Animal

Animal

All-Time Blockbuster
Director
Sandeep Reddy Vanga
Studio
T-Series Films*Bhadrakali Pictures, Cine1 Studios
Release Date
1 November 2023
Running Time
203 min
Language
Hindi
Country
India
Budget
100.00 Cr
Box Office
917.82 Cr

Cast

Review

5/10Critic Score

Sandeep Reddy Vanga swings for the fences with *Animal*, and while the film occasionally connects, it's often wildly uncontrolled. Ranbir Kapoor delivers a committed performance as a man drowning in daddy issues and toxic masculinity, channeling genuine menace in key moments—particularly when he strangles Varun in that boardroom, a scene that's genuinely unsettling. The problem is that Vanga mistakes brutality for depth. The father-son dynamic that should anchor everything feels undercooked; we're told repeatedly how much Vijay needs his father's approval, but the emotional scaffolding crumbles under scrutiny. The film is technically competent with slick cinematography and editing, but it uses these tools to glorify rather than interrogate its protagonist's descent into violence. Anil Kapoor sleepwalks through his role, and the supporting cast exists primarily as plot devices.

Where *Animal* truly falters is in its bloated runtime and narrative incoherence. The second half devolves into a revenge fantasy that abandons any pretense of character study and becomes a stylish but hollow action spectacle. Asrar and the larger conspiracy feel hastily assembled, as if Vanga realized he'd spent too much time on psychodrama and needed to manufacture stakes. The film wants to be both an intimate family tragedy and a sprawling gangster epic, and it succeeds at neither. Yes, it's visceral and technically flashy—there's no denying its craftsmanship—but craftsmanship without purpose is jus

Arjun Nair, Bollyhits ↗

Storyline

So this guy Vijay is basically obsessed with his dad, who's this massive steel industry mogul, but his dad's always too busy making money to actually care about him. When Vijay does something to protect his sister using his dad's gun, he gets shipped off to boarding school in America like he's being punished for existing. Years later he comes back for his dad's birthday, things blow up between him and his brother-in-law, and his dad basically disowns him. So Vijay marries his childhood girlfriend and they both just move to America and try to forget about it all.

Then one day his dad almost gets killed in some assassination attempt, and suddenly Vijay's like "alright, I'm going back home." He brings his wife and two kids with him, wants to make peace with his father, and starts gathering his cousins to figure out what the hell is going on. They even hire some bodyguard to look like his dad to throw people off, but that guy ends up dead anyway. Turns out there's this guy named Asrar involved in trying to kill his dad.

And here's where it gets dark—Vijay finds out his own brother-in-law Varun was in on the whole thing, trying to have his father killed. So Vijay literally walks into a conference, strangles him in front of everyone including Asrar, and just... does it. Like, he doesn't care who's watching. After that, Vijay starts getting serious about fighting back, connecting with underground arms dealers and basically preparing for all-out war.

View source ↗

Related Movies