Karan Johar says he cried at the end of Animal, calls it the year’s best film

Karan Johar has showered high praise on Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s Animal. The filmmaker, who was present at the Mega Pan India Roundtable 2023 organized by Galatta Plus, with Sandeep Reddy Vanga seated just beside him, said that Animal is the best film of the year, and its success is a ‘game-changer.’ (Also read: Triptii Dimri talks about intimate scene with Ranbir in Animal; recalls thinking her ‘small role won’t even be noticed’)
At the roundtable conversation, Karan Johar said: “People have come up to me after I spoke about how much I loved Animal, and said, ‘You have made Rocky Aur Rani,’ That’s the vaccination for a film like Animal. It’s the opposite extreme. I said that I cannot disagree with you more, because Animal to me is the best film of the year. It took me a while to reach to this statement and a lot of courage because when you are around people, you fear judgment. Like during the time of Kabir Singh, which I also loved… I was like I am going to say this and I am going to get dirty looks from certain people but I don’t care anymore.”
The director then detailed why he loved the Ranbir Kapoor-starrer so much. “I loved Animal for its front-footed, absolutely conviction-based narrative storytelling, breaking grammar, breaking myths, breaking everything that you think conforms to mainstream cinema. Suddenly you have an interval block where the hero is getting bashed up and everyone’s singing a song… I am like, ‘Where have you seen a sequence like this?’ It’s genius. The end, where the two men are going for each other and they play that song… I had tears in my eyes, but there was only blood. So I was like something is wrong with me or something is wrong with him, but something put together is very right about this film. This is not an average thinking mind. This is a mind of someone who is so distinct, so individualistic that I was blown away. I saw the film twice, first to see as an audience member and second to study it. I think the success, and acceptance of Animal is game-changing. The conviction is something that I want to have.”
Animal revolves around a troubled father-son relationship, and has Ranbir in the role of Rannvijay Singh, who goes on to exact revenge after there’s an assassination attempt on his father. In the climax of Animal, Rannvijay and Abrar fight each other and Rannvijay ultimately kills Abrar. Apart from Ranbir and Bobby, Anil Kapoor, Rashmika Mandanna, Shakti Kapoor, Triptii Dimri, Prithviraj, and Siddhant Karnick also star in the film. It has grossed over ₹ 500 crore at the domestic box office.