“If you are very excited about an idea and you procrastinate to bring it to life, sooner or later that idea is going to find an outlet through someone else’s art. It does not mean that the other artist has stolen your idea, it just means that the idea’s time has come.” This statement could not be more befitting than for the movie – Animal.

Animal is a phenomenon – as a movie, as a myth breaker, as a ride to savor. SRV (Sandeep Reddy Vanga), hats off to your vision, execution and plain, guts. Bollywood will never be the same after this bombshell of cinematic valor. Any writer worth the salt will be ready to trade anything to pull off a character with as many contradictions and issues as this. I felt like the pre-interval Gatling gun was pointed as much at the masked henchmen as at the cinematic conventions and tropes that Bollywood has smugly held on to, for far too long. Big Studio houses rarely showing gumption to even attempt a misfire. It would be pathetic if even after Animal opened to such monstrous numbers, the industry still views this as a rare case of food poisoning rather than as an abject reminder to innovate or perish. With OTT already on the prowl, Indian cinema needs to come out of its self-imposed shell of stereotypes, cliches and diktats.

Coming to the movie, the story opens as a drama set in an affluent business family, with Ranbir Kapoor hogging all the limelight at his father’s birthday celebrations for all the wrong reasons and coming across as an angst-driven son, brother and in essence, the proverbial family black sheep. Laying out all into the open the familial intrigues, partial affinities, simmering grievances. Story-wise, it bares no new bones in structure, having derived heavily from legendary movie – Coppola’s Godfather. But SRV’s RanVijay is a bastard mix of Sunny and Micheal Corleone. A bastard mix, as Vijay here is all josh but with enough hosh to compensate the wild beast in him. In Coppola’s version, brothers and the confidante plan out meticulously their retaliatory follow up action to avenge their father’s attackers, whereas Vijay single handedly plans, mobilizes, conspires, designs, executes and annihilates. Seems foolish and too outlandish on paper but when witnessed to screaming battle cries of “Arjan Vailly”, it becomes an anthem and a salute to Vijay’s reckless bravado – one man against a marauding army. Ranbir Kapoor could easily have gone overboard and come across as a deranged psychopath. But his earnestness amidst the riotous frenzy, makes us root for him and get inside him.

The tone and dialogues are deliberately meant to amuse and tickle us at this crucial pre-interval face-off to beat down the moment and to treat the avalanche of bullets, gore and blood as a Marvel Studio like burst of action. Here, again to recall the Gaitling gun intro, the Marathi actor – Upendra Limaye as Freddy, is tossing off his hat to Vijay for his fertile imagination in designing a one-of-a-kind gun. SRV in a self-congratulatory mode amazed at his own flourish of genius. Point taken. The scene preceding this has a funny underwear episode underlining the OCD-ish psyche of Vijay, which strangely finds itself manifest in the ensuing hotel corridor showdown. And Vijay having arrived at the hotel without his undie, unhesitatingly asking for Freddy’s underwear, so he can keep his balls from running loose. This scene in a gist, presents the unique way SRV’s writing, and screenplay works very differently from any of the movies we have seen in Bollywood or Hollywood. He pushes the drama to the edge and cuts the ongoing tension with a counter current of peculiar whacky humor. The humor often hits under the belt. This enables SRV to create a visceral tone, book-ended with instinct and intellect. And add to this mix, a dash of unpredictable antsy persona of the protagonist.

Another screenplay pattern that SRV has employed consistently is to first spoon the action with an intent to shock us and then slowly unveil the justification, almost like an afterthought. In Arjun Reddy and Animal, much of the action precedes validation in such controlled beats that we are constantly waiting for the reveal to show up in a blink-and-you-miss-it fashion. One of my awe moments in Animal, was when the infidelity sounding moment turned into an unexpected bait hook. The outsider becoming insider staged here, literally and figuratively. The climactic touchdowns owe as much to the quarterback (read insane hero) as to the defense (read sane family and friends).

The love story does not just have the hero approaching his love interest in a blunt predatory way but also the heroine equally matching his intent, bordering on pathological obsession. If Vijay/Arjun Reddy shock us with their if-you-know-what-you-want-why-wait demeanor their counterparts Geetanjali(s)/Preeti(s) respond with an equally startling rejoinders which not many are cut out for. Any subdued reaction from the partner in love can outrightly turn their chemistry into a icy pretension. Together they make this manic hysterical love palpable and deserving of our affections too.

Now to the BGMs (background music), which ups the quotient for all the violent action unfolding. SRV’s USP is using BGMs for creating maximum wallop and at the same time, leaving a tingling lump, in their aftermath. My first brush with these earthy chilling BGM’s was in Arjun Reddy when after hearing about Preeti being abused by his football rival, Arjun starts off on a frenetic chase on his bike to the hostel, escorted by the roaring chorus of vada-vowvow-vowvow-vada-vow. It signaled the beginning of a new age of BGM’s that will make these segments epochal to the movie viewing experience. Now watching any other action movie without these tugging BGM’s seems almost incomplete and tasteless. And the personal taste of the director is very evident here as the choice of BGMs used is so diverse and distinctive. Arjan Vailly – a Punjabi song, Jamal Jamaloo – an Arabic song, Dolby Valya – a Marathi song, Dil Hi Chota Sa – a song from Roja – each song placed as a preparatory/ushering song for a character or for a scene and made to blend so seamlessly into the narrative.

Animal, as the movie title aptly states is a flawed individual, more animal than human. SRV has quoted before, that Anger for him is the most natural of all emotions and he seems determined to use that to portray the intense nature of his heroes. This on the brink of collapse, eccentric protagonist would be ideal for his kind of raging drama. Allowing him to not only burn the screen with their raw intensity, but the volatility of the hero will in turn keep the viewers guessing. For SRV, without this fiery heat, there is no pathway for the emotion to catch the spine.

Animal is neither seeking validation for its gut-wrenching violence nor begging acceptance of its unconventional lead. It is not a coerce, not even a trance, a sheer hound of storytelling using a clever combination of plot twists, plucky mannerisms and picture-perfect casting that keeps upping the testosterone of actors and the spectators.

Akin to how Novak Djokovic has managed to dismantle the tennis status quo in just a few years, SRV has managed to disrupt the entire Bollywood formulaic factory pipeline with just 3 movies. Animal is mindless mayhem if it does not grab you and endless exhilaration if it seeps unto you.

Looking at some of the criticism that this movie generated, I am reminded of the celebrated dispute between American novelist Henry James and British science fiction author H G Wells. What started as a friendship between both the writers, ended in an acrimonious fallout on the purpose of art, in general and literature, in particular. For James, literature is an end in itself and does not need to be judged on its value to the society. Characters drive the plot and they in turn decide the structure that is needed to tell the story and not the other way round. Well, for Wells, this was nonsense. Structure meaning society/reality is the foundation that drives art and literature like architecture is a means, it has a use. Wells, who was trained as a biologist, valued writing by its usefulness in the service of truth. This disagreement about art for art’s sake or in the service of shaping life is an age old conundrum and Sandeep’s movie brings that dispute out into the public domain again.