Animal coming to Netflix: 8 moments from Ranbir Kapoor’s Animal that trigger intrigue, debate or plain outrage

The Arjan Vailly supermacy song ends in a giant made-in-India gun blasting half the roof open. No subtext here, pure mood. (Photo, cropped; via X/@AnimalTheFilm)

Outrage, in the age of social media, is good business. Even for them who outrage over something outrageous. Sandeep Reddy Vanga, feeds both worlds, and with Animal he has delivered yet another divisive, questionable knock-out. If you haven’t been living under a rock, chances are you’ve come across some strong opinions about the film and the tastes it caters to or doesn’t. Provocation is an understatement, for Vanga invites scrutiny with a passion. Curiously, nobody is willing to step back. The adage, ‘don’t watch if you don’t have to or don’t want’ doesn’t apply, because even people critical of the director’s previous work will go in, knowing they’ll have plenty to scream, moan and bicker about. Vanga, just as well, serves hair-raising, problematic, ‘wtf moments’ that make the film what it is – a morally debatable explosion. Here are some talking points from the film that caught our eye. Spoilers Ahead!

1. That alpha male evolution theory

In a scene early in the film, Ranvijay (Ranbir Kapoor) explains to a recently engaged Geetanjali (Rashmika Mandanna) that the reason arts and poetry were invented was “so men who couldn’t hunt, gather or satisfy their women would have something to do”. It’s locker-room talk parading as philosophy but it is shockingly vain, simple and in your face. It’s also the first real moment of insight into the psyche of a problematic anti-hero who will only become worse.

2. First night on first flight

Ranvijay is an aeronautics engineer (yes) and the reason we are told this is because on their first night, after a defiant, runaway marriage, he takes Geetanjali on a literal flight of fancy, i.e, he flies a plane and they do ‘do it’ while cruising over unspecified territory. Rich people moseying around in private jets is a familiar sight. This one, not so much.

3. No country for clingy jijas

The father obsession is writ large on this film, but the distaste our protagonist nurtures for a clingy brother-in-law is comical, until it also becomes the most clinically delivered shock. Ranvijay walks into an office, supported by suited men and murders his jija, in cold blood. It’s a vicious, blood-curdling sequence and it repositions the rest of the narrative as an ambivalent, but riotous descent into madness.

The father obsession is writ large on this film. (Photo via X/@imvangasandeep)

4. Arjan Vailly supermacy

We’ve all heard and loved the song, but you probably can’t predict how it will be used in the film. Ranvijay and his backup of equally toxic cousins are under attack. Some 100 men enter an elite hotel where they are holed up, with axes and weaponry in tow. Our protagonist takes charge, quite literally, as he asks his men to step back. As violence is unleashed, these the cousins stand back and sing the now-hit Punjabi number. It’s rousing, hypnotic and strangely sensual. Naturally, it concludes in a giant Made In India gun blasting half the roof open. No subtext here, pure mood.

5. Hey, is that a Swastika?

Pheww. Not really! Ranvijay attends a meeting at Swastik, the steel company his father runs, to deliver a morale-boosting speech in his injured absence. More than a ‘get back to work appeal’, it’s a clarion call for revenge and murder, and for a moment it seems dangerously close to instigating a murderous mob. You see the foreshadowing in the logo of the company, and Ranvijay’s horizontally raised fist. Will he, really? Thankfully he doesn’t. But for a moment there, your heart is in your mouth.

6. Curated misogyny (Of course)

Vanga’s film obviously premeditates the criticism coming his way and he foreshadows it, or you could say, adds more fuel to the fire to keep a pot of boiling, profiting outrage going. Where do you even begin? In the fact that Abrar (Bobby Deol) violently assaults his many wives, that the hotly debated slap from Kabir Singh is endlessly teased between the leading couple here, or that a woman is told she moans a little too much about wearing ‘4 pads a month’. It’s bilious, discomforting but also in-line with a world full of amoral, vile and tyrannical men.

7. The nude walk of no shame

More salacious than Tripti Dimri’s bizarre love arc with a married but difficult-to-love Ranvjijay, is the latter’s rejuvenation. After getting injured in an attack, our protagonist loses his strength, grows a belly and is told his days are numbered. He returns, not with a scowl, but a roar, visually framed as a totally nude Kapoor walking around his vast garden as his mates send bullets towards the heavens. There is no dearth of penis and balls metaphors in the film, but this one takes the prize for forcing your lower lip to detach itself from your jaw.

(Photo, cropped; via X/@AnimalTheFilm)

8. A post-credit scene from hell

A post-credit scene is like mandated garnish these days. Vanga supplies one, but it might be the rowdiest, more violent thing you’ve ever witnessed (including in this film). Embattled, provoked and defeated, the youngest of the Abrar brothers is nursing a wound. He is holding two men hostage and sports a couple of cleavers. We have been told, he is known as ‘The Butcher’, and boy does he live up to that reputation in a couple of minutes that kick your stomach into your chin. You wouldn’t have seen so much blood and gore stain the sagely white screen in recent memory. So much so that it forces a character to suspiciously throw up. Gulp!