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Ranbir Kapoor debuted with the Sanjay Leela Bhansali directorial Saawariya in 2007. From thereon there has been no going back for the acclaimed actor. He has consistently been giving blockbuster performances in movies such as Wake Up Sid (2009), Ajab Prem Ki Gazab Kahani (2009), Rocket Singh: Salesman of the Year (2009), Rajneeti (2010), Barfi! (2012), Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani (2013), Tamasha (2015), Ae Dil Hai Mushkil (2016) and many more. He is considered to be one of the most talented young Bollywood actors. He is the son of actors Rishi Kapoor and Neetu Kapoor and the grandson of legendary actor Late Raj Kapoor.

Ranbir Kapoor

Rashmika Mandanna is an Indian actress and model who works predominantly in Telugu and Kannada language films. She is a recipient of the Filmfare Award South and the SIIMA Award. She is known for her roles in Kirik Party and Geetha Govindam.

Rashmika Mandanna

Anil Kapoor is one of the most celebrated actors of the Indian cinema. The recipient of two National Awards and six Filmfare Awards, Anil’s acting career spans almost four decades. His debut movie was Vamsa Vruksham (1980). Since then he has delivered numerous blockbusters like Meri Jung, Janbaaz, Mr.India, Virasat, Pukar, Awaargi, No Entry, Taal and Dil Dhadakne Do. Anil has also featured in the Oscar-winning movie Slumdog Millionaire (2008). A global icon, Kapoor has also played a crucial role in the American TV series “24” & adapted the same for the Indian audiences too.

Anil Kapoor

The son of Bollywood superstar Dharmendra, Bobby Deol is a Hindi film actor. He made his acting debut as a child artist in Dharam Veer (1977). His first movie as the lead actor was Barsaat (1995). Since then, Bobby has appeared in movies like Humraaz, Bardasht, Dillagi, Dosti, Ab Tumhare Hawale Watan Saathiyo, Chor Machaaye Shor, Chamku, Yamla Pagla Deewana, Apne and Poster Boys.

Bobby Deol

Tripti Dimri is a hindi film actor. She made her acting debut with Bobby Deol and Sunny Deol in the movie Poster Boys.

Tripti Dimri

Suresh Oberoi is a famous Bollywood actor. He is best known for movies like Laawaris, Awaaz, Tezaab, Vijaypath, Masoom, Raja Hindustani, Soldier, Safari, Gadar Ek Prem Katha, Lajja, Pyar Tune Kya Kiya and 23 March 1931 Shaheed. His son Vivek Oberoi too is a Hindi film actor. Suresh is also the recipient of the National Film Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Mirch Masala.

Suresh Oberoi

Saurabh Sachdeva is an Indian actor and acting coach. He started his film career in Maroon, which was released in 2016. He received critical acclaim for his character Suleiman Isa in the Netflix series Sacred Games in 2018. 

Saurabh Sachdeva

This is the story of a son whose love for his father knows no bounds. As their bond begins to fracture, a chain of extraordinary events unfolds causing the son to undergo a remarkable transformation consumed by a thirst for vengeance.

Animal (2023)

ANIMAL(PRE-TEASER):Ranbir Kapoor|Sandeep Reddy Vanga|Bhushan Kumar|Worldwide Release on 1st Dec 2023

