Starring Ranbir Kapoor as Ranvijay Singh Balbir, Animal released in the theatres this Friday on December 1. The action drama has taken a bumper opening at the box office and has already earned more than Rs 100 crore in India within two days of its release. However, the film is also being called out for being hyperviolent and misogynistic.
Popular lyricist Swanand Kirkire has lashed out against Animal. Taking to his X (previously known as Twitter) account, he wrote a series of posts in Hindi criticising the Sandeep Reddy Vanga directorial. "Shantaram's Aurat (In his last post, he corrected that Mehboob Khan made Aurat), Guru Dutt's Saheb Biwi aur Ghulam, Hrishikesh Mukherjee's Anupama, Shyam Benegal's Ankur and Bhumika, Ketan Mehta's Mirch Masala, Sudhir Mishra's Main Zinda Hoon, Gauri Shinde's English Vinglish, Vikas Behal's Queen Shoojit Sarkar's Piku, and many such films in Indian cinema that taught me how to respect a woman, her rights and her autonomy and even after understanding everything, there are still many shortcomings in this age-old thinking. I don't know whether I succeeded or not, but even today I am constantly trying to improve myself. All thanks to cinema."
"But today after watching the movie Animal, I really felt pity for the women of today's generation. Now, a new man has been prepared for you, who is more scary, who does not respect you that much and who aims to subdue you, suppress you and feels proud of himself. When you, the girls of today's generation, were sitting in that cinema hall and applauding Rashmika getting beaten, I in my mind paid homage to every idea of equality. I have come home desperate, dejected and weak!", he wrote further.
Swanand concluded, "Ranbir's dialogue in which he defines alpha male and says that those men who not able to become alpha, they become poets to get the pleasure of all women and start making promises of breaking the moon and stars. I am a poet! I do poetry to live! Is there a place for me? A film is making a lot of money and the glorious history of Indian cinema is being embarrassed. In my understanding, this film will determine the future of Indian cinema afresh, in a different, terrible and dangerous direction."
Apart from Ranbir Kapoor, Bobby Deol, Rashmika Mandanna, and Anil Kapoor play leading roles in the film. Sandeep Reddy Vanga's last two films, Arjun Reddy and Kabir Singh, were also criticised for their sexist themes.
READ | Animal review: Sandeep Reddy Vanga serves toxicity, misogyny in violent yet entertaining film, elevated by Ranbir Kapoor
