REVENGE IN BLACK: Dev Patel in “Monkey Man”. Photo: UIP
Did you know that Dev Patel can kick is? Well, he can.
Friday 5 April at 20:43
ACTION
«Monkey Man»
Premiere at the cinema on Friday 5 April
USA. 15 years. Directed by: Dev Patel
Med: Dev Patel, Sharlto Copley, Sikandar Kher, Sobhita Dhulipala, Pitobash
It’s fine with the action film, as it is with the horror film, that it only takes a tiny bit of adjustment to be able to make the basically the same film time and time again – and still get away with it.
A fairly viable new idea. Or something as simple as a change of environment. “Monkey Man”, a completely straight, albeit very bloody, action flick lone avenger-school, benefits from the latter.
It’s not that we’ve never seen films of this kind set in India before. Asia has helped set the conditions for this type of entertainment ever since Bruce Leesmallest.
TAKING THE ELEVATOR UP: Dev Patel (left) and Pitobash in “Monkey Man”. Photo: Universal Pictures / UIP
Nevertheless. The is, seen through Western eyes, the environment of “Monkey Man” that makes it perhaps the best and most aesthetically satisfying action movie in cinemas since “John Wick: Chapter Four”.
The kinetic, stressed drum tempo of what I perceived to be a fictional Indian metropolis (but which looked like Mumbai). The sweaty people in the small, littered alleyways.
Director and co-writer Dev Patel, best known so far as the kind, pretty boy in the “Slumdog Millionaire” (2008) and “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” films (2011 and 2015), plays the unnamed lead.
A man who has been on the wrong side since his mother was killed by a police chief, Rana (Sikander Kher), who burned down the village he grew up in, and who now, many years later, makes a living as something as unfuture-oriented as a boxer who getting paid to lose matches.
SLEIPING: Sharlto Copley, and his untrustworthy South African accent, as a boxing promoter in “Monkey Man”. Photo: Universal Pictures / UIP
When, via new acquaintances, he gets the opportunity to infiltrate an environment that can give him a foothold at the top of the corrupt society he wants to take revenge on, he does not need time to think.
He takes a job at a gangster nightclub where police officers, business leaders, politicians and other “supporters of society” meet to stuff their noses with cocaine and receive lapdancer from prostituted trafficking victims. Then he works his way up into the muck.
To the police chief Rana, and on to Baba Shakti (Makrand Desppande), a crypto-fascist combination of a religious guru and a political influencer. India’s answer to Donald Trump, more or less.
BLUE HIJRAENS: Dev Patel in “Monkey Man”. Photo: Akhirwan Nurhaidir / UIP
Midway through the film, he must seek shelter and lie low with a community of so-called hijras, South Asian transsexuals, whose political struggle he makes his own. He also meets a subtly beautiful woman, Sita (Sobhita Dhulipala), whom he finds it in his best interest to protect from the large amounts of accidental damage he causes.
As suggested, bliss is scarce in this city. Lots of people everywhere. When it hits, which it always does, it usually has consequences for more than just people the bad guys.
The script alternately draws on Indian myths and folklore. But it is not the script that is the most interesting thing about this film. There are other weaknesses too: the film should have been 15-25 minutes tighter. The use of music is a bit stupid.
WORTH PROTECTING: Sobhita Dhulipala in ‘Monkey Man’. Photo: Universal Pictures / UIP
But that was it with the exciting, pulsating environment back then. As well as the fact that Patel, who has a black belt in taekwondo, is a very capable action hero. He wears black clothes almost as well as Keanu Reeves as John Wick. That also means something, of course.
Some pacing challenges notwithstanding: An intensely promising directorial debut for Patel, this. And a well above average successful film in its genre.