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ANIMAL is the story of an obsessed son. Ranvijay (Ranbir Kapoor) is the son of Balbir Singh (Anil Kapoor), who heads the successful Swastik Steel company. Ranvijay resides in a palatial mansion in Delhi with Balbir, his mother Jyoti (Charu Shankar), sisters Reet (Saloni Batra) and Roop (Anshul Chauhan). Ranvijay crazily loves Balbir. But Balbir doesn’t reciprocate as he’s too busy with work. Both also get into fights and after one such showdown, Balbir sends Ranvijay away for studies. Ranvijay returns and attends the engagement of his school classmate, Geetanjali (Rashmika Mandanna). He always had feelings for her and he confesses it in such a way that Geetanjali falls for him. She breaks her engagement. Meanwhile, on Balbir’s 60th birthday, Ranvijay fights with Varun (Siddhant Karnick), Reet’s husband. One thing leads to another and Ranvijay is kicked out. He marries Geetanjali and moves to the US. 8 years later, he returns when Balbir gets shot by unidentified assailants. Varun tries to act pricey but Ranvijay takes charge. He makes it his life mission to find out who tried killing the man whom he has worshipped since birth. What happens next forms the rest of the film.
Speaking of performances, Ranbir Kapoor shines. The way he gets into the skin of his character is seen to be believed. The supreme actor has given several outstanding performances in the past but in ANIMAL, hands down, is his best performance till date. Anil Kapoor has fewer dialogues, but he also rocks the show. His expressions are bang-on and speaks a lot. The scenes where he raises his voice are arresting. Rashmika Mandanna is quite good and leaves a mark in certain scenes, especially in the second half. Bobby Deol (Abrar) looks dashing and in form. Sadly, his screen time is very limited. Siddhant Karnick is memorable in a small role. Charu Shankar and Saloni Batra are decent. Anshul Chauhan doesn’t get much scope. Triptii Dimri (Zoya) puts in a sincere act. Suresh Oberoi (Dadaji) and Prem Chopra (Bade Daarji) have nothing much to do. The same goes for Shakti Kapoor (Mishra). Upendra Limaye (Freddy) is thoroughly entertaining in a special appearance. Bablu Prithviraj (Asrar Haque) and Saurabh Sachdeva (Abid Haque) are fair. The actors playing Ranvijay's cousins do well.

ANIMAL's soundtrack is quite good. 'Arjun Vailly' is the best song of the lot and also the most impactful. 'Hua Main' and 'Satranga' are well-shot. 'Pehle Bhi Main' and 'Papa Meri Jaan' are touching. Harshvardhan Rameshwar's background score adds to the tension and mass appeal.

Amit Roy's cinematography is cinematic. Suresh Selvarajan's production design is rich. Sheetal Iqbal Sharma's costumes are in sync with the status of the characters. Supreme Sundar's action is very violent and disturbing. Do It Creative Ltd, NY VFXWaala, Visual Birds Studio, Famous Studio, and Red Chillies.VFX's VFX is first-class. Sandeep Reddy Vanga's editing is appropriate, but a few scenes could have been done away with.

On the whole, ANIMAL is a powerful film that rests on Ranbir Kapoor’s outstanding performance, clap-worthy massy scenes, and an interval block that is simply out of the world. At the box office, the tremendous hype and curiosity will lead to a fantabulous opening, and it will emerge as a Blockbuster at the ticket windows.

Director Sandeep Reddy Vanga's stories and characters aren't looking for a character certificate.

The man behind Arjun Reddy and Kabir Singh isn't looking to play nice in Animal either.

Instead of rewarding their vice and venom, he paints them in the bloodiest shade of red.

It's not likeability but loathing Animal is screaming for
In this seething study on a son's obsessive hero worship of his emotionally unavailable father descending into madness, the director unleashes his fiercest impulses and care-a-damn attitude to deliver an action-packed exchange of volatile emotions and ruthless violence.

Imagine The Godfather where Sonny and Michael Corleone are merged into one in one's desire to win their father's approval or tragedy of being dragged in a life another didn't plan on. It's a little bit like Sanjay Dutt-Kabir Bedi's strained ties in Yalgaar and Amitabh Bachchan-Dilip Kumar's daddy issues in Shakti for bringing to mind the misfortune of a son dying for his papa's attention by hook or crook.

It's also like the Mahabharat where family feuds escalate to the point of bloodshed and badla.

Against an industrialist-mafia hybrid model build on the tabbar support of turbaned Sardars warding off masked hitmen in endless supplies while engaging with freelance arms supplier of John Wick proportions, both fighting clans and filial conflicts fuel a drama whose intensity is dialed up on a badass scale for a bonkers impact.

Families, especially dysfunctional ones, have extraordinary shock absorbers.

