There’s this running gag amongst the Gabbing Geek crew that Jimmy Impossible has no idea who actor Dev Patel is. Patel doesn’t make big Hollywood movies since his first and only experience doing so–M Night Shyamalan’s adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender–ensured Patel has no plans to change all that given the way that movie turned out. Now me, I like Patel’s work quite a bit. He’s a multitalented actor who appears mostly in smaller budget fare. Would Jimmy go to see Monkey Man though? It’s being billed as an action movie starring Patel, and the trailers looked pretty cool.
Oh, it’s also co-written and directed by Patel, making his debut in the director’s chair for a martial arts movie of all things. I would have probably seen it anyway, but there’s too much promise here just with that set-up.
Patel’s character, billed in the closing credits only as “Kid,” starts the movie as a monkey-masked fighter in an underground fight circuit. He’s also at best a moderately-skilled fighter. Wanting revenge for reasons that are not immediately made clear, the Kid gets a job in the restaurant/high class brothel managed by a woman named Queenie (Ashwini Kalsekar) and starts to work his way up. His target seems to be the chief of police for the city he calls home, a particularly ruthless man named Rana (Sikandar Kher). The Kid is not a fool or anything, but he’s also not quite so equipped to take on his targets just yet.
What follows is a rough and tumble world that shows off not just Patel’s chiseled physique and martial arts skills, but also an India full of corruption both political and spiritual. The movie may not reveal exactly what made the Kid so mad until just past the halfway point, but there’s plenty of evidence of wrongdoing going on around him well before then. The Kid will need some more training, but he’s also a determined man with some smarts of his own before he even gets started. Can he bring down his target?
I said above that it may seem unlikely for Patel’s first directorial effort to be a martial arts movie, but he’s actually quite good in the director’s chair for this movie. The fight sequences are often creative and exciting, and Patel the onscreen fighter is every bit as exciting to watch as Patel the director’s work behind the camera. The movie does make it clear he’s not the best fighter when the story starts, but even as a so-so fighter, he still looks like someone who could kick my ass without too much trouble. He’s just skilled enough to do dangerous stuff without getting killed.
And yet, there’s a lot more going on here than just “one guy wants revenge.” I have only a basic understanding of India’s politics right now–and Patel is British, having to the best of my knowledge never even visiting India until he made Slumdog Millionaire–but the concepts of spiritual and political corruption are sadly somewhat universal. Should I be surprised that the nationally-adored religious leader Baba Shakti (Makarand Deshpande) is not on the up-and-up? Not really. Should I be surprised that the Kid’s best allies are trans people forced out of society? Maybe a bit. It’s not the sort of thing you usually see in a movie like this. Monkey Man works in a good bit of the Hindu religion and what it’s meant to represent, and a viewer will need to be patient to get the full story of what happened, but between some damn good fight choreography and some smart plot twists, Monkey Man makes for a fun and interesting directorial debut for the actor. I may not have seen him before as a martial arts star, but I never saw producer Jordan Peele as a horror movie director either. Life can be pleasantly surprising sometimes.
Grade: B+
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