Dev Patel has been one of my favorite actors to watch since he splashed onto the scene in Slumdog Millionaire in 2008. Since then he has shown such a range as both an actor and in the types of roles that he selects, from works like Lion and Hotel Mumbai to The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and The Green Knight. But for his first film in the director’s chair, Patel has selected a genre that he hasn’t really worked in much as a performer. Monkey Man is a brutal action film that would make John Wick wince at times, but it’s also a politically charged look at a man born to think he was a nobody who must rise up in a world of powerful somebodies to receive something resembling justice.
Set in a fictional Indian city that very much is patterned after Mumbai, Patel plays a character simply known as Kid, who makes a meager living fighting (and often losing) in an underground fight club for a shady boss named Tiger (Sharlto Copley). Kid always wears a monkey mask during his fights, taking on the persona of Hanuman, a Hindu god whose shape is half-monkey, half-human. When he was a child, he was involved in an incident that resulted in his mother (Adithi Kalkunte) being killed and his hands being severely scared from burns, but the film doesn’t give us the details of said incident until deep into the running time. Instead, we get glimpses of memories and nightmares he has, reliving the trauma, growing up in a system the victimizes the poor and powerless regularly.
When he discovers that the person responsible is Rana (Sikandar Kher), the chief of police working for a religious leader (Makarand Deshpande), who is building up a cult-like following using unsavory methods, Kid works his way up the rungs of power, first working for a club owner named Queenie (Ashwini Kalsekar) and eventually getting close enough to wipe out small armies of lackeys in elaborately staged, explosive fight sequences that feature a great deal of blood, gore and loud punches—it turns out he was deliberately losing his fight-club bouts for cash; the dude can fight like few others. We’re supposed to side with Kid because he’s on a path of righteous retribution, but even the most energetic thrill seekers might find some issues with his methods.
Monkey Man has no shortage of non-punching action sequences as well, with a healthy dose of car chases, explosions, knife and gun showdowns, and immeasurable amounts of suppressed rage spilling forth. Patel has earned our sympathy because he’s so good at playing inherently good people, but Kid is dangerously close to becoming what he has observed for so long, and so we hope that the best parts of him don’t get lost on this savage journey. The film sometimes gets lost in its own style, which sometimes mimics the aforementioned John Wick movies a little too closely, and I wish Patel occasionally dialed down the emotional volume just enough to discover what Kid is like when he isn’t being enraged.
The film is produced by Jordan Peele, which would be cool if this were a horror film, so I’m not sure what we’re supposed to make of his involvement other than name recognition. The action is undeniably brutal and effective, and putting a microscope on Indian society is a tool I haven’t seen used in any recent action movie, but beyond that, the film doesn’t dig deep enough into the hearts and minds of its characters to help it rise above others in this genre.
The film is now playing in theaters.
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