Movie Review - Animal

This movie is basically "The Godfather", if Sunny Corleone had succeeded Don Vito instead of Michael. More apt, if a love child of Sunny Corleone and Tara Singh had succeeded to, not only the Corleone syndicate, but also, say, the Russian Empire. At the heart of it, though, it remains a tribute to The Godfather, on steroids.

Neither is this a mere inspiration from The Godfather. There are some straight plot devices, like the inveterate traitor brother in law, who had to be put down, and the inconsolable sister, his widow. Then there is that second love interest that (almost) blows up by a car bomb. Yeah, the soft strains of Speak Softly Love were replaced by the folksy music of Punjab.

Many reviewers had flagged the misogyny. I guess, for the squeamish, the gratuitous violence would be much more noticeable and / or objectionable.Many had called it boring despite all that. Here is my take on it - none of the over 200 minutes of the movie is dull. Not a single dull moment. Yeah, it might be long - fight sequences following more fight sequences -  there was one long and needless scene where minions in Squid Game Honcho masks attacked the lead, and then again a whole sequence of minions attacking him in skull masks. Even the climactic fight was too stretched out - neither Sunny nor Michael Corleone would approve of a fistfight when you have an overwhelming advantage in firepower.

Coming back to the question of misogyny, it is all a narrative made by the woke media. For the whole spousal relationship between the lead and his wife is one of equals, in a twisty, kinky way. The wife has more agency than many of characters written in a similar scenario - the cocooned wife of a dreaded don. It is unfair to compare her to a character of a female entrepreneur or professional. There is of-course one big episode of infidelity which is explained away as a reverse honey-trap! The movie does delve deep into the whole alpha of the herd concept, and defines life in the terms of the primal needs, but then again, the movie is called 'Animal', and it is a given that the laws of the jungle would apply. It surely was Woke-kryptonite, and that is the reason behind all the lamentation which is on. However, as a long suffering recipient of 'colour-blind casting' and gratuitous homosexuality in contemporary cinema, I would say - Take That!!