The first time I heard about this movie named Animal was from a 16-year-old boy who said he was utterly disappointed to have watched it. And then a friend who watched it said that it had extremely thought-polluting content. I was intrigued. Forgive my ignorance and impudence when I say that I hadn’t watched even the trailer of that thought-polluting disappointing movie, neither had I checked the cast. I am not a great fan of mainstream Hindi movies and watching Jawaan reasserted my decision to stay away from blockbuster hit movies.
I heard so much about Animal from my friends that I finally mustered the courage to book my ticket and sit in the cinema hall. I like to watch my movies from the very first slide, where they show the names of the cast. Earlier I insisted on watching even the raising of the curtain. That was a magical moment for me to watch the layered curtain slowly go up and reveal the silver screen. That doesn’t happen anymore. Silver screens are all bare now.
So the names of the cast begun to appear and I was impressed. Ranbir Kapoor and beautiful, exotic Rashmika Mandanna, I decided I could put up with anything if I could watch handsome Hulk Ranbir Kapoor. Suddenly, the three-hour-long movie didn’t look like a bad idea. And then the last name was of Sundeep Reddy Vanga, the writer, screenplay as well as director. And I thought, what a guy.
Coming to my thoughts on the movie, I was utterly butterly bored. The only thing that could keep me hardly fixed to my seat was my bucket of butter popcorn and Ranbir Kapoor. Violence is gore, sex is vulgar, romance is nonexistent, and the emotions fall flat at your feet. I read somewhere that Sandeep Reddy said, “I will show you what a violent film is.”
Now who the hell challenged this guy? He accepted the challenge, and the result is one of the most ghastly violent films in Indian cinema history. There was this shooting scene somewhere in the middle of the movie which stretches up to more than thirty minutes. Ranbir takes on 200 to 300 masked goons charging upon an inverted tractor looking like a thing, which can fire hundreds of rounds of bullets.
I have no problem with heroism. I have had my share of Bollywood and Holly Wood movies, but guys, come on, really? Is this even remotely possible? Again, I have no problem with fantasizing and romanticizing parts of Indian movies, that’s a given. But a hero killing 200 to 300 people in a single go, and facing no consequences from law, made me wonder if the writer wanted the backdrop to be some lawless parallel universe.
I could hardly stop myself from puking in my bucket of buttered popcorn in the scene where Ranbir cuts the throat of Bobby Deol, moving the knife back and forth on his throat like a saw. I wonder how the censor board could swallow this kind of raw violence. Amir Khan in an interview says, that it’s not a crime to show violence in movies, but there is a way to show it. He also says that sex and violence are emotions that can be easily provoked. Penny for his thoughts.
Coming to the romance part in the movie, I couldn’t feel anything romantic about it. It was not romance, it was just sex and sexual abuse. There was a scene where Ranbir is pulling the back strap of his wife’s bra and striking it against her skin. He repeats it several times.
Domestic violence is not strange in Indian households or in Indian movies, but making it look acceptable in this age is disgusting. There was another scene in which Bobby Doel rapes his newlywed bride in front of everyone with a blood-smeared face. I heard that the film was loaded with sex and violence.
It was not violence, it was gore, and it was not sex, it was sexual abuse. I hope people get their vocabulary right before giving statements. Even the hugely applauded emotional scenes between the father and son duo were all very superficial, I couldn’t shed even a single tear, but yes, my eyes were all teary because of continuous yawning. The only honest dialogue that I can remember between those fathers and sons is when Anil Kapoor says, ‘truth is that there is a criminal in you, so stop justifying your crimes in my name.’
I remember reading some old interviews of Ram Gopal Verma, where he says that he makes movies because he loves to make movies. It’s up to viewers if they want to watch it or not. He doesn’t give a crap if they like it or not like it. He was not here to please anyone.
For a moment I thought I could justify the mindless mayhem of this movie in the name of Ram Gopal Verma-like philosophy. But suddenly the hero who is utterly lawless goes to a church to make a confession; suddenly he sits cross-legged to perform a pooja, and doesn’t even flinch to swallow the cow urine. Funnily, the bullet-spray inverted tractor-like thing has a board with ‘Made in India’ written large upon it and also comes with a tagline, ‘ Atmanirbhar Bharat.’ Sundeep Reddy certainly gives a crap about people.
I accept that cinema is a cinema, meant for entertainment. And that it’s an art form, a medium of expression. Like any other artist, directors also have the artistic liberty. But at the same time, you cannot deny the role of cinema in influencing the masses. Cinema is a very powerful medium, and every power comes with responsibility.
This movie, Animal doesn’t even deserve honest criticism. It was a colossal disappointment and an utter drag. For those who are worried that it would provoke people, and poison the minds of youth, rest assured, it’s not that powerful. I couldn’t have remembered even a single scene of this movie if I had no plan of writing about it. It’s just, ‘ Much Ado About Nothing.’
