Monkey Man Review

Dev Patel makes his directional debut with an ambitious Indian-set action film and already looks set to be a cult hit.

Kid (Patel) is an underground fighter who plans to infiltrate “Kings,” a luxury club and brothel for the elite of Yatana. He aims to get revenge against the people who killed his mother (Adithi Kalkunte) and evicted his people from their land. However, Kid will have to take on some of the most powerful and influential people in the city and all of India.

Monkey Man had a troubled production. It was set to film in India in 2020 but the Pandemic forced the production to move to Indonesia, lost the original production designer and cinematographer before principal photography, and Patel said he had to beg the financier not to pull funding. Patel admitted that Monkey Man was a gruelling nine-month shoot and it seemed to be destined for Netflix. Monkey Man was able to gain a theatrical release thanks to Jordan Peele and his production company Monkeypaw Productions since they have a first-look deal with Universal and Peele convinced Universal to give the film a theatrical release. All this effort was worth it for audiences.

Monkey Man will be compared to the John Wick series. John Wick was seen as a game changer action film since it brought back brutality to mainstream action films and was creative with their action sequences. Monkey Man did look to John Wick for inspiration. The film even referred to John Wick when Kid went to an underground dealer to buy a gun. The first John Wick film was also a revenge tale and Monkey Man’s action sequences felt like they could have fitted in the John Wick series. Monkey Man wasn’t a constant action film, there were long stretches without any fisty-cuffs, but when the action did happen it was extensive. One of the action sequences started as a gruelling fight in a bathroom and went on to become a chase involving a tuk-tuk and Kid having to fight an axe-wielding pimp. It was glorious for an action junkie.

Monkey Man wanted to be more than a bloody action since it had grander storytelling ambitions. This put Monkey Man in the realm of art-house action. Early in the film Kid was told the story of Hanuman and showed how Kid’s revenge mission mirrored the fable. The legend presented in the film was Hanuman a monkey god who burnt his hands when trying to touch the sun, was punished by the gods after which Hanuman sets out to take down the gods. Monkey Man was a film filled with references to Indian and Hindu mythology. This made Monkey Man like 2011’s Hanna which was a fairy tale-inspired spy actioner that had references to the works of the Brothers Grimm.

Monkey Man also looked at socio-political issues affecting India. The film went to great pains to set up the context for the film. In the background was an election with the Sovereign Party leading the polls. The Sovereign Party was supported by a controversial religious figure, and they were stoking up sectarian violence, so they were a substitute for Narendra Modi and the BJP. The film highlighted the wealth divide in India. Kid came from a maligned rural community whose land was forcibly confiscated and when he moved to the city, he lived in the slums. This was contrasted with the grand colonial buildings and glitzy skyscrapers in the city that were dominated by the rich and powerful. The film highlighted how this divide with the streets filled with impoverished people amidst all the glamour. Monkey Man wasn’t just a personal revenge film, it was about the poor and disenfranchised revolting against the people who exploit them.

Monkey Man explored some of the issues affecting India. There was corruption by showing how the police could be bribed by the wealthy and the criminals, and get them to act as their enforcers. This corruption extended to the realm of politics. The other major issue that was addressed was sex trafficking and exploitation. The women at Kings were from India, Southeast Asia, and Eastern Europe, and Kid did have a rapport with Sita (Sobhita Dhulipala), one of the ‘entertainers’ at Kings. She warns Kid that he will need to harden up if he wants to work at Kings. When Kid went on the run one of the locations he ended up in was a low-rent brothel, so showing that sexual exploitation affected all strata of society. There was an underlying danger throughout the film for most of the women in the film.

Monkey Man was a film that showed it could have its cake and eat. It was an action film with substance, working as a piece of bloody entertainment and offering a lot of food for thought.