Disclaimer: This article contains major spoilers for the film ‘Animal’.
Jumping straight to the point – do we all agree that ‘Animal’ is a film about some very bad people doing some very bad things throughout the entire time? I mean, there is not a single character in this film that is ‘good’. Be it Vijay (played by Ranbir Kapoor) or Balbir Singh (played by Anil Kapoor) or Geetanjali (played by Rashmika Mandanna) or Abrar (played by Bobby Deol) – all of them are various shades of evil, inhumane and ruthless.
So, when Bobby Deol, in a recent interview, called the character of Abrar a “family man”, I kinda took a backseat because…dude what?! The man raped his newly-wed wife number 3 right after killing a man! He further went on to say that he doesn’t think of Abrar as a villain and that he is “romantic”.
Somebody hold me I’m gonna faint.
“I didn’t think of my character as a villain. I saw my character as a child who was traumatised when he saw his grandfather committing suicide, so he loses his voice. He swears to avenge his grandfather’s death. He is very family-oriented. He is also romantic, he has three wives. He can kill and also get killed for his family,” Hindustan Times quoted Bobby Deol saying.
It’s bad enough that the film shows its characters doing some pretty horrible things with complete impunity. Must the actors who play these characters romanticize them too?