One-Line Review: Animal is brutal, shocking, and too hard to judge as a movie.
Animal YouTube Trailer
Cast: Ranbir Kapoor, Rashmika Mandana, Bobby Deol, etc.
Release Date: December 1, 2023
Director: Sandeep Reddy Vanga
Introduction
Animal is the story of an unusual father-son bond, that leads a man down a path of blood and revenge.
“Ranbir Kapoor aces deranged character in this derailed family drama”
~ Times of India
Our rating for Animal is 6/10.
Summary
Ranvijay Singh has a broken relationship with his father and is always looking for his dad’s ‘approval’. His love for his dad turns into a kind of obsession while on the go. Being a man of a peculiar nature, Ranvijay follows the concept of being an Alpha male and being a person who dominates everyone around him. He is overly fond of his family and their status. After knowing his sister was bullied in school, a young Ranvijay creates havoc in her classroom with an AK-47. Balbir, Ranvijay’s father, thrashes him and sends him to a boarding school.
Ranvijay falls for Geetanjali, his schoolmate, and convinces her to break off their engagement. He later marries her. After learning that Varun, his brother-in-law, was also involved in the attack on Balbir, Vijay returns and kills him. After bringing in a doppelganger of his dad, Vijay eagerly awaits to see who tried to kill his dad and learns the whereabouts of Abrar, who is related to his family, and why he is after Balbir and his family.
Review
Ranbir Kapoor shines in Animal. It can be considered as one of his best performances to date. From donning multiple looks to expressing unconventional emotions, he outdid himself as an actor. The movie can’t get a better title than this, as we can see the protagonist first comparing his attitude towards that of an animal, and later on, Go himself turns into an animal with no more morale present.
When it comes to animal, we can’t appreciate Sandeep Reddy Vanga enough. Let us keep the controversies and the characterizations that created loads of controversies aside. He truly is a very good filmmaker who introduced an unconventional way of filmmaking. The audience was in no way prepared to witness what Vanga had prepared for them in Animal. Vanga’s way of writing and presenting his movie would have made them mumble, ‘Someone can make a movie like this too?!’.
Rashmika was given a very strong character by Vanga, and she did a very good job as Geetanjali. Tripti Dimri came out of the Syllabus, and her nude shoot was a shocker for people. Bobby Deol was a treat to watch on screen. Being a villain who is dumb, his performance made all the required noise. The way Bobby’s character was introduced was so neat. Vanga knew exactly how to plot the interval, climax, and other high points in the movie. The massive gun he engineered to give a blasting experience onscreen was terrific. When Harshavardhan’s outstanding score joined in, Ranbir’s animalistic performance reached an extreme high.
The biggest drawback of Animal was its duration. After a point, it becomes too tiresome to watch all the noise and madness onscreen when the narration gets stretched like anything. The constant confusion because of bombarding so many characters onscreen, their family, and relations and comparing the protagonist’s views with conventional ideas became a burden to bear while watching the movie. The tail end, which was supposed to be a big banger, turned out to be another lousy patience test instead. We have to see how Vanga is going to make things in the sequel now.
Conclusion
Go for Animal to see an adult-rated blood bath with unconventional storytelling by Vanga.
