What Is An Ethical Movie?

"Animal" movie released. and something finally triggered me to give me my opinion on it.

This is more of an opinion rather than a review. Read it through that narrative.

Now, not everyone I know was able to watch this, because this was A rated. Most people think it's due to the violent scenes and the overly intimate scenes, but there's a bigger reason, that is:

Influence.

We have reached a time where not many movies always feature an anti-hero, especially Bollywood. We have always recieved heroes which are always right, they do the right thing every time.

And Humans? No, we don't always do that. We have never always been right, the religious have their own path to stay, they do what they feel is ethical. But we always end up doing something wrong at the end of the day, regardless of whom we idolise or follow.

This movie might be labelled as peak misogyny due to how Ranvijay treats his own wife, even though it isn't fully pushing an abusive narrative. All it does is promote the narrative of equality on every part of a relationship, especially when something goes wrong.

He does many wrong things here, just like we do. Falling for vengeance, taking the ideology of revenge and service too far and too seriously, not apologising at the right time and much more.

But we fail to realise that this movie does not promote Ranvijay as a hero, but rather as what happens to someone who takes masculinity too seriously and doesn't realise when it turns toxic, what happens when no-one stops you when you go wrong and start to treat the behaviour as a new normal.

Regardless of whoever he turns into, he pushes body positivity onto his wife, he shows that skepticism regarding anyone, even a family member is viable and not something that should be treated as a weird behaviour. He works on himself and dreams to be independent. He promotes a masculine body and accepting it. He also does many hypocritical things, such as prioritising trust but breaking his own wife's trust by cheating on her, doing what's convenient for him and never prioritising any other perspective.

The main point comes down to, this movie wasn't just rated A because of the violent graphics, bloodshed, intimacy. But due to influence, so no 10 year old kid walks out of the theatre thinking it's okay to idolise someone like Ranvijay. A narcissist, a misogynist and a hypocrite. No, no-one wants that, even the characters in the movie disregard Ranvijay's toxic behaviour. We are all so tired of always trying to be the right person, that we forget to see the hint of relatability this movie gives to us.

He's a morally grey character, although this movie pushes the extremes of this idea. We all are morally grey. We do things convenient to us, we choose whom we want to grow closer to, we stay where we want to, we always try to fulfil our egos. If you deny any of this, you're lying to yourself.

The title "Animal" describes this movie perfectly. Uncivilized, sometimes social, ravenous - for food and revenge. Variety of breed. Sometimes right, sometimes wrong.

And never calm, but sometimes tame.

This is, indeed, one of the most unique films to be ever made. Even though it certainly wasn't the best.