★★★★½
Audiences are going ape for Monkey Man – writer/director/producer/star Dev Patel’s action movie triumph that channels Bruce Lee, The Raid, Bollywood and even a little bit of Jim Carrey to deliver a cinematic knockout. Monkey Man tweaks John Wick’s nose, and punches RRR in the balls.
One of the hottest tickets at this year’s SXSW festival, Monkey Man saw queues around the block and an emotional Dev Patel anxious to show the film to its first official public audience.
In the gritty underbelly of Yatana, a fictional city reminiscent of the hustle and bustle of Mumbai, an anonymous young man known as Kid (Patel) ekes out a meager living in an underground fight club. Night after night he plays the heel, enduring brutal beatings from more popular fighters, while wearing a menacing gorilla mask to conceal his true identity. For his pains, all he gets are bruises, bloodstains, and a slim fistful of cash. But Kid has a plan, driven by memories of the death of his mother, Neela. He sets out on a relentless journey of revenge, targeting the corrupt leaders responsible for Neela’s death. But as Kid seeks to exact vengeance, he unwittingly transforms into a savior for the poor and powerless people tormented by these same corrupt figures.
The legend of Hanuman, an icon embodying strength and courage, serves as inspiration for Kid’s quest. His scarred hands unleash an explosive campaign of retribution, settling the score with those who took everything from him. As childhood trauma boils over, Kid infiltrates the enclave of the city’s sinister elite, fueled by suppressed rage and guided by the memory of his mother Monkey Man weaves action, resilience, and soul into a gripping tale of justice and redemption.
Dev Patel has told of watching Bruce Lee through the bannisters as a child, and Monkey Man frequently plays homage to his hero, who so often played the little guy standing up to the man. But Patel mixes things up by sometimes evoking Jim Carrey or Harrison Ford in his body language, such as in one shot where he runs full tilt at a nightclub glass window, only to bounce off it haplessly. This is a winsome, physical, full-bloodied performance. Elsewhere Sharlto Copley is a standout as the slimy, sweaty boxing promotor who runs Kid’s rigged fights, and proudly beats his chest while praising Mother India and railing against the ‘whites’ to a baying crowd.
This was easily the best action movie of the festival. A multi-year passion-project from Patel, Monkey Man‘s ascend-the-tower plot channels Game of Death and The Raid to great effect. It explicitly pokes some good fun at John Wick, who gets a cheeky name check when Kid has to purchase a handgun (I guess they love the Wick movies in Yatana).
The hand-to-hand combat feels electric, sizzling with an energy that keeps viewers riveted. Kid kicks, shoots, and punches his way toward revenge with the stunt sequences incorporating everyday objects within grasping distance, adding a tactile creativity to the fights. Well-executed action set pieces build successfully on top of one another to the rhythm of the propulsive soundtrack, as the film moves towards its penthouse climax. One particular stabbing had me and my audience on our feet, hollering in appreciation. No spoilers, but my prediction is: Monkey Man delivers the kill of the year.
All of this is captured by cinematographer Sharone Meir, who brings the same kinetic energy to this that he brought to Damian Chazelle’s Whiplash. Meir’s camerawork is dynamic, from a low handhold shot chasing Patel through a cramped kitchen combat scene, throwing the audience into the intensity of the brawl, to a camera swinging over a Diwali crowd, seemingly dropped from the air, as if overcome by the celebrations. Elsewhere, shots of Kid seemingly drowning in a garbage-filled river are shot on Patel’s own iPhone, immersing the audience in the inky blackness.
Kid proves to be a vulnerable, breakable hero. The shoot is already renowned for the brutal toll it took on its star, but I can say: Dev Patel broke his hand, broke his foot and got an eye infection from a toilet floor so that we could live. Dev, it was worth it.
Physical injuries are not the only things than have held this film up. Among the behind-the-scenes trouble on this grueling Covid-hit shoot was a late decision from Netflix to withdraw from the project. Fortunately this allowed Jordan Peele’s Monkeypaw Productions to swoop in as saviors, pick up the film and take it to a theatrical release. Rumours are that an expansionist Netflix got cold feet regarding the villains of the movie, who are led by a populist politician who was (in the earliest images released) associated with the colour saffron. Audiences with some familiarity with Indian politics will know saffron is the colour of the BJP, who promote a particular brand of Hindu Nationalism known as Hindutva.
Critics of Hindutva argue that it often marginalizes religious minorities and emphasizes Hindu dominance, as well as catering the interests of the middle classes and business leaders as opposed to the poorer masses. Hindutva ideology has been described as permeating state apparatus, formal institutions, and civil society, with Hindu nationalist activists exerting control through vigilante groups, cultural policing, and sometimes violence to suppress dissent.
It is against this loaded backdrop that Patel’s hero, rising up in the name of folk hero Hanuman, decides to take down the corrupt politicians, police, and business owners who have made his life hell. So far, so explosive – so it was interesting that the film as released has digitally replaced the saffron banners and flags with red ones – the colour of the Indian Communist Party.
Some will doubtless be sad to see what seems like fearfulness. But I can say this – in the moment of watching the film, the colours of the flags didn’t matter to me because everything the populist politicians said and did reminded me of the Hindu Nationalists. It was so clearly a version of the BJP – right down to the Modi-esque grey moustache of the villainous wannabe national leader Baba Shakti (Makarand Deshpande) – that the digital alterations were effectively irrelevant. With the film’s climax counting down to a election during the festival of Diwali, the masses-rise-up-against-corruption themes of the plot, the look of the villain, and the populist nationalist rhetoric that comes out of his mouth, there can be no doubt who Patel’s targets are here.
All of this is very different to recent action Oscar-winning smash RRR, that aligned itself with Hindutva messaging to produce a profitably nationalistic picture that superficially opened its arms to a Muslim co-lead, while in practice sanding all the edges of his true historic persona, putting him firmly in second place dramatically and filling the triumphant final shot with flags and banners featuring, yes, Hindutva slogans. All of that got past most western critics, who were happily distracted by the film’s anti-colonial themes. For all RRR’s questionable content in that regard, Monkey Man is here to reset the balance.
Monkey Man, then, is a powerhouse action triumph that’s as heartwarming and crunchingly brutal as it is politically explosive. It marks Dev Patel out as a major talent – exactly what British cinema needs, although after this I suspect it will need him a lot more than he needs it. This is the level we need to consider Patel at now – much like his character, he has ascended to the the absolute top floor. Monkey Man blew the roof off. If the Broccolis had any sense they’d offer him Bond – not just as star, but as director.
As Dev Patel stood on stage after the credits had rolled, crying with joy at the standing ovation, it was clear that his real story was only just beginning.
Monkey Man played SXSW and thanks to Monkeypaw productions is on general release from 5 April US/UK.
Whitlock&Pope 