Lyricist-singer-actor Swanand Kirkire, who is known for his work in ‘Barfi’, ‘Parineeta’, ‘Three of Us’, ‘Qala’ and others, has strongly criticised the recently released Ranbir Kapoor-starrer film ‘Animal’ over its treatment of women.
The singer-actor recently took to his X, formerly Twitter, and strongly condemned the film and the story treatment that he feels is a stepping stone into making way for a different breed of men – “scary men” that women in the society will have to deal with.
He started by mentioning old movies that focused on women’s issues and had helped him gain a better understanding of the opposite gender.
He wrote in Hindi, “Mehboob Khan’s – ‘Aurat’, Gurudutt’s – ‘Saheb Biwi Aur Ghulam’, Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s – ‘Anupama’, Shyam Benegal’s ‘Ankur and Bhumika’, Ketan Mehta’s ‘Mirch Masala’, Sudhir Mishra’s ‘Main Zinda Hoon’, Gauri Shinde’s ‘English Vinglish’, Behl’s ‘Queen’, Sujit Sarkar Ki ‘Piku’ etc, There are many such films in Hindustani cinema which taught me how to respect a woman, her rights and her autonomy and how, after understanding everything, there are still many shortcomings in this age-old thinking. I don’t know whether I succeeded in understanding woman or not, but even today I am constantly trying to improve myself.”
He went on: “All thanks to cinema. But today after watching the movie Animal, I really felt pity for the women of today’s generation. Today again a new man has been prepared for you, who is more scary, who does not respect you at all and who aims to subdue you and suppress you, and he feels that it is his objective as a man to feel proud of doing these things.”
He further shared that the young women today were seated in the movie theatre, cheering when on Rashmika’ character’s treatment: “The girls of today’s generation were sitting in that cinema hall and applauding when Rashmika was being beaten. I, in my mind, paid homage to every idea of equality. I have come home. Desperate, dejected and weak.”
“Ranbir’s dialogue in which he defines alpha male and says that men who are not able to become alpha, they become poets to attract women and start making promises of bringing the moon and stars to them. I am a poet. I do poetry for a living. Do I have a place? This film is making a lot of money and the glorious history of Indian cinema is being embarrassed,” he added.
‘Animal’, which stars Ranbir Kapoor in dual roles, has set the cash registers ringing for the exhibitors and distributors. While the film continues to mint money at the box-office, it has also been panned by a certain section of the audience and the critics over its misogynistic themes, violence and incoherent writing.