Ram Gopal Varma reviews Animal: ‘When Ranbir Kapoor comes back with a machine gun, that moment is a cinematic gem’
Director Ram Gopal Varma shared a long note on social media, detailing what he thought of Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s Animal.
Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s Ranbir Kapoor, Rashmika Mandanna, Anil Kapoor and Bobby Deol-starrer Animal hit screens this Friday. The film received polarising responses from critics and audiences alike. Director Ram Gopal Varma, who is also known for making polarising cinema, had a lot to say about the film. Here are some takeaways. (Spoilers ahead) (Also Read: Ram Gopal Varma reacts as SS Rajamouli compares him with Sandeep Reddy Vanga during Animal promotions)
What Sandeep achieved
Ram writes that Fatal Attraction and Lolita filmmaker Adrian Lyne once said that films should make the audience violently argue what a film stands for and that Sandeep managed to do that with Animal. He explains, “There will be massive fights over the content and the character of Ranbir in Animal long after its box office run is over and I truly believe it can also trigger a cultural overhaul due to the way Sandeep has ripped off the clothes of moral hypocrisy with his bare naked honesty. That is because Animal is not merely a film..it is a social statement.”
Ram’s favourite moment
In one of the film’s key scenes, Ranbir’s character Ranvijay Singh leaves a room filled with enemies only to come back with a custom-made weapon he got made for this very purpose. The director claims the moment is a cinematic gem, writing, “One of my favourite (sic) moments is when against everyone’s expectations, including me in the audience was that he will come back with a baseball bat or something, but when he comes back with a machine gun that almost made us all fall off our chairs and that moment is a pure cinematic gem.”
He believes these scenes exist for a reason
There are certain scenes in the film that viewers have called out for not adding to the storyline or worse, existing just to trigger people for no reason. However, Ram believes they were put in the film to not just provide comedic relief but also to fulfil a reason. “Some random comic scenes like the bra strap spanking, talking about sex with the doctors etc to name a few which seemingly have no context but what they really do is to subconsciously act as a sledgehammer to drive the protagonist’s character into the viewers' heads,” he writes.
Ranbir’s nude scene in the film
Ram was all praise for Ranbir’s performance, writing, “Not from the 1st film of India, Raja Harishchandra in 1913 till now in 2023 in the last 110 years was there more consistency and intensity in an actor’s portrayal of a character than what Ranbir did in Animal.” He also added, “More than him being physically naked in a particular scene, he was emotionally naked throughout the film in his performance which takes much more strength of mind than just being physically naked.”
Ram wants to ‘lick’ Ranbir, Sandeep's shoes
Ram had his share of negative feedback too, with the director claiming he did not connect to the father-son relationship or the family rivalry. He also didn’t like a particular scene where Ranbir’s character asks Tripti to lick his shoe. However, Ram claims he’s more than happy to lick Sandeep and Ranbir’s shoes to show his appreciation for the film. He writes, “I didn’t like the shot of Ranbir asking the girl to lick his shoe but for just that one jump cut from Anil’s last dialogue to the end titles camera zooming out shot showing Ranbir crying like a baby in Shakti Kapoor’s lap, I want to lick both your shoes.”
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