Tag: Rashmika Mandanna

critic’s rating: 



2.5/5

Ranvijay Singh (Ranbir Kapoor) is the hotheaded son of super rich industrialist Balbir Singh (Anil Kapoor). He’s super protective of his family and loves his father to death. That trait is shown early on, when as a schoolboy, he takes on the bullies who were troubling his college-bound sister. Growing up, he understands his father is never going to accept him the way he is. He finds time to marry the love of his life, Geetanjali (Rashmika Mandanna), scoots off to the US and has two children. Then, daddy dearest becomes the target of an assassination attempt. The dutiful son comes roaring back after eight years to set things right and kills around 300 people doing so. In between, he goes to Punjab to mend ties with an estranged branch of the family, so they can lend their sons to help him win the war. The boys have lots of tons with their toys – one of them is a giant gun mounted on a motor.

All this happens before the interval. Now, the film practically ends at this point and if the director had done that, we would have left with a one-and-a-half hour long, slick actioner. But he doesn’t do the needful and needlessly stretches it to another two hours. We are made to repetitively witness more mayhem.

The film is a homage to the hero worship every boy feels for his dad as a kid. Most of us slowly let go of that feeling as we grow up, and start seeing our fathers as beings of mere flesh and bone. This leads to a better relationship, a healthier relationship, with our parents as we age. But Ranvijay is shown to be having the emotional depth of a five year old when it comes to dealing with his father. He puts his father on the same pedestal as God, or even higher. He doesn’t share the same equation with his mother, mind you. She’s a mere mortal, perhaps, as he says in the film, it’s a man’s world.

Sandeep Reddy Vanga was criticised for having men raise their hand against women in both Arjun Reddy and Kabir Singh. Here we have Rashmika giving in to anger and slapping Ranbir. That’s Vanga’s way of making things right. Take it or leave it. The film worships at the temple of toxic masculinity, what with phallic humour galore and women being treated as mere sex objects. There’s a scene where Ranbir is celebrating his successful heart surgery by roaming around buff naked in the lawns, to put things in perspective.

All that aside, we never could imagine what prompted the director to make this vastly self-indulgent film. Maybe it was an experiment to turn Ranbir Kapoor into an action star. Perhaps to see how good he looks with Rashmika or with Triptii Dimri. Perhaps it was to resurrect Bobby Deol’s film career. Well, Ranbir’s such a good actor that he makes even leave-your-mind-at-home action look easy on the eye. And he does look good with both Rashmika and Triptii. And there’s no doubt that Bobby still has a great screen persona. But do these positives justify three hours and 21 minutes of runtime? Some scenes feel like they were written on the fly. The editing, the continuity is the least troubled department. The film is shot well and has some good songs to its credit but the story, screenplay and direction departments clearly needed a firmer guidance.

There have been films like Shakti (1982), revolving around tumultuous father-son relationships. Perhaps Sandeep Reddy Vanga should have gone back to the classic or sat with its director Ramesh Sippy to get a grip on how it’s done. Because Anil Kapoor and Ranbir Kapoor are two of our finest actors. And both have acted out of their skulls in this film. Their scenes together are the soul of the film. But even the finest talent can’t do much in the face of bad writing. It’s painful to watch their talent being used in such a way. The trailer of the film was so finely cut that it raised expectations sky high. The end product, sadly, just doesn’t match up to the hype.

Watch Animal to see Anil Kapoor and Ranbir Kapoor rising above the ridiculous to give a sublime performance.

Trailer : Animal