'Animal', directed by Sandeep Reddy Vanga, stars Ranbir Kapoor, Rashmika Mandanna, Anil Kapoor and Bobby Deol. It released worldwide on Friday, December 1. The film has garnered extreme reactions from critics and audiences, with some absolutely loving it and the others just not being able to stand it.
It seems that director Ram Gopal Varma had quite a few things to say about the film who went to watch the film from "multiple point of views." He took to social media to express his views.
Ram writes that he loved what 'Fatal Attraction' director Adrian Lyne once said about how films should "make the audience violently disagree and argue what the film stands for which is what Sandeep Randeep Vanga achieved big time in 'Animal.'" He explains, “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.”
In one of the film’s key scenes, which became Ram's favourite scene, was when Ranbir leaves a room full of enemies and comes back with a custom-made weapon. The director writes, “One of my favourite moments is when against everyone’s expectations, including me in the audience was that he will come back with a baseball 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.”
Though some have shown absolute dislike towards action sequences, there are certain scenes that audiences have claimed are not relevant to the storyline. However, the 'Daud' director believes they were put to fulfil a reason. “... 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 sledgehammer to drive the protagonist’s character into the viewers' heads."
Talking about acting, Ram applauded Ranbir’s performance. “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.'” He also added, “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.”
But, it's not all good things.The director had his share of negative feedback too. He disliked 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 not the climax air strip fight" which he felt was outside the theme and tone of the movie. He also didn’t like a particular scene where Ranbir asks Tripti to lick his shoe. "I didn’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.”
He expresses deep praise for 'Animal' director Sandeep Reddy Vanga as well.
He ends with, "Stars of all languages will dream of having characters like 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."
