threeory, the Ranbir Kapoor starrer transports you to the world of passionate love with ‘Hua Main’ crooned by Raghav Chaitanya. If ‘Papa Meri Jaan’ and ‘Satrangi’ tugs at your heartstrings, ‘Kashmir’ makes you fall in love with Shreya Ghoshal all over again.
The clever use of the Marathi song ‘Dolby Walya’ and the Punjabi folk number ‘Arjun Vailly’ adds more exciting blocks to the testosterone-driven pre-interval sequence. Last but not the least, B Praak’s ‘Saari Duniya Jalaa Denge’ lends a beautiful layer to a pivotal scene in the film.
Verdict
At one point in Animal, Anil Kapoor’s Balbir Singh sternly declares, ‘I have no regrets.’ And so does director Sandeep Reddy Vanga who is back in action! Brutal and unapologetic. A word of caution here- Go for this kill only if you are someone who doesn’t get triggered easily.