Animal, set in Delhi's wealthiest Punjabi family, is its most extreme embodiment. They cannot live with each other. They cannot live without each other.
Despite its out-and-out black tone, Animal opens on a monochrome note hoping we'll find some grey area in Rannvijay Singh Balbir's (Ranbir Kapoor) story even if there's no redeeming a Satan or sinner.

On the occasion of his father's centenary celebration, a grey-haired, wrinkle-faced son reflects on the bittersweet memories of his precious papa, Balbir Singh (Anil Kapoor).

Vanga Reddy's screenplay, co-written by Prashant Reddy Vanga and Suresh Bandaru then cuts to various life changing chapters that mark his journey from desperate to deadly.

Too busy making money, a lot of which probably goes into saving his son from going to jail in Reddy Vanga's lawless universe, Balbir Singh is the kind of stern, self-absorbed patriarch that can turn their child's world upside down even in a Karan Johar movie. It's all about loving the father in Animal.

Raised on patriarchal ideas of masculinity, Vijay sees himself as the inheritor and protector of these disruptive values.

Unlike his long festered resentment that's perennially on display, his father wears the veneer of civility rather efficiently, its cracks only visible in Vijay's childhood nostalgia and trauma.

A ticking bomb, his sister cries (a terrific Saloni Batra). A criminal, declares his father. Flying planes as easily as firing guns, Vijay is both, no doubt.

But he has the gift of the gab when he delivers a rousing speech to the workers of his dad's company, Swastik steel (it's not Nazi, he explains for those offended by its teasing glimpse) but also openly threatens to slit the throat of his father's attackers on national television.

It's a lawless universe in Vanga Reddy's comic book inspired-anarchy where the existence of cops is good as nil.

Vijay's a hypocrite as well, giving monologues on how women should make their own decision only to decide what they will do for the rest of their lives.

For him, adultery is not personal, it's strictly business.

It's another thing that the man eats his words half the time but starts out by threatening everyone.

Possessive to a fault, he abhors the idea of anyone except his kids calling their father 'Papa' and warns his wife against second marriage in the event of his death.

Expectedly, Vanga Reddy's woman problem looms large on Animal too.

His perverse lions and lambs imagery of man-woman relationship once again sees romance in slaps ensuing in abundant rough exchanges of passion that could only be Vanga Reddy's interpretation of S&M. It's upsetting but only underscores the rampant depravity on display by an unhinged, unstable mind.

Vijay's transition to a brute and a boor is complete when he loses all filters, oscillating between murdering and making crude jokes about his phallus almost as regularly as his obsession for his papa.

But the centrepiece of its action-packed momentum hits peak epic-ness when Animal’s red-filtered frames capture a blood-soaked Vijay going on a rampage wearing a kurta, lungi and red sneakers, wielding an axe, wreaking havoc in a South Korean-style corridor fight slashing, slicing and slamming everything in sight against the hammering sound of Marathi folk music and Punjabi war cries.

Its 20 minutes or more of absolute mayhem when a King Kong sized bullet-blasting beast 'imagined in Delhi, manufactured in Bengaluru, assembled in Maharashtra and made in India' turns a ballroom into Vijay's bloody arcade. The fire bursting out of that tank-sized weapon is akin to Godzilla's atomic breath.

How's that for Monster-verse of the Ranbir Kapoor kind?

Animal's violence isn't for the fainted-hearted unless you have an appetite for Korean style mayhem, like yours truly.

The actor's nakedness knows no bounds.

He strips himself bare as an artist -- body and soul.

His eerie resemblance to Sanjay Dutt in some scenes, essential to his Sanju biopic, echoes the vulnerability within his bad boy personality.

On occasions he looks a bit like the idiosyncratic 'Dude' from The Big Lebowski pretending not to care a hoot about his pot-bellied appearance. Except its daddy fixation, not drug-induced hysteria, that dictates his madness whether picking cars the colour of a woman's hickey or blowing up a brand new Rolls Royce.

