(Note for English-speaking locals: despite being set in Mumbai, the majority of Monkey Man is in English; about 15-20 percent of the film is in Marathi, which is subtitled only in Czech on Prague screens.)
An underground street fighter seeks revenge on those responsible for the death of his mother in Monkey Man, a kinetic new action movie now playing in Prague and cinemas worldwide. This directorial debut from actor Dev Patel (Slumdog Millionaire, Lion), who also stars in the lead role, borrows its kinetic action from John Wick but adds in a little heart and a lot of local flavor.
Monkey Man stars Patel as Kid, who opens the opens the film at an seedy MMA-style venue operated by the business-minded Tiger (Sharlto Copley) fighting as an ape-masked heel. Kid throws himself at his opponent with little regard for his own well-being as blood spills out from behind his mask; this is a man with nothing left to lose, but his real opponents are out of the ring.
Through drips and drabs across the first two acts of the film, we get Kid’s backstory. As a young boy, his mother Neela (Adithi Kalkunte) told him stories of the Hindu deity Hanuman, the divine monkey who inspired his fighting persona. But his entire village, including Neela, was massacred by a corrupt police chief working for spiritual guru-turned-politician out to acquire land at any cost.
Years later, Kid puts a plan for revenge into action. It involves ingraining himself into an upscale nightclub run by Queenie (Ashwini Kalsekar), where members of the upper class including police chief Rana Singh (Sikandar Kher) congregate. Along the way he gains the respect of colleague Alphonso (Pitobash) and catches the eye of courtesan Sito (Sobhita Dhulipala), the closest things he has to friends in this world.
Monkey Man is highlighted by two extended fight scenes that rival the John Wick films as Patel’s protagonist fights his way through endless waves of goons at Queenie’s in search of vengeance. The action here is expertly-choreographed but comes with an extra dose of realism thanks to the use of some iPhone and GoPro camerawork, employed for budgetary reasons. The result is some truly kinetic stuff that will take your breathe away.
In-between the two showstopping action scenes, which are both 20+ minutes in length, Monkey Man takes a hard timeout as its protagonist recovers and gains spiritual guidance at a local temple run by Alpha (Vipin Sharma) and populated by a community targeted by guru-politician Baba Shakti (Makarand Deshpande), who was responsible for the death of Neela.
Though well-intentioned, Monkey Man stops dead in its tracks for what feels like half an hour that includes an ill-timed exposition dump, and this straightforward revenge movie doesn’t have the narrative twists and turns to sustain such an extended break. Some trimming here would have also aided the film’s longish two-hour runtime.
Still, Monkey Man‘s final action sequence makes up for any misgivings as Kid fights his way through an event honoring Baba Shakti and unleashing his fury on anyone who stands in his way. As our protagonist fights his way through the upper class, the film also serves as a revenge fantasy for India’s caste system, which has left large swathes of society suffering through poverty with a wealthy elite at the top of the pyramid.
Billed as John Wick in Mumbai, Monkey Man could haver used a little polishing on its script but delivers first-rate action and some pointed socio-political commentary at a fraction of the budget of Hollywood blockbusters. This one may not be quite on the level of a John Wick: Chapter 4 or Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning, but it’s the best action movie to hit cinemas so far in 2024.
