Monkey Man is an action-packed revenge story co-written and directed by Dev Patel himself, who also stars in this movie as the main lead. This movie was supposed to go straight to Streaming but Jordan Peele saw this movie and helped Dev to get it a theatrical release, which I think was a good choice.
This movie is being extensively compared to John Wick movies, especially the first one. Some people even say it’s Indian John Wick. And rightfully so because both of the storylines are simple revenge plots which are accompanied by really good action scenes. But there is a difference between these two; The John Wick movies have wide shots of well-defined and well-choreographed action scenes, but the action scenes in this movie are not as well-choreographed as John Wick movies and there is a lot of close ups and kind of shaky cams. But the main revenge plot is more impactful here and its world is more immersive than the John Wick movies.
As I said before, the world of Monkey Man is immersive, rich and atmospheric. The ancient Hindu mythology adds a lot of that richness. The Legend of Hanuman Whom Monkey Man in based on is a fascinating story itself. It is a part of an ancient epic “Ramayana”. If you are reading this and you love fantasy books, I would highly recommend Ramayana and another epic called Mahabharata. Anyway, I digress. Monkey Man draws parallel to a phase of Hanuman’s life when he is cursed by a Sage and forgets all his powers and who he is. Then he has to be reminded of his purpose in life and who he actually is, so that he can fulfill his purpose. Here the main protagonist receives blessings of Shiva-Parvati to regain his strength and confidence, and a group of social outcasts help him with this. What’s interesting here is Hanuman is considered a part or an avatar of Shiva.
This movie also discusses about with a lot of social and political issues like Casteism in India, Political crimes, Religious exploits, Discrimination against Hijras.
Let’s talk about the cinematography. Some people didn’t like the excessive use of shaky cams in this movie during the fight scenes, some didn’t have a problem with it. They tried to keep the camera up close and personal, so the fight scenes feel more intimate. Like you feel like you are in there with them. And boy did they succeed! There is rarely a wide shot in this movie. The camera is always inside some shop, behind a curtain or really close to a face. Sometimes I felt like I couldn’t breathe. You feel like a part of the slums. The world feels grim, desperate and suffocating. There’s rarely a shot of daytime in this movie. It feels like Gotham or Hell’s kitchen from Daredevil.
The acting from everyone was good. Dev did a really good job of portraying emotionally disturbed, traumatized guy with a fire of revenge burning inside him.
Now, I talked about how the fight choreography is not as polished as John Wick. What I meant by that was sometimes during the fight scenes when the camera is pulled back for a quick wide shot, which happens rarely, you can see that the characters are following a choreography. It doesn’t seem as a real fight sometimes. However, it is not that apparent and considering it is Dev’s first directorial debut, The fight scenes are good enough.
But Monkey Man is more emotionally effective than the John Wick movies in my opinion. It is because we witness just how much turmoil and hardship our Protagonist has gone though. And when he gets his chance for revenge, we root for him. And the music does really help to set the mood of the scene. It is hard not to root for him. It is a classic underdog good guy vs Evil powerful bad guy story after all.
This movie is bloody, dark, gross. It’s fast and to the point with an impactful emotional core, political messages, incredible claustrophobic atmosphere and rich cultural references, really good fight scenes. It has some flaws like the editing isn’t perfect and I wasn’t always a fan of the camera work.
Though I am not the biggest fan of “heavy action and thin story” type of movies, I enjoy watching them from time to time. And I liked this movie better than some others in this genre.
Thank you!
