Everything from Ranbir Kapoor to director Sandeep Reddy Vanga are UNLEASHED in this movie
Director- Sandeep Reddy Vanga
Cast- Ranbir Kapoor, Rashmika Mandanna, Anil Kapoor, Shakti Kapoor, Bobby Deol and a whole lot of shocking moments
There is
this incident from Chuck Palahniuk’s book ‘Rant’ which stays my mind like a
rusty nail on a cross. Which is not surprising if most of you realize that
Palahniuk is the writer of ‘Fight Club’. Now I might be paraphrasing the same
here but the crux of the story is important not the fat around it.
In a small
American town, there is an annual feast where everyone brings their home cooked
food. The protagonist’s mother is perhaps the best baker in town. She however
makes it a point to add nuts, screws, nails and other stuff to her cakes and
cookies. Everyone knows she does that. But they still eat it. The reason why
she does this, is that people should be careful while eating every morsel. She
wants them savour each and every bit of flavour that she took hours to work on.
Sandeep
Reddy Vanga is exactly the same kind of director. The violence, the politically
incorrect dialogue, the sexual energy, the swearing are all the nuts and bolts
in the cake to keep your attention deficit ass from scrolling Instagram while
watching the movie. Like any director, Sandeep does overdo some of it but the
whole point of the movie isn’t sex and violence. It’s something else
completely.
If you had
asked me a few days ago if I considered Sandeep Reddy Vanga in my list of best
Indian directors working currently, I may not have answered in the positive.
After all, he has made only one movie twice- Arjun Reddy a.k.a Kabir Singh
(just rewatched Arjun Reddy the other day and his full name in the movie is
Arjun Reddy DESHMUKH. No idea how that works but thanks Sandeep for the Marathi
nod. You’ll see more of that in Animal as well) Both movies had ruffled a lot
of feathers and had set the conversation rolling on what is and is not
acceptable in a consensual relationship. There were three types of reactions to
the movie – 1) People who liked the movie appreciated its rawness and its dark
humor, 2) People who hated it called it anti-feminist, violent, gender-biased
etc. 3) A rare kind of people who liked the movie for its intended reason
appreciated it as a very intense love story about two characters whose passion
is unconventional but understandable.
Sandeep
Reddy Vanga (SRV in short) in an interview 4 years ago, said that the third was
always how he intended the movie to be seen. He also said in the same interview
that if you think this is violent, I’ll show you what real violence is in my
next movie. In a recent post Animal interview, when he was questioned about his
promise, Sandeep admitted he had just said it in the flow of the conversation
and didn’t think much about it. However, the public agrees he has kept his
promise. Animal is brutal, raw, intense, violent, chaotic and am not referring
to the blood splatter on screen.
Animal asks
the question what if Michael Corleone was a psycho with Daddy issues. It is in
essence a fucked-up version of the Godfather where the elderly patriarch of an
empire is shot and the son must find out the enemies and take revenge. There is
also a Mahabharata style family feud, a Scarface like violent outburst and some
fucked up Korean movies style revenge plot but all this is actually secondary
in my humble opinion. Animal is one of the rare movies which asks the question
what it really means to be man in the modern era.
Although
Arjun Reddy touched upon this concept a bit, Animal is a incisive exploration
of the place Alpha masculinity holds in today’s era. Like I have mentioned
above, SRV seems to always evoke majorly 3 types of reaction to his movies - While everyone with a weak heart and need for
limelight is screaming “TOXIC MASCULINITY” from the rooftops, there are of
course the Sallu Bhai style crowd loving and even idolizing Ranbir’s character.
Then there’s the 3rd category which believes that Ranbir’s character
is right up to a point but in the end is a complete hypocritical asshole. While
Sandeep has not come out and said this, but the title itself is enough- a
character that has become so raw, so primal and territorial that he has stopped
being a human and become an “Animal”.
The movie
with its runtime of almost 3 and a half hours is NOT for everyone. There are a
lot of scenes which could have been cut down and quite frankly the movie dips
in its energy in the second half after the most fantastic, energetic and
exciting interval block since RRR. But it’s not just the gore that can be off
putting for a few. For someone like me who is accustomed to cinematic violence,
it was the moments where Ranbir pulls on Rasmika’s bra strap till her back
turns red or when Bobby’s character decides to have sex with his 3rd
wife mid-way through the nikaah that will have you squirming in your
seat. Its SRV’s uncanny ability to use these intense and uncomfortable scenes
to actually provide character development that is admirable. The scenes are not
just there for shock value when the movie is viewed as a whole. There are many
subtle scenes like Ranbir’s character massaging Rashmika’s feet while telling
her about the concept of Alpha males, him telling his sister how she should
have wine rather than whisky etc which make several points without outrightly
making them. This is the multi-layered writing which is absolutely worth a
*chef’s kiss*.
The plot
and the story aren’t anything new but the treatment and the characterization are.
There is a plot involving body doubles which kinda feels a bit out of tone for
a crime drama but still keeps the movie entertaining. There are perhaps some meta
undertones to it which may be explored in a possible sequel. However, the movie
could’ve used more of Bobby Deol who shines in the regrettably small amount of
screentime he’s given.
But it’s
the Ranbir show out and out and its better than Rockstar. Or even Tamasha. Like
way better. His acting will be missed under all the violent theatrics but he
plays the role of a character with a progressively manic spiral brilliantly.
Anil Kapoor performs an effortless role as the presently absent father but the
screenplay doesn’t give us his complete perspective on his messed-up
relationship with Ranbir’s character. The supporting cast do well and
surprisingly Rashmika…though annoying at first actually shines in a few scenes.
Another
amazing thing about the movie is SRV’s level of understanding of other regional
cultures. SRV is of Telugu origin and it took a Telugu origin character to
portray Punjabi’s are more than Whisky drinking, Bhangra dancing bums. SRV uses
a sikh war cry song “Arjan Velly ne” in an action scene in such a way that even
if you are from Pondicherry it’ll make you feel like you belong to a warrior
Sikh clan! SRV surprisingly uses a popular Marathi DJ dance song and even a few
lines of Marathi very well. I believe that other than Rohit Shetty this was one
of the coolest and most authentic portrayal of Marathi culture in a Bollywood
movie.
Animal is
the kind of movie I may or may not watch again in full but the themes it sets
out to explore have me thinking again and again. It almost implies a very Fight
Club like psychological lens wherein sometimes it feels that we are watching
this movie through Ranbir’s character’s eyes. There’s a scene wherein one of
Ranbir’s kids calls him a ‘Hero’ and it brings a rare smile to the character’s
face. He then asks his wife to call him a ‘superhero’ and smiles when she says
it very casually. I believe the movie could have benefitted from leaning into
that angle a lot. It’s a dense 3-and-a-half-hour movie with a second half that
isn’t as crisp as the first. Yet it seems to be working with the commercial
audiences. This is just WILD (no am not apologizing for the joke). SRV seems to
have found a way to bake his cake and make the audiences eat it through.
(That’s just genius writing. Not apologizing for it)
Animal is worth ruminating about more and Worth Watching Once
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