When we buy a ticket for any movie we sign up for entering into that creator’s universe where he/she is at the helm of affairs and we as a viewer or audience surrender to his/her creation. The creator is entitled to tell his/her story the way he/she has imagined and through his/her own ways and those ways can be conventional or unconventional. Just because some scenes or a character is not confirming to our established moral standard, we cannot “cancel” or dismiss it as “vulger”, “vile”, “misogynist” and what not.
Any story-teller imagines his world and often takes help from the real world. Look around us, don’t we find “vulgar”, “vile” and “misogynist” people around us?. So If they exist in the real world and mingle around us, what is the harm if the creator is telling their story through his lens and creating his world around that messed up character?.
Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s (Vanga) directorial hindi debut ‘Kabir Singh’ has met with an unprecedented and unfair criticism for honestly telling his story of a skillful surgeon who has some temper issues. During the course of the story the protagonist’s heart gets broken due to the unique Indian social structure and because of that he takes to various drug addictions and goes on to a journey which seems like a punishment to himself and people around him. But oh boy ! the way Vanga has shown that journey on the screen is very difficult for the debutant director to show on the screen. This shows the clarity and convictions the creator has for his creation. During one of such interviews with film critic Anupama Chopra, Vanga went on to say that “They are calling my film as violent, I will show them what exactly violence is in my next film”
And oh boy ! being true to his words, Vanga put himself on metaphorical steroids and pulled something extra-ordinary and unconventional. In ordinary use, animals mean all living beings except humans. ‘Territorial behaviour’ is the core characteristic of most of the animals which basically means a method by which an animal or group of animals, protects its territory from incursions by others of its species.
That territory can be anything from a piece of land to the mating partner. During the initial course of human evolution, our behaviour was also very animalistic i.e. we did not try to hide or control our basic feelings and physical needs. Psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud calls that part of the personality as “id” which is made up of unconscious psychic energy that works to satisfy basic urges, needs and desires. And when the “id” dominates in the large populace then that creates conflict within the society.
Thomas Hobbes, the English Philosopher, in his book ‘Leviathan’ calls such a situation as ‘state of nature’. It is a real or hypothetical condition of human beings before or without political association. In the words of Hobbes, without political association or government, life would be, “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.” i.e. It is a condition or place where there is no law and order, the metaphorical law of the jungle prevails and where “might is always right”.
Vanga in his latest movie which is very aptly titled as ‘Animal’ places his “universe” in such a Hobbesian ‘state-of-nature’ where a similar law of the jungle prevails and alpha males call the shots. Ranvijay Singh (Vijay) played by the dazzling Ranbir Kapoor is the son of Balbir Singh played by the Anil Kapoor who is the delhi based business magnate and heads the generational steel company called “Swastik Steels”. Vijay adores his father but Balbir Singh being a typical workaholic father does not have time for his family or children. This bothers Vijay and he longs for his father’s attention and love.
Vijay does everything from writing letters to his father and distributing chocolates to his classmates on his father’s birthday. But to no avail. Thus this deprivation of fatherly love turns into an obsession and all his activities would go in the direction of impressing his father. In early childhood only he identified his father as his sole ‘territory’ and this unconventional relationship between father and son is the focal point of the movie.
Since childhood Vijay has been a difficult child to grow but he is very sharp and has an unconventional wisdom which many times puts him in trouble. As a primogeniture of the family he understands his role and often takes things in his own hands which often strains his relationship with his father. And one such act makes his father send him away to boarding school. In the opening scene of the movie we are shown that after many years he returns to his family after finishing aerospace engineering and at that point we are able to understand the changed family dynamics but one thing has not changed i.e. the strained father-son relationship.
Amidst that tension Geetanjali played by the Rashmika Mandhana comes to Vijay’s life. In her own engagement ceremony, Vijay reminds her of the role of alpha males and pelvis in the early human evolution and the freedom females had in the early hunting-gathering era to choose their mating partner. So Geetanjali goes against her family wishes and exercises her discretion in her style and as a result their relationship blossoms or “takes off” into a beautiful family.
Vanga has often been accused of treating her female characters badly by showing them as meek and un-argumentative. Here unlike Priti from Kabir Singh, Geetanjali is a feisty woman who fights, slaps him and expresses herself so strongly when she discovers Vijay’s extra-marital sexual profligacy. Also, on many occasions she tries very hard to tame the animalistic tendencies of the protagonist but while trying to do that their relationship strains because of the same already strained father-son relationship.
To make an entire three hours and twenty one minute movie on this father-son relationship is itself a Herculean task and Vanga has brilliantly woven all emotional threads of that relationship and equally brilliantly performed by Ranbir and Anil Kapoor. The role-playing scene which we have seen in the trailer is so brilliantly pulled by the duo that we couldn’t resist ourselves but to applaud the masterful performance of those actors.
