The film ‘Animal’ starring Ranbir Kapoor, Boby Deol, and Anil Kapoor in lead roles has created a storm at the box office. The film has received appreciation for the performances of the lead actors and is breaking all box office records. However, the Sandeep Reddy Vanga directorial has also received criticism over the ‘glorification’ of violence, toxicity and misogyny. In a recent interview with Zoom Entertainment, actress Mansi Taxak, who plays one of the wives of actor Bobby Deol’s character Abrar, defended the marital rape scene saying that it was to depict the character’s animal instincts.
During the interview, Mansi was asked specifically about the wedding scene in Animal, in which Abrar learns of his brother’s death. He begins by killing the messenger before viciously assaulting Mansi’s character, the youngest of his three wives. Following that, he gestures for his other two wives to join them in the bedroom and continues to abuse them also.
“It is shocking, of course. Nobody expects their wedding to end that way. When the wedding sequence starts, if you see the lights and the way the art was done, it was beautiful. You hear the music, that has gone so viral on Instagram. It was heading towards a beautiful end, and suddenly, you see something like this happening,” Mansi said.
“It was to tell the audience that an animal is coming, if you thought Ranbir was this way, you can expect the villain to be (worse). It was an apt way to establish Bobby Sir’s character and to show the audience what real animal we’re talking about. I would not wish that to happen at my wedding ever”, the actress continued.
Mansi Taxak further lauded Bobby Deol’s performance saying that he was ‘commendable’ in the scene. When asked about the backlash over the film’s portrayal of women, Mansi said that her character was in love with Abrar. The actress denied that any assault transpired in the scene.
“If you see the scene before that, the wedding scene, if you see the sort of chemistry that we have, the eye contact that we have… It tells you the back story, that besides their differences, their age, and their careers, they do love each other, and that’s why they’re getting married. I completely get where people are coming from, but that was not the intent. It was not the intent to show that any sort of assault was happening. It was just that Bobby sir did not expect his brother’s death news to come at the wedding, which puts the character into a zone where he couldn’t think straight. And that’s what we’re talking about, right? Animal instincts are unpredictable instincts. So he goes into that zone, and to vent out his emotions, he comes to his wives. I don’t think it was intended to be any sort of assault. I didn’t feel it on the set, or in the script. That was not the case. It was just a relationship between two people that has panned out the way it did,” Mansi Taxak said.
Interestingly, right after defending the marital rape scene and denying any assault, Mansi Taxak asserted that cinema is a reflection of society. “You know… cinema is a reflection of society, so when you see these kinds of scenes onscreen, it is actually happening in the society and there are people who are doing these things to their spouses…their wives….”
#Animal is SENSATIONAL… Packs an EXTRAORDINARY TOTAL in Week 1…
— taran adarsh (@taran_adarsh) December 8, 2023
⭐️ Third biggest *7 days* of all time.
⭐️ Biggest *7-day* total for a film released on non-holiday.
⭐️ Biggest *7-day* total for a film that faced a clash with another film.
⭐️ Highest grossing ‘A’ certified film.… pic.twitter.com/4YcQiC2NcH
Film ‘Animal’, directed by Sandeep Reddy Vanga and starring Ranbir Kapoor, Rashmika Mandanna, Bobby Deol, Anil Kapoor, and Triptii Dimri, among others, was released on December 1.
