The Plot: A man only known as Kid (Dev Patel) hasn’t had an easy journey on the road of life. He lost an important family member at a young age, leaving his hands scarred along with his mind. He has grown up on the city streets, eking out a sort-of living working odd jobs. With the help of promoter Tiger (Sharlto Copley), he also moonlights as an underground streetfighter in the ring, where he wears a gorilla mask to hide his identity and becomes known as Monkey Man. There is much rage within him. He will need to focus that rage as he infiltrates the inner crime rings of the city to get closer to his mark…
The Verdict: After the resounding success of Slumdog Millionaire, it would have been easy for Dev Patel to rest on his laurels. However, he has been busily working away choosing interesting character roles like in The Green Knight and The Personal History Of David Copperfield. He’s a talented actor who is continuously developing and exploring new options in the industry, expanding into an executive producer role on recent Oscar nominee To Kill A Tiger. Now meet Dev Patel the co-writer and director of Monkey Man, his directorial debut. It was originally set for a Netflix-only release before Jordan Peele was mightily impressed enough to support and guide it into cinemas. It’s not hard to see what impressed Peele – this is a film that revels in its exploration of Indian street culture and mythology while keeping its beady eye on the target.
The film’s description as ‘John Wick in Mumbai’ is apt, considering that the dog-loving, seemingly bullet-proof hitman is name checked early on. It’s a reference point for Patel, given that the frenetic and balletic fight choreography tips its hat to its predecessor. That’s about all though, as Patel and his co-writers Paul Angunawela and John Collee spin-off the story in other directions to take in the Hindu god Hanuman who comes in the form of a monkey, devious police corruption and shady political shenanigans that impact the lives of those less fortunate like Kid. There’s some backstory involving Kid’s youth, hinting at the personal tragedy that has left him a broken man. However, Kid is putting the pieces back together and reinforcing them so that he’s strong enough to take on the elite who look down on him like an insect. He’s a cautious and patient wild animal in an urban jungle, holding back until the right moment to strike against his opponents.
And strike he does, with Patel marshalling his cracking Indonesian and Indian crews to deliver a knockout punch of a film. Monkey Man doesn’t monkey about, setting out its colourful stall with the tried and tested confidence of a more seasoned director. Apart from one action sequence involving a stubborn window, this is a humourless affair that wears gritty intensity on its sleeve like a badge of honour. Patel plunges the audience into a seedy world of those with power and the powerless underneath them. There’s a wonderful sense of time and place on display here, leading up to an election during the Diwali festival. Patel’s direction is firmly focused throughout, keeping his vengeful character in check while also portraying him as vulnerable and relatably human (something that John Wick sometimes lacked as he took on god-level status). Amidst the bone-crunching lashings of the old ultra-violence (well-staged and impactful), there’s a heartbeat steadily ticking away. The pacing in the film is just right too.
Monkey Man is a vibrant slice of pulpy genre cinema, much more at home on the big screen where little details of Indian culture are as noticeable as the more obvious ones. Actors turning their hand to directing can often have mixed results and can take a few goes before hitting their stride. Patel is moving to his own beat here though, taking all his experience in the film industry onboard and channelling it in the right direction so that he’s already several steps ahead in the evolution of his talent. Should he decide to continue directing, then it will be intriguing to see what he has to offer next. Recommended.
Rating: 4 / 5
Review by Gareth O’Connor
In short: A knockout
Directed by Dev Patel.
Starring Dev Patel, Sharlto Copley, Pitobash, Sobhita Dhulipala.