Animal (2023) Review: Bravura Craft, Ugly Heart

Is Animal worth watching?

Yes, with serious reservations. Animal is a technically dazzling, star-driven revenge epic with a career-defining performance from Ranbir Kapoor, but it is also bloated and built on a worldview many viewers will find repellent. Sandeep Reddy Vanga directs with total conviction, and the best sequences have a raw, operatic energy that few Hindi action films match. Against that, the film runs well over three hours, and its celebration of male rage and its treatment of women are hard to separate from its thrills.

What is Animal about?

Ranvijay Singh (Ranbir Kapoor) has spent his life starved of attention from his father, Balbir (Anil Kapoor), a powerful steel industrialist who is always too busy for his son. Sent away after a series of violent outbursts, Ranvijay marries Geetanjali (Rashmika Mandanna) and builds a life abroad. When an attempt is made on Balbir’s life, he returns home, consumed by the need to protect his father and to destroy whoever is responsible, whatever it costs everyone around him.

Animal is written and directed by Vanga, the filmmaker behind Arjun Reddy and its Hindi remake, Kabir Singh. It is an Indian production in Hindi and runs 201 minutes. The cast includes Bobby Deol, Triptii Dimri, Suresh Oberoi and Prem Chopra. It was one of the biggest Hindi box-office hits of 2023 and one of the most argued-about.

Ranbir Kapoor at full volume

Whatever one thinks of the film, Kapoor’s performance is extraordinary. He plays Ranvijay as a coiled, wounded child in a man’s body, capable of tenderness and brutality within the same scene, and he never asks the audience to like him. The transformation is physical as well as emotional, and his scenes with Anil Kapoor, quietly desperate on one side and distant on the other, are the film’s strongest material. The performance won Kapoor the Filmfare Award for Best Actor.

Anil Kapoor is excellent as a father who cannot give his son what he needs, and Bobby Deol, in a small but much-discussed role, makes a menacing impression with very little dialogue. Mandanna has the hardest job, as a wife who must absorb Ranvijay’s volatility, and the script gives her more confrontation than character.

Filmmaking that goes for the jugular

Vanga has a genuine gift for staging and rhythm. The action set pieces, especially a vast fight in a hotel that forms the film’s interval centrepiece, are choreographed and cut with a feral, almost musical momentum. The soundtrack, a mix of Punjabi anthems, ballads and a thunderous score, is used to punch up scenes rather than pause them, and many of its songs became hits in their own right. The film looks expensive and sounds huge, and at its best it has the pull of a dark family opera.

A three-hour-plus problem, in more ways than one

The film’s length is its first obvious flaw. There are long stretches, especially in the second half, where the story circles rather than advances, and a sharper edit could have removed an hour without losing much. The more serious problem is its attitude. Animal presents Ranvijay’s possessiveness and aggression toward women with a relish that often looks like endorsement rather than critique. Vanga has argued that the film is a portrait of a damaged man, not a celebration of one, but the camera’s admiration frequently undercuts that defence. Some viewers will find the film exhilarating; many will find it exhausting and ugly.

Who should watch Animal?

It is for fans of big, maximalist Indian action cinema and of Ranbir Kapoor, who will want to see his most extreme work. It is strictly for adults: expect graphic and sustained violence, sexual content, coercive relationships and strong language throughout. Plan for a very long evening, or consider watching it in two sittings.

If you are drawn to its scale, consider:

• Gangs of Wasseypur, a sprawling Hindi saga of inherited violence with far more irony and control.
• Salaar: Part 1 - Ceasefire, another late-2023 action epic built on loyalty and brute force.

The verdict

Animal is a divisive, overwhelming piece of popular filmmaking: expertly made, anchored by a fearless Ranbir Kapoor, and deeply compromised by its length and its gaze. It earns a qualified recommendation for its craft and performances, with the clear warning that its values may be impossible for some viewers to get past.

Rating: 3.5/5