Animal Review: All swag and no substance

ANIMAL

Director- Sandeep Reddy Vanga

Cast- Ranbir Kapoor, Anil Kapoor, Bobby Deol, Rashmika Mandana, Triptii Dimri, Suresh Oberoi, Shakti Kapoor and Prem Chopra

Platform of Release- Theatres

Rating: 

By Jyothi Venkatesh

The film goes on and on about an unhinged Vijay Ranvijay (Ranbir Kapoor) who gets obsessively gruesome and violent when his stinking rich dad industrialist Balbir Singh (Anil Kapoor) is attacked, after having craved for his love and attention all his life. Seeking revenge and hunting down the conspirators become his one and only aim in life.

When his father is shot, Vijay declares himself as the ‘man of the house’ and takes matters into his own hands. He assures his father that he’ll safeguard their steel empire and family’s legacy but revenge first.

Writer-director Sandeep Reddy Vanga, (of Kabir Singh fame) known for his controversial statements and thoughts, glorifies the alpha male once again through his Godfather-like sordidly violent tale. When he walks in an engagement ceremony of Geetanjali, he does not have any qualms to go to the would-be bride and tell her not to call him bhaiya and forcibly sets out to marry her.

“Aap log mahinay ke chaar din pad badalne par bolte ho, main din mein chaar baar pad badal raha hu”, he argues post an injury, when his wife Geetanjali (Rashmika Mandana) comes to visit him in the hospital where he is being treated after a grave injury.

Ranvijay is cocky, broken, and a problematic maniac who treats women who come in his life as sex objects. Animal ends up as all swag and no substance derailed family drama. Sandeep Vanga Reddy very conveniently forgets the rationale behind the father-son discord that forms the crux of the story which stays unexplored.

Also read: Jhimma 2 Marathi Movie Review: Engrossing!

I will be failing in my duty if I were to just condemn the film as a puerile exercise that goes on and on about female bashing, because the film is watchable in parts and Ranbir Kapoor lends that dangerously a very strange and awesome unpredictable quality to the deranged character that he sets out to play in the film and aces it commendably especially in that crucial climax scene. Ranbir’s raw sex appeal and unmatched intensity are the film’s highlights.

If you look for solid content in the film, you will be only in store for a major disappointment in the film, because the bigger issue is the lack of purpose in the story and Ranbir Kapoor’s character of a fierce gun-wielding angry young man comes across as just a rebel without a major cause. There is absolutely no logic to make Ranbir sashay in the lawns of his fortress-like house in the nude or shed his clothes and start making love in the plane on honeymoon when the chopper is on a self-pilot mode.

Rashmika Mandana lisps and at times her dialogue delivery is also not clear and to sum it up, I should say that Animal ends up as all swag and no substance derailed family drama, with a running time of around 203 minutes.

The biggest problem with the story is that the director barely invests in other characters, sadly turns them into silent spectators, including the very talented Anil Kapoor and Bobby Deol. The less said about other character actors like Prem Chopra, Suresh Oberoi, the better, though in comparison Shakti Kapoor tuck s in a neat performance as Anil Kapoor’s friend.