From the opening scene to the interval, we were taken to the joy ride and just before ten minutes to the interval the peak action scene begins with an impressive monologue by the national award winning marathi actor Upendra Limaye. The gun fight with a popular marathi song composed by Ajay-Atul makes the crowd erupt in cheers and claps. The gun fight reminds me of the kind of action performed in the famous John Wick’s movies.
When Vijay puts all of his bullets into the bodies of his enemies, the second lot challenges him to the axe-fight which begins with a popular punjabi folk song ‘Arjan Vailley’ which is rooted in the Sikh history. On hearing the song ‘Arjan Vailley’, the crowd erupts again in cheer and claps. The way that whole violent action scene has been choreographed it looked like someone has created a melody out of sheer madness.
It is not only the action where Ranbir Kapoor looked absolutely staggering but in conversational non-action scenes where he was successfully able to show Freudian “id”ish personality traits by his facial expressions and dialogues. People used to call him the unutilised great actor but I refused to believe it on many occasions.
After watching the animal, I am convinced that Ranbir Kapoor was indeed the unutilised actor to his full potential and Vanga deserves full credit for exploiting the genius of a great actor. Also, when Vijay gives that inspiring speech in front of workers in the factory we literally get goosebumps because of his powerful emotive appeal. Such is the calibre of Ranbir Kapoor.
However, everything is not hunky dory with Vanga’s animal. It has replete with many loose plots and extended screenplay. As I said earlier, from the opening scene to the interval, it has been a pure joy ride and Vanga seemed very much in control till the interval. I wish I could say the same thing about the part after the interval. But alas ! Vanga as a loco-pilot of the ‘locomotive’ lost control over the steering and the mighty animal derailed from the track. Had it not happened it could have been arguably one of the best movies made in recent time and could have become the cult classic like some of Quentin Tarantino’s “bloody” movies are in the west but it fell short due to lack of imagination and poor editing skills at the tailend.
By lack of imagination I mean that there are many scenes which require details but it has not been provided. For example Vijay has been shown as a fearless fighter but nowhere he has been shown to practice or work on it. And when Vijay’s distant cousins came to his rescue they were shown firing automatic rifles and guns without any prior gun training. Also, when Vijay goes to a different country to find his arche nemesis, he is shown heavily armed. How did they manage to smuggle those weapons in such a large quantity or did they buy those weapons from that country itself?. From where did they learn all those skills?. All above scenes require detailing unless Vanga wants us to believe that in his universe all alpha males learn those skills in their mother’s womb like Abhimanyu from the Mahabharata. These are small-small things which require imagination and it is only these small things that make your story convincing and believable.
Also, I call Vanga’s “universe” as a lawless Hobbesian ‘state-of-nature’ where the state-of-the-art weapons are used with impunity. When you place your universe in that land of impunity then it becomes very easy to move your story unhindered. When you are murdering a son-in-law of one of the influential businessmen in broad daylight in an investment summit where foreign nationals and probably the media is also present and you want us to believe that no proverbial “kanoon ke lambe hath” came knocking on those murderers’ doors.
By doing that you are trying to snatch the ‘monopoly-on-the-violence’ from the mighty and omnipresent State. Such an impunity makes you creatively lazy. On the other hand, It requires a certain imagination and creativity to place your universe in the web of law of the land. I wonder, how could a man who has pulled arguably one of the best action scenes ever executed in recent times just before the interval by minutely detailing each and every aspect of gun fighting then how could he go on to derail the later part just because of the same lack of detailing and poor editing skills.
In spite of the above shortcomings, Animal is a treat to watch on the big screen especially the part till the interval for its impeccable screenplay, effective emotive appeal accentuated by the equally emotive music and solid performances by all actors including Bobby Deol who played the role of arche nemesis of the Vijay. Thus it makes for a good cinematic experience and violence shown in the movie both in its physical and verbal form should not be taken literally. We must stop burdening every other film-maker who is honestly telling his/her fictional story with our fanciful urges of social & moralistic changes. For that we have other film-makers. We can celebrate and enjoy both if we find it worthy. If you do not like certain types of movies then you have an option of not signing up by not buying the ticket of that movie.
When we think everything is over, in the post credit scene we are told that this animal will soon be visiting some “Animal Park” where some ‘Jurassic-Park’ level bloodbath is expected. But I just hope that Vanga should give up the temptation of playing to the pan-Indian gallery and instead of shortening the proverbial “kanoon ke lambe hath”, he must acknowledge the State’s legitimate ‘monopoly-on-the-violence’ and then work on his imagination and creative skills so that ‘Animal Park’ will be remembered as less of a bestial extravagance and more of a convincing and logical venture of international repute. Will he or will he not? Only time will tell …
Vishal Bhagat Says 