Originally posted by: Maroonporsche
Animal - The BOX OFFICE Stands Tall Against the Negativity
Thursday 07 December 2023 15.30 IST Box Office India Trade Network
Animal is turning out to be one biggest blockbusters post the pandemic and probably the most universal one from the Hindi film industry as the numbers are great across North, West, Central, East and South. Gadar 2 was lacking in South and the Shahrukh Khan starrers Jawan and Pathaan were lacking in Central and parts of North and West.
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In terms of a MASS BLOCKBUSTER its second only to Gadar 2 and up there pretty close to KGF 2 but KGF 2 was not from the Hindi film industry. When we talk about mass its taken from a content point of view when thats not the case. MASS has nothing to do with content but its about reaching the core of India and this is where most of India lives and Animal has done that in a big way. Also when you reach this mass there is some longevity to your film as you are reaching a huge population. In simpler terms MASS is VOLUME and lets say for example an insane miracle happens and even trash like Thank You For Coming reaches this population then even that would be MASS though rest assured GOD will not let this happen.
Sadly there are negative voices in Mumbai be it in parts of the industry and the media and even the audience is getting blamed for endorsing such content. There may be an overdose of sex and violence in the film but that is not the reason for the success of the film. The fact is you are with the protagonist straight away in the film and when this happens it pretty much allows the protagonist to get away with anything. The film has that testosterone and masculinity which is a must for a film the if mass is to really come on board.
The last twenty years or so has seen the Hindi film hero become feeble and in general pretty feminine. Obviously not every film but generally thats been the case and it had to change sooner or later and the pandemic has made it sooner and its just in time as the fact is whether its accepted or not much of this industry was and is going the WOKE way. There are no issues with being woke as people as each to his own but as much as you try the mass audiences will not let cinema go that way so its best to smell the coffee now rather than hit the disaster button. Basically this wokeness cannot come into cinema as its a recipe for disaster.
The fact there are voices against Animal within the fraternity at a time when the industry is still in horrible shape shows how personal thoughts take precedence over the well being of the film industry. There may have been some huge hits this year and other supporting hits which makes it a look a good year on the face of it but the production sector activity is hardly there with so few films going on the floors. There maybe the usual media news of this film being made and that film being made but a lot of these projects will not happen and there is not much on the floors at present.
Animal may be called a toxic film but credit has to be given to the director that he made a film which allowed the toxicity to flourish. The backbone is there in relationships and well defined characters and how music pushes the narrative. In the industry you have people struggling to put music in movies and here is a director taking the biggest action scenes of the film forward with music and that too superhit songs.
Ranbir Kapoor is likeable actor in most of his films but still you need a character and play that character well to take that likeability forward to another level as he would have been likeable in Brahamstra and Tu Jhooti Main Makkaar but there the characters would not hold the same appeal as Animal. This is meant from a cinema point as to what the audience likes to see on the big screen, in real life these characters may well be hated but cinema is not real life. Again here the director has to be credited with the filmmaking and story telling for making the toxic (so called) character liked to this level
The industry has to get with it and understand that the demands of cinema today is testosterone heavy movies with masculine heroes and we dont mean masculine in terms of body builders and they must have a antagonist or antagonists against them. If the media is negative on them so be it as that hardly matters as its the box office which is ultimate and will drown the negativity. At the end of the day its about getting the house back in order and not go by what the media or woke lot will see as right and wrong. When the film is right the box office will stand tall against the negativity as with the case of Animal and that is all what matters.
The cynics of Animal can have their orgasms over things like The Archies and luckily for them the audience will not be giving their mandate which would have been a toxic as well. Here you can have perception play but nobody is fooled today. Whether the industry likes it or not the director of Animal Sandeep Reddy Vanga is today the biggest director in the Hindi film industry and it is Animal which has put him on this pedastal.
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