Animal

This absolute disaster of a movie easily clinches a spot in the bottom 5 films I've ever subjected myself to. It's a train wreck of a narrative, drowning any semblance of storytelling in a sea of mindless violence and gratuitous sexuality that serves no purpose other than to shock. The complete lack of coherence or meaning makes it an exercise in frustration, leaving me more confused than ever about why this abomination was made. The actors, shamelessly taking on roles that should have come with a warning label, only add to the misery. Watching this film was akin to reliving the regrettable experience of enduring "Rockstar" by Ranbir Kapoor, a true testament to the depths of cinematic disappointment. Do yourself a favor and spare yourself from this excruciating journey into the abyss of terrible filmmaking.

As a fan of gore and dark noir went with loads of expectations- first half was off to a near flawless flight but then the tailspin which began post-interval took down the whole movie.

Excellent BGM, magnificient cinematography and out of the world acting by Ranbir (what a brilliant actor he is!) fell short to save the movie ridden with lack of depth and emotion in the storyline. The loosely written plotlines and characters severely dilapitated Ranbir's character as well because the other characters were so underdeveloped. Lack of motive in even the central character resulted in a lack of conviction in the whole story to such a level that after taking in so much of grandly choreographed violence, one is left scratching head wondering everything happened for what exactly! Emotion got translated i nto only one sided shouting and the viewer is left alone to experience an exhausting and frantic TV debate show where only the TV anchor gets to shout.

Severe formula plotpoints and scenes , some of which are inspired from Godfather,OldBoy(2003), The man from Nowhere (2010) Rajneeti and even Kabir Singh were put together in such a way that one is left doubting whether the director wanted to copy from his own previous success just because it worked earlier. But it didn't result in anything like Kabir Singh because everything was so incoherent. The brilliant opening of the movie, by the director's own obcession of using pointless violence (or might be a desperate attempt to cover up the flaws in storyline) got reduced into one and only point- who can shout the loudest! Or thats what a predatory animal is supposed to do- a non-human who shouldn't be part of humane society but gets occassionally breaded by our society. It emanates an excruciatingly agonizing world around it; unable to love, empathize, dialogue & sense of integrity but is just filled with suffocating anger & treachery.

If you squint, you can kind of see where Sandeep Venga's Animal is supposed to go. It's a character study about an unhinged man born into privilege but lacking in the most important qualities, obsessed with his father who never showed him the love he needed. He's drawn into a world of violence and crime, in a desperate attempt to impress him. That's an interesting concept; throw in some of the Successionesque business politics, and you could've had an incredible film. The movie certainly has the talented names - Ranbir Kapoor, Anil Kappor, Bobby Deol - to make it work.

Yet, Animal fails on basically every level. It feels like the creation of an annoying 14 year old Indian boy than a film, and can only be described as TOO MUCH. This 3 hour and 24 minutes feels like an eternity as we zip from scene to scene, moment to moment, without much time to breathe. Not to mention, the film just feels excessive and it's not entertaining. It's honestly an exhausting affair.

TOO MUCH brutality and gore. It's completely unnecessary, off putting, and difficult to watch. We're supposed to like our protagonist (more on him later), yet he's needlessly cruel and violent, like everyone at a certain point in this film. It feels really "off" tonally, and comes out of nowhere. The scene where Bobby Deol was introduced started off nicely, but then goes off the rails with the blood and gore, and it ruins it completely. Not to mention the unnecessary...sex scene. Yeah. More on THIS later too.

Ranbir Kapoor's Vijay is a psychopath, who is as mentioned before, cruel and violent, but unstable, rude, callous, condescending, misogynistic, and difficult to empathize with. We have to spend a bulk of the film with this man, and the movie is constantly asking us to sympathize and respect him, but he deserves none of it. I like films with "unlikable" protagonists, but a film has to give us a reason to connect with them from time to time. I don't want to hear anyone complain about Leo's Jordan Belfort ever again; a guy we know is terrible, but you can't help but like him. Vijay is not that.

The film is supposed to be about who is trying to kill Anil Kapoor's Papa (that's not his real name, but it might as well be, and to be fair, he's really good in this), and lead us into some corporate and maybe political intrigue. But the film wastes it with a paper thin, poorly told plot and villain's whose performers give it their all and are compelling via performance, but definitely terribly written. They're two dimensional and their motives feel rushed, and not to mention, the film can't help but be a bit Islamophobic as well. (There's subtext to these Modi era Bollywood movies).

But frankly, the worst thing about this movie is its celebration of toxic masculinity and misogyny. I'm no Bechdel Test wielding feminist, but my God, this movie really hates women. They're either doeish sex objects or lack any agency at all. There's a really dark and twisted attitude towards sex and relationships this movie portrays, glorifying domination, fear, and abuse, all whilst desperately trying to convince us the main couple have a happy and successful marriage. Vijay can't help but undermine and demean every other woman he sees, treating them as sexual objects, intimidating them, or insulting them. And what's disturbing is the movie seems to want to paint him as "the man men want to be, and the man women want to date."

There's legitimately a stretch of this film towards the end where I genuinely worried we'd see explicit violence against women, like some wife slapping or choking or worse, SA or the R word. I'm not joking. I saw this with three women. You can imagine how they felt.

Yeah, I'd maybe watch this high and laugh at with friends again, but for anyone else, PLEASE avoid this trashfire.

Simply put it's a masterpiece !

The Director literally put his heart in this one, the complex relationship of Father and Son explained in a such a manner. I don't feel anyone ever dared to take such a step in Indian cinema. I literally enjoyed every minute of the movie it felt so realistic at times. Ranbir finally gave a great performance after Sanju!

I mean just look at the facts Sandeep made 200+mins movie which means fewer shows plus he made it adult for it to be raw and as real as possible both these things require guts everyone told me to cut the movie down and make it U/A but I am so glad he didn't.

Indian cinema these days have become very typical, like at times being a movie lover I find it difficult to understand that why are our writers and directors not being creative or trying something new/ different/ interesting.

But finally we are seeing creative movies and trust me the background score, Acting, music, costumes everything was just wow !

And I know there will be people who might find this movie too bold, too strong, lengthy and violent. I don't oppose to such things I just feel we should appreciate that atleast someone tried to break the status quo and make such a bold movie.

"Animal," directed by Sandeep Reddy Vanga, offers a captivating experience with impressive background music, memorable songs, and technical finesse. However, the film stumbles in terms of story strength and screenplay execution, featuring temporal shifts that lack coherence and fail to enhance the narrative.

While the first half engages with its fast pace, the second half unnecessarily prolongs the story, leaving the film feeling overly lengthy and lacking character development, especially with Ranbir Kapoor's character. His abrupt temporal shifts lack clear reasoning, contributing to a disjointed narrative.

Despite a touching emotional scene between Anil Kapoor and Ranbir Kapoor towards the end, it arrives too late, leaving the audience fatigued and eager for closure. The credit scenes, though appealing, add to the film's unnecessary length.

Ranbir Kapoor's character, portrayed as a hero, raises concerns due to his criminal actions, lack of respect for others, blatant misogyny, and attitude problems. The film's attempt to celebrate such a character is problematic, as it glorifies a man-child who in reality needs therapy.

Actress Rashmika Mandanna's performance is very poor, making her unfit for the role. She was struggling to deliver convincing dialogue and lacked depth in her portrayal.

It's disheartening to witness Bollywood failing with films like "Animal." The industry has the potential for impactful cinema but seems to fall for subpar narratives. They should strive for better storytelling and more nuanced character portrayals and should avoid the pitfalls of glorifying problematic characters for the sake of entertainment.