By John Corrado

The directorial debut of actor Dev Patel, whose breakout role in Slumdog Millionaire was sixteen years ago, Monkey Man is a revenge thriller set in India that shows promise for him as an action filmmaker.

Patel stars in the film as Kid, a young man who makes cash getting beaten up in rigged fights at an underground fight club, where the house always wins. The promoter (Sharlto Copley) takes his cut, and tells him that he gets more “if he bleeds.”

He gets the nickname Monkey Man from the ape mask that he wears during fights, which is modelled after Hanuman. In flashbacks, we see Kid as a young boy, with his mother Neela (Adithi Kalkunte) telling him stories about Hanuman. The Hindu deity provides a mirror for the protagonist’s own journey.

Kid’s past ties into the revenge mission that he embarks upon, which involves infiltrating an elite nightclub and brothel run by Queenie (Ashwini Kalsekar) to get revenge on Rana Singh (Sikander Kher), a corrupt police chief with ties to his past. Meanwhile, a spiritual guru named Baba Shakti (Makarand Deshpande) has enthralled the country, while a nationalist leader is rising in the polls for an election on Diwali.

The film does run a little long at two hours, and is arguably overstuffed. The political subplot feels both underdeveloped and a little too convoluted, with the screenplay (co-written by Patel) trying to pack in critiques of rising Hindu nationalism that get somewhat lost in the shuffle. But Patel makes up for it by bringing a strong sense of style to the film. The fight scenes are well-choreographed, highlighted by Sharone Meir’s spinning cinematography and use of neon colours.

The action is where Patel’s direction shines the most. The fight scenes are like a cross between The Raid and John Wick (an arms dealer even tries to sell him a version of the “John Wick gun,” but one “made in China”). The action is brutal and nasty (Kid twists a knife in someone’s neck with his teeth), giving the film a visceral feel. It’s set to a pounding techno score by composer Jed Kurzel that also mixes in several popular songs.

If Patel’s film is almost too ambitious at times in terms of how much symbolism and mythology he tries to pack into the story, it’s somewhat understandable that he would want to put so much into his debut, which amounts to a bit of a passion project. Still, Monkey Man is at its best as a more straight-forward revenge movie. This allows Patel to show off his bona fides as an action star as well as his verve behind the camera. It’s a solid directorial debut for a very good actor.

Film Rating: ★★★ (out of 4)

Bonus Features (Blu-ray):

The Blu-ray disc boasts nearly an hour of bonus material, including deleted and alternate scenes and several featurettes on the production. A regular DVD is also included in the package, which ships with a shiny slipcover.

• Alternate Opening (3 minutes, 58 seconds)

• Alternate Ending (2 minutes, 46 seconds)

• Deleted/Extended Scenes (Play All – 22 minutes, 34 seconds)

• True Shakti (3 minutes, 27 seconds)

• Mother’s Death (4 minutes, 17 seconds)

• Training Montage (8 minutes, 30 seconds)

• Lucky Kid (51 seconds)

• Alphonso Death (4 minutes, 21 seconds)

• Post Credit Button (1 minute, 3 seconds)

• A Labor of Love (8 minutes, 44 seconds): An overview of the film’s production, from having to shoot in Batam, Indonesia instead of India due to the COVID pandemic, to Jordan Peele coming onboard as a producer after screening an early cut of the film.

• Monkey Man of Action (8 minutes, 34 seconds): Patel talks about bringing together the stunt team for the film, choreographing the action sequences, and actually breaking his hand on-set during one of the fight scenes.

• Fateful Encounters (7 minutes, 21 seconds): Several members of the supporting cast talk about their characters in the film.

• Roots Exposed (3 minutes, 2 seconds): A brief but interesting look at how the story of Hanuman ties into the film, and the cultural influences of both martial arts films and Bollywood cinema.

• Feature Commentary with Director/Actor/Writer/Producer Dev Patel, Producers Jomon Thomas and Sam Sahni, and Co-Producer Raghuvir Joshi

Monkey Man is a Universal Pictures Home Entertainment release. It’s 121 minutes and rated 14A.

Street Date: June 25th, 2024