There’s no denying that Dev Patel gives everything to “Monkey Man.” There may be a little excess and the balance may not be perfect but it’s a quality that can be felt in entertainment that is far too often manufactured. In the opening of the film, the writer, producer, actor, director and the man who got himself injured while shooting this one gave a tribute to his inspirations Bruce Lee, Sammo Hung, the Raid, Korean and Indian action and many more. This explains why ‘Monkey Man’ often feels like a one-man show trying to squeeze all his ideas into one film before he loses the opportunity. A truly disastrous production that began before Covid–Patel said the movie would have been perfectly fine without Peele–makes the fact that “Monkey Man” even exists seem almost divine and yes, that unfiltered energy has its positive effects. When “Monkey Man” manages to get into a rhythm, B Plane’s remarks make sense. When “Monkey Man” stumbles, they will be viewed as a consequences of the director’s desperate urgency to be different corporately in a world where there are so many other action film monkeys.
Driven by the Hanuman mythology, “Monkey Man” includes Patel’s fighting character, ‘Kid’ as uncredited. He fights in a ring wearing a gorilla mask and is managed by a sleazy promoter played by Sharlto Copley who pays him false hopes. Most nights he fails and goes back out getting paid for the possibility of free camels. Also, first impressions suggests a skinny dude, as Patel character hides the effects of these injuries behind an intimidating pair of eyes, a self-assured demeanor that convinces this kid that nothing will prevent him from achieving greatness.
Out of desperation, the kid is hired as a bouncer at a prestigious establishment that is a hangout for the city’s heavyweights such as Sikandar Kher (the chief of police who ruined his life) abounding in political clout. Supporting actors begin to appear on the screen, Yearning and Sobhita Dhulipala include a shy bystander who gets involved in the scheme and Pitobash. This is however Patel’s film. It’s one where we see a journey with a character regardless of past or future who features in almost every scene as ordinary until he becomes completely devoid of empathy.
On the same note , the adherents to ‘Monkey Man’ who expect heaps of fighting throughout the movie, will be shocked at the arrangement. In its most simplistic terms, there is one long action section with a lot of tying up followed by an action section, and repeat. Apart from the combatants participating in the fighting and a lot of martial art training, ‘Monkey Man’ has them apart from two significant sections. However, the action sequences were certainly worth the wait. Patel has cherry-picked action blueprints from every corner of the globe and married them into an unrelenting savagery that you will hardly find in films emblazoned with the Hollywood racket. ‘Monkey Man’ is a torrent of blood, blood and more blood. Bones snap, blood erupts, and the concussive impact is one that rarely one experiences in this day and age of action movies where too much drama has forced everything into a highly choreographed mess such as ‘John Wick’ or ‘Mission: Impossible’. The editing in tandem is still crisp, but it is not solely a constant WHAM. Addin has dominated the set and everything is in place to disperse calls for more logic: combine the seasoned fight choreography with lots of scrappy, ludicrous fight scenes. It’s mind-numbingly fun and unpredictable. No wonder it would be impossible to look away. The whole creative frenzy is backed off by editors David Jancso & Tim Murrell and cinematographer Sharone Meir capturing quite the image, keeps the camera fluid, loose and destruction like another fighter in the room.
It must be mentioned, though the action surpasses all other expectations, the movie does not quite hold its own in other departments. There are clearly issues which seem to have some political nuances and the learned amongst us would be able to write better on us whilst not me. But it is not sophisticated to know the past or present day issues of India to understand that the writer Patel has no sense of modesty in what he has put out. Religion, mythology, politics, equal rights–all these are integrated into this narration in a manner that would not only frustrate the details even the ignorant would appreciate. And then Patel uses flashbacks far too many times for less than an admirable purpose–the emotions that carry an audience through action scenes at the time when they should be focused on the action. What is also hilarious is that it is almost as if Patel the Director has the least faith in Patel the Actor because the story is littered with so many flashbacks to ‘just’ uphold the objective. Patel’s body language combined with the way his eyes, which are simultaneously incredulous to torture looking back on the past but resolute in rage, encapsulating everything all at once, have so much to tell.
The action patterns are done quite well by Patel’s editors, still the non-action parts of the film as well feel over-a bit hurried, again as some sort of an effort to keep the audience engaged when violence is not being portrayed. Patel doesn’t have to do that. This is a person who is clearly gifted both in front and behind the camera. I just have the feeling that “Monkey Man” will blow up. And within the consciousness of being a filmmaker who will get a chance to make the second, third, fourth films and even many more, such an over the board narrative and visualization will be refined to types that would be unheard of. “Monkey Man” might be the first part of the action series that will be driven by a different character, but in my view it is more the first part of the action star and action director.
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