‘Animal’ trailer: Ranbir Kapoor embarks on a warpath of revenge

Ranbir Kapoor in ‘Animal’

The trailer for Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s hotly-anticipated action drama Animal was released by the makers on Thursday.

A violent crime saga, the film stars Anil Kapoor and Ranbir Kapoor in the role of father and son. Rashmika Mandanna essays the female lead opposite Ranbir while Bobby Deol is the main scenery-chewing antagonist.

As detailed in the trailer, Ranbir plays a rich, sheltered brat in Animal named Arjun who grows up seeking the approval of his father, industrialist Balbir Singh (Anil Kapoor). Arjun is simultaneously in awe of Balbir and traumatised by his strictness and emotional unavailability. This tangle of feelings festers into something dark and dangerous as Arjun returns years later and starts a gang war with his dad’s rivals. He also marries Geetanjali (Mandanna), who describes her husband’s blind adoration for his father as pathological. When Balbir is shot and critically injured by unseen assailants on the golf course, Arjun embarks on a bloody warpath that takes him to Bobby Deol’s unspeaking nemesis.

The trailer of Animal does not hold back on the bloodshed and brutality, with a standout shot featuring Ranbir astride a Gatling machine. Vanga’s last Hindi film, Kabir Singh (2019), a remake of his own Telugu-language Arjun Reddy (2017), was a commercial hit despite criticism of glorifying misogyny and toxic masculinity. At the time, the filmmaker had said in an interview that Animal would dial up the violence from his last feature. “I will show (the critics) what a violent film will be,” the director had pledged.

Animal is written by Vanga, his elder brother Pranay Reddy Vanga and Suresh Bandaru with dialogue by Saurabh Gupta. The film has been granted an ‘A’ (adults only) certificate by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC). It is produced by T-Series Films, Bhadrakali Pictures and Cine1 Studios.

Tripti Dimri, Suresh Oberoi, Siddhant Karnick, Prem Chopra and Shakti Kapoor are also featured in the cast of Animal.  The film has seven songs in multiple versions composed by Pritam, JAM8, Vishal Mishra, Jaani, Manan Bhardwaj, Shreyas Puranik and others. The background score is by Harshavardhan Rameshwar. The film’s release was earlier pushed due to pending post-production.

With a hefty runtime of 3 hours and 21 minutes, Animal is set to release theatrically in Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam on December 1.