Review by nitin-blue

Animal - as expected from the eagerly awaited 2nd venture of S R Vanga - is an exceptional film. In many ways, it is too much of a muchness. It is as if Vanga had so many good ideas that he could not discard any and decided to put all of them in one film. He wrote, directed and edited the film. He should have left editing to someone else.

Animal is like watching 2 films from different genres edited together to make a 3 hours and 21 minutes long epic. It is patchy. After every 15-20 mins, there is a jaw dropping sequence which makes the long length bearable. Also, the story jumps - a character comes into focus and then is forgotten and a new arc starts. Some characters disappear for an hour and then suddenly reappear.

The movie is full of very stylised action sequences, but almost all feel like Tom & Jerry. A good director can make a single stab more impactful than killing an army of men with room size canons.

Vanga's writing is weakest when he tries to make audience laugh.

Animal is best when it deals with the core conflict of father & son's relationship. Vanga never makes it clear what makes Ranbir chose the path he did. An incident during his childhood that convinces him that violence is the way to solve problems would have been helpful.

Ranbir shows how versatile an actor he is. He gave all he has to this role, but Vanga's writing is not good enough. After Thar, Anil Kapoor again shows that he is not that caricature Jhakaas he pretends to be, but an exceptionally good actor. Rashmika - when given that great scene - sets the screen on fire. Bobby is terrifying - the real hell hound. Compared to Bobby, Ranbir is a cute little puppy. Triptii stands out.

Animal should have been 2 movies - with a bit more time given to set up the characters and slightly less to mind numbing violence.