Within Vijay's various stages of decline, he's only pitiable when reproaching his father for not reaching out. For those fleeting moments, the beast once again becomes a boy. Credit to these fine actors for tugging our heartstrings.

Ranbir and Anil Kapoor's moving meltdown makes for compelling viewing when accompanied by Sonu Nigam's poignant ode, Papa Meri Jaan and its many versions, a haunting whistle straight out of Kill Bill as well as instrumental themes of violin and sitar.

Although a key role if not a lengthy one, the veteran Kapoor shows his mastery by exploding and restraining at all the right places.

It's somewhat gratifying when Rashmika Mandanna shows some nerve and stands up to her horrid husband in her one striking, takeaway scene.

Animal belongs to Ranbir Kapoor until Bobby Deol's antagonist, finally shows up post-interval in the middle of some lively Arabic songs and revelry.

He cannot speak yet burns the screen on the strength of his evil stares and savage energy. When he faces off Vijay in what can be best described as a rumble on the runway, the latter has lost his hearing capacity too.

Evil that cannot hear.

Evil that cannot speak.

Evil for all to see.

Two barbarous grizzly figures become a reflection of each other, almost like shabby Siamese twins, wrestling each other in a robustly choreographed contest.

At three hours 21 minutes, Animal is relentless as a euphoric medley of feral rage and dance of the dysfunctional. The twists go on well until end credits as more blood is splattered our way.

If you thought Kabir Singh was the ultimate epitome of toxic masculinity and misogyny, Ranvijay Singh will shock you. He’s way more uninhibited, unhinged, aggressive and self-destructive. In his own words, he’s the quintessential ‘alpha male’. For those who have made up their mind to watch the film, take Ranbir Kapoor’s ‘people who get easily triggered should stay away from this film’ comment as a very serious disclaimer. Once again, you won’t agree with Sandeep Reddy Vanga. And whether you should or should not is an altogether different debate.

Animal revolves around Ranvijay (referred to as Vijay by his family members) and the troubled relationship he shares with his father, Balbir Singh, a business tycoon who never paid heed to his family because of a chock-o-block professional life. That is the heart of the film and we’re reminded of it time and again. Vijay can go to any length to win his father’s affection and approval. He doesn’t think twice before picking up the gun and killing the bad guys who have done wrong to his family. Tired of his volatile nature, Balbir ousts his son and sends him to the USA.
Animal is for brave hearts (brace yourself for a brutal throat-slitting scene). The film is dark, loud and garish but also unapologetic. It has guns blazing with the background score sometimes overpowering the dialogues. But somehow, all of that works. Amid all the grimness and goriness, you will also find yourself cracking up from time to time, thanks to Sandeep’s cheeky approach. Animal might not meet the tall claims made by the makers but it’s an amusing roller coaster ride that will keep you hooked throughout.

As a side note, you shouldn’t miss out on watching Ranbir riding a bike with oodles of swag and sass and then grooving to Chhoti Si Aasha and Roja Jaaneman looking like the OG bad boy, Sanjay Dutt.

The most awaited film of the year, the Sandeep Reddy Vanga-directed Animal led by Ranbir Kapoor is here. Throughout the campaign, the makers have promised a cinematic experience like never before in this gangster-based action drama. Does Sandeep Reddy Vanga deliver big with Animal? Let’s find out
After scaling new heights in his family business, Balbir Singh’s (Anil Kapoor) life is in danger from an unknown force. His son, Ranvijay Singh (Ranbir Kapoor), who is happily living in the US with his wife, Geetanjali (Rashmika Mandanna), returns to India to find the mastermind behind Balbir’s life. The rage for revenge is at its peak, as Ranvijay sees this as an opportunity to finally win over the love and get due attention from his father. Who is the mastermind? Why is he behind Balbir’s life? Is Ranvijay able to save his father? All this and much more unfolds in Animal.
First things first, Animal is an out-and-out Ranbir Kapoor show. It’s difficult to imagine Ranbir in this larger-than-life avatar, but the actor surpasses all expectations to deliver a performance that will be remembered for decades to come by. He carries the film on his shoulders, as there are sequences where he emotes through his eyes, and then there are blocks where the body language does the talking. His performance as Ranvijay Singh aka. Animal is the biggest plus of this gangster-based action drama.

