‘Animal’ review: WILD ANIMAL

Cast: Ranbir Kapoor, Anil Kapoor, Bobby Deol, RashmikaMandanna, TripthiDimri, Charu Shankar, BablooPrithveeraj, Shakti Kapoor

Director: Sandeep Reddy Vanga

Producers: Bhushan Kumar, Pranay Reddy Vanga, Krishan Kumar, Murad Khetani

Music Directors: JAM8, Vishal Mishra, Jaani, Manan Bharadwaj, Shreyas Puranik, Harshavardhan Rameshwar, AshimKemson

Cinematographer: Amit Roy

Rating: 3.75/5

Ranbir Kapoor and RashmikaMandanna in lead roles, directed by Sandeep Reddy Vanga“Animal” created a tremendous buzz with its promotional content. It raised the expectations of the film after the release of its trailer. Touted to be the lover story between a father and son, the action drama has hit the silver screens on Friday amid huge hype. Let’s see how it fares at box-office.

Story

The movie is about Ranvijay Singh Balbir (Ranbir Kapoor), who goes to any extent to protect his father Balbir Singh (Anil Kapoor). The protagonist adores his father extremely, but the same love is not reciprocated from the other end as Balbir is occupied with his business Swastik Steels. Ranvijay falls in love with Geethanjali (RashmikaMandanna), and leads a happy life in US with her. All of a sudden, an attack happens on Balbir Singh. How Ranvijay Singh goes all out to protect his father, who were involved in the attack and what made them attack Balbir is the main crux of the story.

Analysis

Sandeep Reddy Vanga doesn’t waste a single minute to get into the story. He continuous the same with ‘Animal’ too. The first half of the film is highly engrossing and manages to hook us. Be it the character developments, staging of action sequences, and high moments, everything worked pretty well. The interval sequence is where the film reaches its peak. It is superbly shot, and the terrific background score lifts the spirits up.

There is a lot of depth in Ranbir’s character, which makes him behave in a peculiar manner in the second hour. The title is justified as Sandeep shows the psyche of the protagonist. This doesn’t happen very often in the mainstream cinema. These tonal shifts in the second halfmay not work with everyone.

Like the director previous works, there are many bold and crazy scenes in “Animal,” too. In fact, the wildness bar has been increased, which will surely raise many eyebrows. There are multiple scenes in the film which leads to a discussion after the release.Too much of violence might cause boredom to some section of audience.

On the whole, “Animal” is an intense action drama that appeals to a section of the audience. The first half has universally appealing content, but the second half might not be liked by all. But, if excessive violence is not a problem to you, you should definitely watch ‘Animal.’

Performances

It is difficult to imagine any other actor in Ranbir’s place in “Animal.” Such a tremendous performance is shown by the star actor. The characterisation of the protagonist is very wild, and it requires lot of conviction to pull off such role. Every scene in the film makes you a fan of him.

RashmikaMandanna did her part well, and her chemistry with Ranbir looks amazing. Anil Kapoor, TripthiDimri, Suresh Oberoi, Siddharth Karnick, and others did a good job. Bobby Deol’s character is underdeveloped, and hence, the face-off in the pre-climax lacks the punch.

Technicalities

Ddirector Sandeep Reddydelivered an unconventional action drama. Audience can see Sandeep Reddy Vanga in each and every frame. That is the impact he showed on the film. The story isn’t new, but the characterization of Ranbir makes the film different and that is where Sandeep steals the show.

Music director Harshavardhan Rameshwar needs a special mention. His background score raises the impact of many scenes. Even songsare very good and shot well. The cinematography is neat. The action set pieces are nicely curated. Editing is also good as there is a talk that this film is lengthy, no where you feel lengthy once you enter into the theatre.

Advantages

Sandeep Reddy Vanga narration

Ranbir Kapoor Performance

Background score

Action part

Drawbacks

Too much violence

Some scenes in the latter half