“Mahine main 4 din pad change karne ke liye itna natak karti hai tu.” (You do so much drama just to change your clothes 4 days a month),and this is one of the famous controversial dialogue from the recent superhit Bollywood film – Animal. The movie starring Ranbir Kapoor, has bagged over nine hundred crores making it one of the most polarized films of the decade.
The movie brings division in the ideas and views of the people. It has sparked opinionated discussions and conversations about its several toxic and misogynistic aspects. The movie promises to keep the audience hooked up till the end as it comprises disastrous scenes, bloodbaths, misogynist dialogues, etc, and despite all these the lead actor of the film Ranbir Kapoor bags the best actor award in the Filmfare2024.
Is this scary?
Actor Ranbir Kapoor skillfully portrays a mentally disturbed character, possibly giving his best performance to date. The movie had a cherry on the top with Bobby Deol impressive with his strong onscreen presence, even with limited screen time.
But the question is has this film redefined the meaning of commercial success? If Yes! Then How?
On one side youngsters praised the chaotic action scenes in the film that they didn’t expect, but on the other side, the script of the film was called Violent, Brutal, Destructive, Toxic, Disturbing, Irrational, Misogynistic, and Triggering.
How can a man asking a woman to lick his shoes stand normal?
How can a man calling drama to period cramps stand normal?
How can a man categorizing a woman over her sexual part stand normal?
A movie with toxic masculinity stands in the parallel world to categorize and abuse women. The female characters are poorly written and portrayed and purely reflect the director’s ideology. Earlier, Sahid Kapoor’s movie Kabir Singh stood as an example to accelerate debate on the toxic male behavior against a woman. The movie was synonymous with toxicity, sexism, abuse, and violence. However, the movie Animal promises to get an upgraded version of toxicity.
In the film Kabir Singh, if slapping was a problem, here in Animal Ranvijay Singh Balbir (Ranbir Kapoor) pulls out a rifle, shoots into the wall in the bedroom, and frightens the sleeping kids in the presence of his wife just triggering.
Filmmaker Javed Akhtar, also took a jibe at the movie’s success. Without taking the name of the film, the veteran said, “I believe it’s a testing time for the young filmmakers today as to what kind of characters they want to create that the society will applaud. For instance, if there’s a film in which a man asks a woman to lick his shoe or if a man says it’s okay to slap a woman, and if the film is a super duper hit, then that’s very dangerous.”
After his comments on the film, the Twitter page ‘ Animal The Film’ reacted by calling all of Akhtar’s art forms “FALSE’.
Writer of your calibre cannot understand the betrayal of a lover (Between Zoya & Ranvijay) then all your art form is big FALSE 🙃 & If a woman (betrayed and fooled by a man in the name of love) would have said “lick my shoe” then you guys would have celebrated it by calling it…
— Animal The Film (@AnimalTheFilm) January 7, 2024
Today, movies play a vital role in changing the ideologies of the viewers. And amid this, barging a movie like ‘Animal’ is just for the stance of commercial success. Hence, it almost emerges as a moral responsibility, at least to a certain extent, for filmmakers and actors to not showcase such radical concepts to the audience that might prove to be destructive or harmful to society at large.
