Animal Review - Ranbir Kapoor Is Astonishingly Wild In Vanga's Violent Entertainer

Animal Review: Arjun Reddy and Kabir Singh fame Sandeep Reddy Vanga goes a notch higher with his latest flick, Animal, starring Ranbir Kapoor, Rashmika Mandanna, Anil Kapoor, and Bobby Deol. I am not a fan of previous Vanga flicks, but both were received very well by audiences. The problem appears in his misogynist ego, which challenges social norms of feminism and equality. Therefore, some criticism is normal and acceptable. But does Vanga care? No. He does not pay attention, even for a second or even by mistake. The debasement of feminism in Kabir Singh was subjected to being slammed, and I was in their favour, but did that hamper the film? No. It was a blockbuster. And Animal is going to repeat the same with higher criticism because the stakes are higher too. And by the way, if we all liked these extramarital affairs and sexual talk in Hollywood gangster films made after the 1970s, then why can't Bollywood/Indian cinema do it? Sandeep just reminded us of that with Animal, and that too with a warning. Who dares make a 200-minute A-rated film in today's OTT era? Team Animal believed in SRV for doing this impossible job, and he delivered in his trademark style. 3 hours pass by like that, and you won't even realise when you have had a dozen missed calls from your mother or boss and that you are late to go home or office.Animal is about Ranvijay Singh (Ranbir Kapoor), who blindly admires his father, Balbir Singh (Anil Kapoor). But there is no limit to his love, his respect, and his concern for his father. He goes wild and violent whenever anything comes to his father or his family. Ranvijay is indisciplined but determined in his own saturated world. He has loved Geetanjali since school days and finally dares to ask her hand when she is engaged to someone else. That's typical Vanga for you. As expected, Geeta leaves her house and marries Ranvijay, who has just been abandoned by his father over a verbal argument. After 8 years, they return from America when Balbir is shot. Now how can his own blood be silent? Ranvijay swears to cut the throat of the man who shot his father. He builds a team with his Punjabi brothers and becomes the head of a family-cum-gangster. Abrar (Bobby Deol) is planning to kill Balbir again, but this time Ranvijay is there to protect him.Written by Sandeep Reddy Vanga, this film is a testament to Vanga's own universe and why he is adamant about it. You can either like it or just ignore it. There is no way you can complain and persuade him to be gentle with his theories. This is a trademark Vanga film, and Animal is his overwhelming and atrocious answer to all those who were complaining about feminism and violence in his previous films. This is how wild he can go, and you can't do anything about it. The first half cooks a great dish that you can't dislike. Almost 2 hours, and a full-fledged, terrific entertainer till the halfway point. The pace slows down in the second half, and it's painful to sit that long. Vanga drags the film for no reason here. The entire chapter of Triptii Dimrii is horrible. Okay, so we have a twist for its conclusion, but yet it's so dumb. A girl can sleep with a married man without any attachment to him, and the man who loves his wife so much can easily enjoy it just for the sake of a plan? After that, he expects his wife to be loyal to him. What the hell? In Kabir Singh, we saw Shahid getting intimate with Nikita Dutta just like that! Here, we have Triptii Dimri as a sex toy, and it's really pathetic. Thankfully, Rashmika's character isn't that of a typical helpless woman. She does what she feels is right, and she is not forced into it, unlike our crying baby, Preeti. Too much adult talk, movement, and expressionism spoil some fun here, but that's again a lot of fun and whistle-worthy stuff for youths, especially college students.Coming back to the positives, Animal is extraordinarily entertaining as a gangster flick. We have seen Godfather, Goodfellas, Casino, Heat, Scarface, and many more in the post-60s era, but none of them had such a massy dose. Our own Vaastav looks tiny in front of Animal's scale, while Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai tops the chart due to its impeccable storytelling. My memories of classy and groundbreaking gangster/crime flicks take me back to the silent French masterpiece Les Vampires (1915), which pioneered all the major conflicts we have seen over the course of 10 decades. Then we had so many great films in the 30s and 40s with Jamea Cagney, Edward G. Robinson, Humphrey Bogart, and others. The genre has certainly evolved over the years, and Animal is without a doubt a solid modern crime drama with a heavy emotional touch.Ranbir Kapoor is wild, and how! ASTONISHING is the word. The man didn't get into the skin of the character but ate it like meat. He is the BEAST and he is the BEST here. Let others know how it's done. If not Sanju or Rockstar, this is his best performance so far. Rashmika Mandanna's accent is a bit problematic with Hindi, but she is super fine with her local language and English. It's good to see her doing character-driven roles, and please don't ask how sexy she looked on the screen. I am flat! Her chemistry with Ranbir is one of the major highlights of the film. Anil Kapoor does a fantastic job as a responsible but ignorant father. Charu Shankar, Anshul Chauhan, Saloni Batra, Gagandeep Singh, Shakti Kapoor, Prem Chopra, Suresh Oberoi and Babloo Prithiveeraj have done fine in their supporting roles, and there is a big gang of Punjabi Bros and they all look great on the screen. Bobby Deol makes a deadly villain with the only flaw of short screen space, and you can't blame him for that. He is fabulous even without a dialogue, as the look and hardcore animal in his character do the talking. Triptii Dimri's character is bad, but she is good. She looks gorgeous, and those intimate scenes are stimulating, for sure. A special mention to Upendra Limaye, who appears in one scene and shows his class like a boss!Animal has some powerful action sequences. That 15-minute interval block will blow you away and set the single-screen audience on fire. First Dolby Walya and then Arjan Vailly take the scene to the next level. The "made in India" machine gun is what you call dinosaur-level thinking from the director. That scene sets the mood right and fills the atmosphere with unending excitement. The background score is outstanding. The dialogue and cinematography are pretty average, while the scope of this genre is too high. Animal has the Sandeep Reddy Vanga stamp all over. Other than a violent action and emotional drama film, Animal is a WAR between two mindsets: feminism and equality. There will be a lot of burning and discussion about it, and I leave that decision to you. Rest assured, Animal is worth your money and provides a rattling and brutal entertainer in a grand manner. "Violence, violence, and violence—I don't like it. Violence like me," said Rocky Bhai in KGF Chapter 2, but I believe that dialogue is more suitable for Ranvijay Singh in Animal. The film is worth 200 minutes of your life, and don't leave the cinema hall without watching the end-credit scene. A big surprise awaits you after a blockbuster experience!