'Animal' starring Ranbir Kapoor in the lead released in theatres on December 1 amidst huge fanfare. Like his previous movie 'Kabir Singh', director Sandeep Reddy Vanga has been heavily criticised for his latest outing. Ranbir plays the character Ranvijay Singh Balbir in 'Animal' who has a problematic relationship with his father played by Anil Kapoor. Many found Ranbir's character similar to Shahid Kapoor from 'Kabir Singh'. While some have liked the action drama many have criticised it for being misogynistic and showing toxic masculinity.
Popular lyricist and singer Swanand Kirkire has called out 'Animal'. He took to X platform (previously known as Twitter) and wrote a series of posts in Hindi slamming the film.
He wrote, "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."
He further wrote, ''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, I in my mind paid tribute to every idea of equality. I have come home desperate, dejected and weak!".
Swanand ended his post, "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."
'Animal' also stars Bobby Deol, Rashmika Mandanna, Triptii Dimri, Suresh Oberoi, Shakti Kapoor and Prem Chopra in pivotal roles. It has already entered the Rs 100 crore club within two days of its release.
