Monkey Man (2024) Review!!

Synopsis – An anonymous young man unleashes a campaign of vengeance against the corrupt leaders who murdered his mother and continue to systemically victimize the poor and powerless.

My Take – Though he started off his career as a skinny teen in the controversial E4 teen British series Skins (2007–2013), it was the lead role in director Danny Boyle‘s Oscar winning drama Slumdog Millionaire (2008) that catapulted Dev Patel to international stardom.

And while he continued to gain acclaim for his leading roles in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2011), Lion (2016), The Man Who Knew Infinity (2016), The Personal History of David Copperfield (2019) to name a few, his status mostly hurt with the box office failures of The Last Airbender (2010), Chappie (2015), and The Green Knight (2021).

With his latest, which also marks his debut as a feature writer, producer and director, Dev Patel takes another blockbuster film-making by adapting a straightforward revenge-plot and going bonkers with it.

Dropped by Netflix before it was picked up by Jordan Peele and Universal, the resulting film, which is laced with Hindu mythology and sociopolitical themes, is a really enjoyable and extravagantly violent actioner with enough heart to elevate it above the ordinary.

Acting as India’s answer to John Wick, the flick simply proves Patel‘s untapped potential in the industry. From its cinematography to practical effects, his film strives to be the best of the best in the action genre.

Yes, it doesn’t reinvent the sub-genre as it wears it influences from 90s Indian cinema to recent Indonesian actioners on its sleeves, but it has enough blood and thrills to win over and make new fans.

Considering its anti-Indian Nationalist elements, it is unsurprising that the film is struggling to find a release date in India as it pointedly echoes a fictionalized version of Modi-led India. But regardless of its (truthful) views, the film indeed makes for a force filled directorial debut from Patel.

Set in the fictional Indian city of Yatana, the story follows a scrappy slum-dweller and rookie fighter known simply as the Kid (Dev Patel), who, while wearing a crude monkey mask, lives one brutal beating at a time at an underground fight club, hosted by Tiger (Sharlto Copley).

Scarred both figuratively and literally, the Kid’s only goal in life is to avenge the brutal death of his mother Neela (Adithi Kalkunte), and to do that he must first gain access to a luxury brothel/ nightclub that serves the corrupt wealthy elite of the city and is presided over by the formidable, foul-mouthed madam named Queenie Kapoor (Ashwini Kalsekar).

Using the alias “Bobby” from a cleaning product, he passes through and befriends Alphonso (Pitobash), a wisecracking drug dealer, and Sita (Sobhita Dhulipala), a sex worker who not only sees him, but recognizes his pain and anger.

But all he wants to do is work his way up to the big shots, the VIPs and underworld power brokers, to get to Rana Singh (Sikandar Kher), the corrupt and sadistic chief of police, who massacred the villagers of his village in order to acquire their land and ultimately his boss, Baba Shakti, (Makarand Deshpande), a religious leader and biggest power broker in the country.

Sure, it sounds like a typical Indian revenge potboiler which were famous back in the 80s and 90s, but thankfully, director Dev Patel oozes it with enough style and substance to make it stand out from the rest. The neon-drenched, sleaze-sodden fictional city of Yatana is made a place where power and money pollute, and where the poor are not just invisible, they are regarded as being less than human and little more than animals.

Director Patel and his co-writers Paul Angunawela and John Collee (Hotel Mumbai) expertly takes this idea and runs with it, by incorporating the Indian caste system and class divisions into the story and drawing from the Hindu legend of the monkey-faced demigod Hanuman.

Agreed, not a wholly original concept: with themes of underdogs, tooth for a tooth and hunter versus hunted, but director Patel brings a fan’s appreciation of the genre to his film-making. The film when it comes to violence and gore, doesn’t hold back and goes completely unhinged, using nearly anything it can find as a weapon.

With Sharone Meir as the cinematographer, the duo combines to do some interesting work with the camera during the action moments. The fights scenes, especially as the film progresses and our protagonist improves, are dynamic and kinetic, it never stops moving. But there are enough quiet, still, thoughtful moments here to raise this film above the usual chaff.

The flashback scenes are filled with warmth and beauty and show his real eye as a director with A-list ambitions. The film also refers tangentially to tribal land grabs and slum clearances, and to a simmering Modi-esque culture of division and hostility, but is effective enough.

Performances wise, as the star of the film, Dev Patel embodies the character with such emotion, not many others could possibly think of playing him. While you won’t hear much dialogue from Kid, he really expresses himself in his actions and you learn a lot about him as a person through these. Sikander Kher, Ashwini Kalsekar and Makarand Deshpande are truly sinister.

Sobhita Dhulipala, Adithi Kalkunte and Pitobash make for effective supporting characters who deserved more screen time. Sharlto Copley proves once again why he deserves to be on screen more often. Vipin Sharma is a standout as a trans character whose inclusion makes for a fascinating decision. On the whole, ‘Monkey Man’ is a stylish bloody revenge thriller that is visceral and breathlessly violent.