Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s Animal stirred up many debates after its release and till date, the film continues to be a significant example when discussing the concept of toxic masculinity. In a recent interview, as educator Dr Vikas Divyakirti spoke about the idea of alpha males in movies, he brought up how the lead character in Animal, played by Ranbir Kapoor, is proud of being an alpha male even though we don’t live in a society where this concept is needed. He also criticised the scene where he asks his girlfriend to lick his shoe and said that toxic masculinity is just as harmful for men as it is for women.
Talking to the YouTube channel We Are Yuvaa, Vikas said, “The character in Animal is very proud of being the alpha male. The concept of alpha male does not apply to human society. It applies to animals, to wolves.” He added, “Humans have moved on from the jungles. The ones who are stuck there, they are racing to be the alpha male and we need to differentiate between humans and animals.”
He added that asking someone to lick their shoe is the worst form of human behaviour and called it “inhuman.” “You start hating women and treat them like objects. Telling her that ‘lick my shoe’ is inhuman. What is left in the relationship after this? The biggest drawback of toxic masculinity happens to the person who isn’t loved by anyone anymore. His wife, mother, daughter, they don’t love him but are scared of him. And if you are happy that people are scared of you, then you are stupid,” he said.
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Vikas said that this kind of alpha behaviour can make a person lonely and added, “If nobody loves you, then you are really lonely. There is no bigger loneliness than being disconnected emotionally in trying to be animal-like. This is animalistic behaviour.”
Ranbir Kapoor was criticised for choosing to play the lead role in Animal and in a chat with Nikhil Kamath, Ranbir addressed this criticism and said, “I had always been following a career path where I was doing good roles, trying to give good social messages, play the ‘good boy’ basically, the coming-of-age romantic image that I had. So, I found this very bold, adult-rated. I was scared that maybe the audience will not accept me. When the film released, even though it did amazing numbers and we got a lot of love, there is a big audience which found the film misogynist and wrong, in some way.”
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