‘Ranbir Kapoor’ Starrer ‘Animal’ has hit the silver screens yesterday on December 1st. But ‘Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s’ brainchild venture has again surrounded itself by controversies and complaints just like his 1st Hindi Debut ‘Kabir Singh’. While the gangster saga movie is cherished by many at the box office, On the other hand a bunch of audiences and eminent film critics have blasted out at the same for being brutally violent in turn showcasing multiple killings and extreme bloodshed. Earlier the film was also criticised for its extra on screen time duration of ‘3 hours : 21 minutes’ and now it seems the consequences for this star-studded creation are repetitively worsening; taking it towards the darker side.
Several movie critics have lashed out at Animal’s extremist ideology, following the excessive projection of barbarity at the celluloid-
1) Anupama Chopra: ”Stomach churning violent all of which I could have endured if the drama and emotions had held but about an hour into the film loses his grip on the storytelling and he doesn’t get it back the director seems boted with blood and the sequences which follow become like hastily written connective tissue so that we can just go back to the killing The Killing continues this film runs for 203 minutes and 29 seconds so before stepping into the theater ask yourself what is your Threshold at the end of animal a female character throws up I’m not going to lie I felt the same.”
2) The Indian Express (Shubhra): ”In the first half, Vanga is in complete control. We get a quick tour of rural Punjab, which is just an excuse for a dozen burly ‘puttars’ to jump in: more boys, more toys, more risible jokes featuring the male nether regions. A kinetic sequence featuring a gigantic bazooka, and Ranbir Kapoor pumping hundreds of bullets into hundreds of bodies is the kind of gleeful comic-book action which is fun while it lasts. But then comes the endless second half in which everything is thrown at the kitchen sink in the hope something sticks. In the end, there’s nothing to this pointless, vile tale: if I have to, I’d rather watch real animals.”
3) Komal Nahata: ”Two ‘drawbacks’ of the screenplay are that it has too much of gruesome violence and a liberal amount of sexual jokes, talks and references, Ladies and family audience will be divided in their opinion, of course.”
4) NDTV (Saibal Chatterjee): ”A surfeit of everything – length, violence, love, obsession and toxicity – and shrill drama designed to trigger trauma – that is what Animal, written, directed and edited by Sandeep Reddy Vanga, peddles. The sickeningly violent father-son action drama rarely pauses for breath.”
5) Hindustan Times (Monika Rawal Kukreja): ”Ranbir Kapoor’s action tale is flawed, overtly violent and misogynistic. Violence reaches its zenith. Gore takes the centerstage. It’s bloodbath all over. It’s wild and wicked, yet entertains some audiences.”
‘Animal’ clashed with ‘Meghna Gulzar’s’ highly anticipated war-genre autobiographical direction ‘Sam Bahadur’ based on Field Marshal Sam Maneskshaw’s life journey. The ‘Vicky Kaushal’ starrer is garnering immense appreciation from film fanatics and loads of positivity from film critics, differentiating it from Animal on this critical pedestal.