Yodha (2024 film)
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Dec 1, 2023 · 30% 27 Reviews Tomatometer 81% 250+ Verified Ratings Audience Score This is the story of a son whose love for his father knows no bounds. As their bond begins to fracture, a chain of...
- (88)
- Ranbir Kapoor
- Sandeep Reddy Vanga
- Action, Mystery & Thriller, Crime, Drama
Dec 2, 2023 · Dec 1, 2023 6:00pm PT. ‘Animal’ Review: Sandeep Reddy Vanga Conducts Another Blood-Soaked Hymn to Heroic Excess. Men’s shirts are among the few things in short supply in this bombastic,...
- Dennis Harvey
Dec 2, 2023 · Animal review – Ranbir Kapoor plays one of the vilest protagonists in cinema history. Kapoor plays the scion of a wealthy family whose violence is the result of a craving for love and...
Dec 4, 2023 · “Animal” is one of those films that thinks it’s offending no one by offending everyone, meanwhile allowing its belligerent antihero to wreak havoc for much of that inhumane runtime.
- Proma Khosla
- A controversial, Godfather-inspired Bollywood blockbuster
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- Verdict
By Siddhant Adlakha
Updated: Dec 6, 2023 6:01 pm
Posted: Dec 6, 2023 4:09 pm
This past weekend, Bollywood action-drama Animal topped the global box office and became the widest U.S. release for a Hindi-language film (on 888 screens, surpassing action bonanza Jawan and Disney superhero outing Brahmāstra: Part One). Its writer-director-editor Sandeep Reddy Vanga has courted controversy for his portrayals of brash, misogynistic protagonists – like in his 2017 Telugu-language drama Arjun Reddy and its Hindi remake, Kabir Singh – and his flippant comments about domestic abuse. Animal is no exception to his unapologetic approach, but it ends up in an awkward position thanks to this real-world context. The first half of its 201 minutes presents a livewire character-thriller in the vein of The Godfather, led by an intense and committed lead performance and sprinkled with enough gory, gonzo action to put Korean ultraviolence to shame. However, just when Animal ought to focus inward, it stagnates in the name of flipping a desperate middle finger at critics of Vanga’s previous work.
It's hardly an unfamiliar premise, and impudent men broken by their relationships to their fathers is a key theme in Arjun Reddy and Kabir Singh. By introducing us to Vijay with scenes from his youth and old age, a tragic picture starts to emerge: This protagonist is a sycophant who worships his father and craves attention he’ll never receive. As soon as the film gets rolling, it creates an immediate and electric tension through this desperate dynamic. Between these chronological bookends, a party for Vijay’s grandfather plants the seeds of animus between Vijay and his slick, assertive brother-in-law, Varun (Siddhant Karnick). Before long, Vijay’s usually-absent father, Balbir Singh (Anil Kapoor, familiar to U.S. audiences from Slumdog Millionaire and Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol) steps in to publicly reprimand his doting son, further inflaming the daddy issues that define him.
This party scene is, for all intents and purposes, Vanga’s take on The Godfather’s iconic opening wedding sequence – the first of several Coppola homages. Both onscreen occasions introduce family and business dynamics, while bringing a prodigal son one step closer to the fold. Only where Al Pacino’s Michael Corleone was a respected war hero returning from battle, Ranbir’s Vijay is a spoiled and insolent brat on holiday from his expensive U.S. education, and he isn’t all that removed from his family’s imperial leanings. While Michael enters a world of violence, the destructive (and self-destructive) Vijay makes Animal a violent story.
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This gloriously silly midpoint (right before an intermission that most U.S. theaters will unfortunately skip past) comprises lengthy back-to-back-to-back action scenes, the first of which loses all sense of geography, though the remaining two more than make up for it in both filmmaking and concept. They even pave the way for a story where Vijay, now as broken physically as he is emotionally, appears to reckon with the last vestiges of his masculinity, as Ranbir’s commanding (if tongue-in-cheek) bravado slowly curdles into desperation. However, this is also where the movie begins doubling down and losing itself both to an overly convoluted plot, and to Vanga’s relentless, perhaps even unhealthy obsession with poking and prodding at viewers who might find three-plus hours of misogynistic rants to be even mildly unpleasant.
With the end point of all its drama firmly established – much like Vanga, Vijay is obstinate and unchanging – Animal flounders amid a litany of great ideas. It has villains who are alluring both on paper and in performance (one in particular: Abrar Haque, played by Bobby Deol) and who form fascinating mirrors to Vijay’s trajectory. Yet they aren’t even introduced until the final hour, and one of the most exciting conflicts ends up relegated to a mid-credits tease for a potential sequel.
The supporting cast are all tremendous, but end up tremendously wasted.
“
All the while, dialogue-heavy scenes involving Vijay, Geetu, and Balbir end up simultaneously overwrought and underdeveloped. They all circle the same ideas of Vijay’s arrested development in the shadow of his domineering father (a role Anil Kapoor plays to perfection, by the way), but those ideas never evolve in their conception of character or in the way they impact the plot. Each of these exchanges goes on for what feels like forever, with sentimental music that tips them over into vapid self-parody.
The supporting cast are all tremendous, but end up tremendously wasted. Like Ranbir, the aforementioned Deol offers up a simmering and intriguing presence that verges on sympathetic, but Abrar and Vijay don’t even come face to face until the three-hour mark, so their thematic twinning is largely moot. Vijay’s closest confidant, Mishra, is played by Shakti Kapoor, but the Bollywood elder statesman with the most “cool uncle” energy is afforded few layers beyond his function to the plot.
There’s some enjoyment to be had with Animal, but you’d be best off leaving the theater when the “Interval” card pops up on screen, if only to save yourself an extended, unpleasant headache that undoes all the raucous fun. Ranbir Kapoor is deeply committed to his brash and ugly protagonist, but in spite of the movie’s explosive action, director San...
- Siddhant Adlakha
Animal movie review: Ranbir Kapoor plays the protagonist in the movie. Animal is wild and wicked. Animal takes you on a bloody, noisy, gory and violent journey and for the large part of it, you...
Nov 30, 2023 · Animal Review: The sickeningly violent father-son action drama rarely pauses for breath. Movie Reviews Saibal Chatterjee Updated: December 01, 2023 2:58 pm IST. Rating. 1.5. Ranbir Kapoor in a...
