Despite facing significant criticism for its perceived “glorification” of misogyny and violence, director Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s Ranbir Kapoor-starrer Animal emerged as one of the biggest Indian blockbusters of 2023, earning close to Rs 900 crore worldwide.
While many industry insiders have praised the film, there is a substantial number of people who have expressed their disapproval of Vanga’s handling of themes such as feminism and toxic masculinity. Joining the critics, albeit indirectly, is screenwriter, lyricist and poet Javed Akhtar, who, along with Salim Khan, crafted some of the biggest blockbusters in Indian cinema’s history. Many of their films featured gruff male protagonists, and together, they’re credited with creating the “Angry Young Man” archetype in Bollywood cinema.
Speaking at the 9th Ajanta-Ellora International Film Festival in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Akhtar expressed concern about films like Animal achieving success.
“The image of a hero should be created with an awareness of what is right and how it should be. Today’s writers need to think, because confusion has increased among them. The reason for this is that society is in confusion. Society does not decide what is right and what is wrong, but it is reflected in cinema. There was a time when the poor were good and the rich were bad. But today, we only have one thought in our head, ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati?’ So we can’t make the rich look bad now since we ourselves want to be rich,” he observed, as reported by Loksatta.
“If there’s a film in which a man asks a woman to lick his shoe or if a man says it’s okay to slap a woman… and the film is a super hit, that’s dangerous,” he said, referring to the scene between Ranbir and Triptii Dimri’s characters in Animal.
“Nowadays, I feel that more responsibility is on the audiences than filmmakers. The audiences have to decide what movies they like and what they don’t like. It is entirely up to the audiences to decide what to reject. The ball is currently in the audiences’ court. Even today, there are as many filmmakers making good movies, but only a few. The fate of cinema depends on how long you stand with them,” Akhtar added.
In her review of the movie, The Indian Express’ Shubhra Gupta wrote, “This Ranbir Kapoor-Anil Kapoor-Rashmika Mandanna film ricochets off target after having raced full-tilt to the mid-point: if it had come to an end at the interval, it would have made its point.”
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