The Monkey Man: Dev Patel’s Directorial Debut (Feature)
Behind the scenes of ‘Monkey Man’ starring Dev Patel, Sharlto Copley, Sobhita Dulipala, Pitobash, Sikandar Kher
IVA – Movie extras
In his directorial debut, The Monkey Man, Dev Patel presents action fans with a multi-layered, ultra-violent narrative. Sure, he does a deep dive into Indian mythology, but he’s still damn good at attacking thugs with fireworks, platform shoes, and all kinds of sharp objects.
More ‘Rocky’ than ‘John Wick’, the brutal and gory revenge thriller (★★★ out of four; rated R; in theaters Friday) is a love letter to his duplicitous influences, from Bruce Lee films to Asian cult films like “Oldboy” and “The Raid”. But the story of the underdog, produced by Jordan Peele, also shows a bunch of new sides to Patel, who comes across as a true action star and someone who can make a movie that’s totally cool, occasionally funny and impressively thoughtful.
“Ape Man”: Dev Patel got physical for his new film and has the broken bones to prove it
Patel also co-wrote the screenplay, a contemporary take on the myth of the Hindu monkey god Hanuman. The kid (Patel) competes in an underground Indian fight club, though his job is basically to take a bloody beating while wearing a monkey mask and hope his colorful boss Tiger (Sharlto Copley) doesn’t make him pay.
At the same time, our hero is also haunted by his mother’s murder and a traumatic childhood, which fuels the Kid’s mission of revenge to bring down those responsible. He gets a chance to infiltrate a repressive political system by working in a high-end brothel and starts causing trouble for power players, including a narcissistic, no-good celebrity guru (Makarand Deshpande) and a corrupt police chief (Sikander Kher).
With the Diwali holiday coming up and an important election coming up, they don’t need someone like Kidd messing things up. He becomes a wanted man and is eventually left for dead on the street, where he is found by a tribe of trans women who, like the Kid, are marginalized. Their guide Alpha (Vipin Sharma) heals him, but also teaches him a key lesson: instead of enduring pain and suffering as a basic existence, Kid needs a purpose in life.
‘Monkey Man’ trailer: Dev Patel proves his action hero mettle
Dev Patel co-wrote, directed and stars as an Indian man on a violent quest for revenge in the action thriller The Monkey Man, produced by Jordan Peele.
While the gradual unfolding of Kid’s backstory and bits of the Hanuman tale cloud the plot early on, The Monkey Man rolls into a groove when the protagonist is at his lowest point. The kid gets himself (and the film) involved in a lively montage where he uses a bag of grain for punching practice while Alpha provides a nifty percussion accompaniment. (It’s the next best thing to the Survivor songs that inspired Rocky Balboa back in the day.)
Thus inspired and trained, Kid goes on a righteous fight and literally fights his way to the top floor of the villainous Big Boss. Patel can craft a vicious action sequence, whether between the ropes as masked men duke it out in front of crowds, a high-speed car chase involving a tuk-tuk named after Nicki Minaj, or The Kid kicking, stabbing and brawling through hordes of bad guys boys. As the man at the center of these battles, Academy Award nominee Patel (“Lion”) never looks or feels out of place, even borrowing Keanu Reeves’ fashion sense when it comes to tough fighting fashion.
The fact that “Ape Man” includes a socio-cultural context, like something soft to chew on rather than a thematic subject to throw away, is the cherry on top of Patel’s gory melba. He’s managed to create a rare action movie that makes you think and will also happily stick a metal rod through a dude’s brain.
