Animal Movie Review-Not Like Any Other Review.

Written by: Javeria Khan   Date: 24 February 2024

Introduction

The movie is three and a half hours long. What make this movie so long is the portrayal of the protagonist Ranvijay Singh. He is an anti hero and a vile person. person.Although the director has shown some heroic qualities in him that doesn't justify his unhinged behaviour. 

Here I am not going to summarise the whole movie but spoilers are definitely there.

I find this movie interesting because it displays some psychological aspects of the protagonist 's life, that need to be explained  The development of the main character is well appreciated in the movie, and he is the centre of attention while the time 

I like the fact that Sandeep Reddy Vanga has made an experimental and unconventional movie , not like any other Bollywood movie.This movie make their audience uncomfortable but not snoozefest.The dialogues are obscene, that's why its not a family watch. The violence, bloodshed and sexual explicit content are exaggerated.

Why It is Named Animal?

It is simply pointing at the dark side of human nature,it's the man who kills innocents in the war and it's the man who are killed. This hidden darkside makes them from civilized, evolved animal to  the members of jungle.

The protagonist is a the grey character, but his dark side is more dominant. Director tries to show the ferocious nature of human.

Like our ancestors, who lived in the prehistoric era.

The Ranvijay is a wild person, always having provocative opinions about everything. Villain is the most deranged person you have ever seen, brutal with his wives, children, mother. He only cares about his dead brother and revenge

What is the problem with Ranbir Kapoor 's character?

The boy, since his childhood is obsessed with his father, tried his best earn his validation and ignores everyone else in his life but his father Anil Kapoor's character is so indifferent to his son 's feeling.

This may have caused psychological illness in Ranvijay. In my experience, this could be " Father Complex".

It is the term coined by Carl Jung, who believed that a person's relationship with their father or father figure influence, thier personality and behaviour.

A boy with a father complex may have a exaggerated admiration or resentment towards his father, which can effect his self image, identity and sexuality.

Which happens with Ranvijay. The sheer absence of his father in his childhood created this illness.

Men with Father Complex tends to develop hyper aggression, suicidal issue with loosening up with things.

This is the reason, why Ranvijay crashed the the heroin 's wedding and seduce her to marry him  He proposed to her in 9th grade. At that age teenagers are immature and irrational, but he insisted on marrying her due to his strict and stern nature.

The treatment of this illness, lies in the resolution of his father complex. Creating balanced and healthy bond with his father.

Portrayal of Toxic Muscularity.

The depiction of chauvinism existing in eastern society is gruesome. Female audience has raised the voice against such scenes. From middle class to upper class, the chauvinism exists in both in different forms.

Surprisingly, the middle class men are shown more supportive of their women than upper class. Take the example of Ranvijay 's sister Roop, who despite being the daughter of the richest person of India, accepted the disrespectful attitude of her husband. She supports him in every wrongdoing and completely ignores the red flags in him.

In one scene Ranbir 's tells Rashmika, about the story of alpha male and how communities functioned in prehistoric era.

This story corresponds with sociology of human ancestors. The alpha  and beta male term are used for animal kingdom especially wolves and chimpanzee but now a days this term is used widely by social media influencers 

Ranbir said," Alpha Male used to hunt for the tribe and also fight with intruders, because of their power and bravery, while beta male used to protect the tribe in the  absence of alphas when they were out for a hunt. Women are hypergamous  by nature, they prefer men with higher status and power, so they started to opt for alphas and then betas became jealous and tried to find different ways to lure women."

There are some evidences that such type of sociological behaviour does exist but not exactly the same as described by Ranbir.

The movie gives the message that alpha and dominant males are better than others. Every step taken by them is for the benefit of their family. Women should accept every decision of them and put their complete trust in them, which will give them confidence and strength to be more strong. 

Accepting every decision even if it includes polygyny. This practice existed in history and almost every man of society was involved in it. After the abolition of slavery this practice halted  but it is still observed in Muslim communities.

The movie tried to justify polygyny. This attracted controversy and heavy criticism because now a days this is seen as unfair treatment towards women

 

The director tried to give a message to make the male audience strong and assertive. The aggression and belligerence are imprinted in men and they shouldn't suppress it.

The Advice for Marriage

Well Ranvijay, would be the last movie character, you will take marriage advice from, but one particular dialogue caught my attention. He said to his league of brothers," In a marriage, there should be some fear, and some control but I have lost all control as it's a love marriage. If you loose respect in marriage, you lose everything".

All the dialogues of the movie are raw and unapologetic. So does the above one, I agree there should be respect and boundaries to protect the relationship. If you lose respect for your partner, you will lose everything. Men cherish respect in a relationship more than love. The primary emotional need for men is respect and acceptance. As the movie revolved around the male lead, it focuses on men's emotion, whether it's negative or positive.

Honestly, I don't understand the massive hate towards the movie. More repulsive movies do exist and audience accepts it by saying that it gives hidden dark image of our society, so why can't we say the same thing about this movie also. I personally think people are riding on the hate wagon against the movie 

Explaining the Plots.

The whole narrative of the movie is very clear and there is not much mind bending twists. Except for the two scenes, first and the last.

The first scene, where the 100th anniversary of Swastik 's steel is celebrated and you can see the old Ranbir Kapoor explaining the weird story of the monkey and the king.

As in the last scene, the Ranvijay enemy Aziz, the brother of Abrar has become his doppelganger, through multiple plastic surgeries. Many people are puzzled about the identity of the old man whether it is Ranvijay or Aziz. In my observation, the old man is Ranvijay because you could see his squad with him laughing at monkey and the king's story. All of his brothers are loyal to him even though two of them were killed because of him.

There is no way that his squad will leave Ranvijay and join Aziz. The rest of the references such as the story of the monkey being different from the one told by Ranvijay, well there could be many versions of the same story and the clue of the same hand gesture is pointless.

Tell me in the comments what your opinion is about the movie and who is the old man?