Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s highly anticipated gangster thriller movie ‘Animal’ will finally be released in theatres tomorrow. Much has been said about how Ranbir Kapoor has brilliantly essayed the role of a man who turns into a violent psychopath, the 500 kgs massive gun sequence, and Bobby Deol’s mute villain act in the film, etc.
One more aspect about ‘Animal’ is that it is one of the longest Indian movies ever made with a runtime of around 3 hours and 21 minutes. So, the golden question is: Will the film’s lengthy runtime deter a significant segment of audiences from visiting the theatres. Or, in other words, should fans be worried about Animal’s runtime? The answer is: both Yes and No. And here’s why we are saying that.
Speaking about Hindi language movies with the longest runtimes ever, two films namely J.P. Dutta’s star-studded war drama ‘LOC: Kargil’ and maestro filmmaker Raj Kapoor’s ambitious and timeless romantic drama ‘Mera Naam Joker’ top the list. The latter is now regarded as a cult classic. But unfortunately, both these films turned out to be big box office disappointments.
‘LOC: Kargil’ had a runtime of around 4 hours and 15 minutes, and ‘Mera Naam Joker’ had a runtime of around 4 hours and 4 minutes. Likewise, another film ‘Swades’ too was a box-office disappointment, and it had a runtime of 3 hours and 30 minutes.
On the brighter side however, between ‘Animal’ and ‘Mera Naam Joker’, there have been several other Indian films with long runtimes but despite that, they still became critically and commercially successful ventures. One fine example is Ashutosh Gowariker’s period sports film ‘Lagaan’, which had a runtime of around 3 hours and 44 minutes (23 minutes longer than even ‘Animal’).
Another example in the same category of “successful films with long runtimes” is Aditya Chopra’s second directorial venture (after DDLJ) – ‘Mohabbatein’. Despite a runtime of around 3 hours and 36 minutes, it became the highest grossing movie of the year 2000.
Similarly, some other examples of successful films with a longer runtime than ‘Animal’ are Karan Johar’s ‘Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna’ (3 hours and 35 minutes), ‘Jodhaa Akbar’ (3 hours and 34 minutes), Sooraj Barjatya’s family drama ‘Hum Aapke Hain Koun’ (3 hours and 26 minutes), and of course the cult action-drama movie ‘Sholay’ (3 hours and 24 minutes). All these movies had a runtime longer than ‘Animal’.
So, basically, it all depends on how good a film has been made along with lead performances and the film’s music, etc., for it to become successful. A longer runtime might adversely affect a film’s performance but only to a certain extent. Having said that, it looks like ‘Animal’ has ticked all the right boxes. The verdict will be out very soon!
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