Monkey Man is an evocative revenge picture that is clearly a passion project from Dev Patel, who makes his directorial debut, also sharing writing credit with Paul Angunawela and John Collee. He also stars as a nameless protagonist – credited simply as “Kid,” a name that doubles as a common nickname, but also one that showcases the state of mind that is stagnant, haunted by the memories of a massacre in his village as a young boy where his mother was brutally killed. So, he works his way to getting information and passage into the elite circles of Mumbai (though it is technically a fictional city in the film called Yatana – Hindi for torture, suffering).
What strikes our hero is the story of Hanuman, an apelike deity who is a central figure in the Hindu epic Ramayana. The story is told to him by his mother, and we get several flashbacks to the two of them both before and during the massacre. Images that reflect moments within the Hanuman story are often mirrored in Kid’s journey as he finds himself facing a Goliath-esque foe in corrupt commissioner Rana Singh (Sikandar Kher), who is in the pocket of Baba Shakti (Makarand Deshpande), a spiritual guru turned political influencer.
As far as directorial debuts go, Monkey Man is solid work. The earnest approach to the material is resonating, Dev Patel wears his influences on his sleeve, pulling from stuff like Hong Kong brawlers to South Korean revenge flicks to even having cinematographer Sharone Meir tap into a visual style that evokes the director of Patel’s film debut Slumdog Millionaire – Danny Boyle. It’s easy to compare this to John Wick due to the revenge nature and the emphasis on meticulously choreographed action, but the similarities just about end there.
Unfortunately, I am not fully convinced the film transcends that initial promise beyond a solid debut. The heart is certainly in the right place. But in its attempts to weave in social and political commentary largely fall flat. I was initially concerned that the film will unwittingly act as Hindutva propaganda, as Hanuman has in a sense been propped as an image used by the extreme right wing group, and there are some imagery and lines in the film that do come dangerously close to falling into that trap, which is weird to experience because the messaging is very much the opposite of the Hindutva agenda, Kid is very much about fighting for the voiceless and downtrodden.
If anything, the film pulls its punches. There are vague references to religious conflicts as mentioned on news reports, one montage shows what appears to be cell phone footage of actual attacks on minority individuals, but it doesn’t quite carry the weight it should. It feels very superficial, especially considering Kid doesn’t really frame his revenge as this act of taking down the ones in power in order to help the people suffering under the extremist regime, at least not until we’re past the halfway point. Up until then, it’s very much a singular goal to avenge his mother.
The third act incorporates a relationship he cultivates with a group of trans women who take shelter in a temple, and they are compelling when we do see them, but they ultimately feel like props to push his story forward. The same goes for the only other significant female character – who isn’t a villain – in the film, Sita (Sobhita Dhulipala) a human trafficking victim forced to operate as a sex worker. She has very little going on, with the only bit of agency in her character reserved for the obligatory lady-saves-hero-in-the-last-second-and-it’s-the-only-moment-of-action-she-is-a-part-of bit that we’ve seen a million times before, but it’s not as effective here because there is very little to her character for us to get invested by that moment.
The action is also hit-and-miss. I love how vicious it is, how brutal and bloody it is, and how Patel – and stunt coordinator Udeh Nans and fight choreographer Brahim Chab – also incorporate bits of comedy within the action. Unfortunately, the execution of these sequences range from glorious in its immediacy and impact, captured with great long takes and wide shots to sequences that are shot too close to comfort and full of unnecessary cuts. The worst is a car chase sequence that I honestly found near impossible to follow, with very little clarity in the flow of information from one shot to the next.
If you’re expecting this to be some kind of action extravaganza, it very much isn’t. There are really only two big setpieces, and a couple quick scenes in these underground fights where Kid earns some money, where he is bossed around by a sleazy Sharlto Copley. Most of the film is made up of repeated flashbacks, callbacks to the Hanuman story, and these dreamy interludes that seems to go for a Malick vibe, but unfortunately ends up closer to Iñárritu. It’s not especially propulsive, and doesn’t maintain the energy needed to compliment the fury that goes into the action scenes, which results in a couple dull stretches.
Since it is a directorial debut, I don’t feel like going to harsh on Monkey Man. I think Dev Patel clearly shows a lot of promise as a genre director, he pulls from a variety of influences, and he throws himself into the role so hard, putting so much literal blood, sweat, and tears into the project, even leaning on the Taekwondo training from his youth. I can’t help but admire so much of it, even if I found a lot of it kind of frustrating. I don’t want to suggest that the mere reference to Hindu mythology is inherently servicing the agenda of the Hindutva movement, it is more nuanced than that – though that will likely all be lost on most non-Indian viewers – but I also don’t think the film works strongly enough to really dig into that nuance. Not directly mentioning Modi, the BJP, any of these other oppressive forces that Kid is seemingly fighting for really detracts from the impact of the message, and simplifies things to a ridiculous degree. However, I am 100% sold on Dev Patel as an action lead, and I think he has the room and the ability to grow, and make something that is truly special and worthy of his talent.
Monkey Man is now out in theaters.