RGV Review On Animal

[andhra_jp]

I went to see ANIMAL after reading and watching quite a few reviews and that’s because after so many decades in film making , I don’t think I can watch a film just as a viewer anymore , and so I made it a point for me to watch the film through multiple point of views.

 

I loved what Film maker Adrian Lyne , who made such classics as Nine and half weeks , Fatal Attraction , Lolita etc , once said in an interview that a film should not be merely liked or disliked by the audience members , but it should make them violently disagree and argue about what the film stands for , which is what Sandeep Vanga achieved BIG TIME in ANIMAL

 

There will be massive fights over the content and the character of Ranbir in ANIMAL long after its box office run is over and I truly believe it can also trigger a cultural overhaul due to the way Sandeep has ripped off the clothes of moral hypocrisy with his bare naked honesty

 

That is because ANIMAL is not merely a film .. it is a SOCIAL STATEMENT

 

I personally din’t care neither about the plot of the family rivalry nor even the father son relationship , and that’s because I missed a scene where Anil kapoor talks very deeply to his wife about his son which could have given me his emotional point of view , but that again could have made me lose my focused perspective on Ranbir

 

But I loved how Sandeep used those cliches as mere premises to create unique never before seen scenes and also presenting their content in a never before heard or experienced way , thus completely exposing the outdated standards of conventional film makers

 

Sandeep gave a electric shock to all those film makers who got stuck in a template system by ripping off their clothes and making them even more naked than he did with Ranbir in the film , and he just with a broom stick scooped up all their mediocracy and threw it in a garbage can

 

The film seems slow but it startles you many times and that is also because of the so called slow pace and by the end of the film I wouldn’t have minded if the film was even 4 and half hours long

 

One of my faviourate moments is when against everyone’s expectations , including me in the audience was that he will come back with a base ball bat or something , but when he comes back with a machine gun that almost made us all fall off our chairs and that moment is a pure cinematic gem

 

For me the character of Ranbir hit me like a thunderbolt when he says a simple line “Happiness is a decision “ with a strange mix of both innocence and conviction

 

For all the flak coming from certain sections on Ranbir’s character the core of Ranbir’s character is coming from innocence , and the proof of that is Ranbir most of the times looks genuinely surprised when the other characters don’t understand him and that’s what innocence is truly about

 

The long cinematographic and editorial build up  for Ranbir to say one line to his father “ I will destroy the world if anyone lays a finger on u” felt like showing the entire making of a cake before putting the icing on it , and I just loved that taste

 

The pre interval fight sequence mixed with Arjun velly song reminded me of the music video of Michael Jackson’s “Beat it “

 

Though many would scoff at that kind of treatment in a serious action scene , due to the breaking of a conventional structure , one should remember Ayn Rand’s words “ Art is not what it is , art is also what it could be “ and that’s what makes Sandeep truly a true artiste in the purest sense of the word

 

And that also explains some random comic scenes like the Bra strap spanking , talking about sex with the doctors etc to name a few which seemingly have no context but what they really do is to subconsciously act as a sledge hammer to drive the protagonist’s character into the viewers heads

 

For me the one thing I disliked is the fight with the masked guys in the interval block which I know was loved by the majority , and neither did I like the Body double sequence nor the climax air strip fight which I felt were outside the tone of the film

 

In the sequence of the masked men Killing the dupe , if the intention of the masks was to hide their identity why would the main guy be off with the mask is the only time I was surprised with Sandeep

 

The sister beating vijay after learning he killed her husband , and him admonishing her after that is BRILLIANT , because Sandeep has taken that content far beyond what Francis Coppola did in the scene of Connie confronting Michael Corleone after learning he killed her husband Carlo , but in ANIMAL the high light is he himself tells his sister

 

The villain bobby ‘s intro has to be the most original villain introduction ever in FILM HISTORY because he is literally unveiled like a bride in a split screen effect ..That’s Just GENIUS

 

Another genius moment is when vijay celebrates walking naked in front of his family and staff to make a statement on his perfectly regained health

 

The only time I disliked Vijay’s character is when he asks the girl to lick his shoe and I think that’s because of the brilliant casting of that actress which evoked an instant empathy in me the moment I saw her and it only grew with every close up of hers .

 

Rashmika’s confrontation scene on her asking him about condom usage is just a brilliantly written and executed scene and I was bowled over with her performance

 

From the trailers , I was secretly worried about Ranbir going a little over the top , but this is the first time I both as a film maker and just a viewer , was completely not sure whether Ranbir ‘s performance is making the character work or Sandeep’s character is making Ranbir’s performance work

 

Not from the 1st film of india , Raja Harishchandra in 1913 till now in 2023 in the last 110 years was there more consistency and intensity in an actor’s portrayal of a character than what Ranbir did in ANIMAL

 

Except for that one single scene where he asks that girl to lick his shoe , I felt his performance was superior to even of Leonardo de caprio in wolf of wall street

 

More than him being physically naked in a particular scene , he was emotionally naked throughout the film in his performance which takes much more strength of mind than just being physically naked

 

Hey @imvangasandeep please send a photo of ur feet on my whatsap so that I can touch them for the following reasons

 

1.

 

U completely shattered every rule of what all conventional film makers believed from the point of time , the professional camera was invented

 

2.

 

Inside every film office whether in Bollywood or in south , your film will hover around like a ghost when they are making any creative decisions regarding their future films

 

3.

 

From Alfred Hitchcock to Steven Spielberg to many directors of today , who believe that both film and scenes should be as short in length as possible to make a point , u took ur own sweet time in cutting the throats of their beliefs and I loved every inch of that length of urs (pun intended )

 

4.

 

Stars of all languages will dream of having characters like this to perform and this will give rise to a completely new set of writers and directors which in turn will expand and stretch the horizons of creativity and originality

 

Like I already said , I din’t like the shot of Ranbir asking the girl to lick his shoe but for just that one JUMP CUT from Anil’s last dialogue to the end titles camera zooming out shot showing Ranbir crying like a baby in Shakti Kapoor’s lap ,I want to lick both your shoes 🙏💐😍🔥

[JAMBALHOT_RAJA]

Bokkalo cinema ki veedi bhajana endo

[anna_gari_maata]

Jogi jogi rubbing 

[pizzaaddict]

Attention seeking person . Eppudu kcr ni anamantey antadu .