The first half of Animal flies off in no time as Sandeep Reddy Vanga grips you into the world from the first scene. One is eager to see how the character of Ranbir evolves upon seeing the threat to his father’s life. And Vanga manages to keep interest intact all through the prolonged first half. His storytelling is unconventional with multiple cuts – from a certain scene to the other, from flashback to present, from one plot point to the other – but it all comes together in the first half.

Some of the best moments of the film come in the first half – be it Ranbir’s introduction, his first meeting with Rashmika, the entire dramatic chunk at Anil Kapoor’s 60th birthday, the gun sequence in the college, and the prolonged action-packed interval block. You step out of the hall in the interval preparing yourself for an even bigger explosion in the latter half of the film – as Animal comes across as a rounded film with a story that holds attention and performances that elevate. And thankfully,  The film has some solid moments in the second half too, which includes the climax fight sequence and the confrontation of RK and Anil. The placement of Satranga in the second half also comes at a tender moment.

Another strength of Animal is the background score – it hits you differently with the Dolby sound system. The music of Animal works very well in the narrative and the producer, Bhushan Kumar gives the film the right scale and production values.
Overall, Animal makes for a solid watch, that rides on a fast-paced first half and a decent second with Ranbir Kapoor delivering the performance of his lifetime. Animal certainly has enough moments to sail through with a big number at the box office on support of Youth & Masses, though families and women might stay away from it after the initial euphoria. Watch it for Ranbir Kapoor, Ranbir Kapoor, and Ranbir Kapoor, alongside the high octane fast-paced first half.

Animal is an adrenaline experience which will have polarising views but you can't deny its entertaining quotient, breathtaking performances and storytelling
Arjun Reddy and Kabir Singh helmer Sandeep Reddy Vanga had said that he will teach Bollywood how to make a violent movie with Animal and trust me what he said, he delivered that without an ounce of doubt.
While the trailer gave you goosebumps when you watch the film you will experience several moments like those including scenes which will make you uncomfortable, emotional and even shock you.

Talking about the plot, Ranvijay aka Vijay Balbir Singh (Ranveer Singh) is a boy who loves his father Balbir Singh (Anil Kapoor) beyond imagination and always tries his best to get some of his time, impress him or seek validation of being a good son.

However, he doesn’t understand how and when his love for father turns out to be an obsession, which makes him take some extreme steps which lead to destruction. The character of Ranvijay is big-time problematic and flawed, especially towards his wife Gitanjali (Rashmika Mandanna) which will raise eyebrows for some.
Ranvijay’s perception of alpha-male will question the mentality of the men which will be bashed by females from a majority of the section.

Despite all these flaws, what makes the film worth a watch is the impeccable performances of the ensemble and the gripping narrative of director-editor Sandeep Reddy Vanga. Honestly, the film has several high points and solid revelations and by giving spoilers I don’t want to ruin your viewing experience of the movie.

The runtime of Animal is over 3 hours and 20 minutes and I can assure you there won’t be any moment where you feel the movie is boring. Throughout the film something is happening which will keep you hooked to the screens and the credit goes to Vanga’s superb editing skills and storytelling.
Talking about the performances, Ranbir Kapoor lives in and out to deliver one of his career-defining roles. Honestly, I wouldn’t have ever imagined that after being Bunny and Mickey from Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani and Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar, RK would go so dark, gore and violent and do this crazy stuff with Animal and that too like a boss.

Anil Kapoor delivers a mature performance which is expected from a seasoned actor like him. Rashmika as Gitanjali emerges as an actor and makes a lasting impression with her layered portrayal. Bobby Deol aka Lord Bobby steals the show in whichever scenes he gets but honestly, I would have loved to see more of him.

On the whole, Animal is an adrenaline experience which will have polarising views but you can’t deny its entertaining quotient, breathtaking performances and storytelling.