Monkey Man
“Monkey Man leans on tropes about women, but its inclusion of marginalized hijras works brilliantly.”
Title: Monkey Man (2024)
Director: Dev Patel 👨🏽🇬🇧
Writers: Story by Dev Patel 👨🏽🇬🇧 and screenplay by Paul Angunawela 👨🏽🇬🇧 and John Collee 👨🏼🇦🇺🏴
Reviewed by Weiting 👩🏻🇨🇳🇺🇸
—MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD—
Technical: 3/5
Having received a standing ovation at its SXSW premiere last month, Monkey Man announces the full-on comeback of audience favorite Dev Patel. Co-written with Paul Angunawela and John Collee, this adrenaline-pumping movie marks Patel’s directorial debut, as he uses his own star power to play the main hero, Kid.
In the underbelly of Yatana, a fictional, nightcrawling version of Mumbai, the gorilla-masked Kid makes meager wages as a disposable ring fighter who pretends to lose to more popular combatants. As his misery evokes our sympathy, we soon realize that Kid's mind is set elsewhere: He begins to infiltrate a high-end nightclub (which doubles as an underground brothel) managed by an influential woman, Queenie (Ashwini Kalsekar). All the while, the narrative switches back and forth between Kid's mysterious quest to kill corrupt police officer Rana (Sikandar Kher) and flashbacks of his idyllic childhood that gradually piece together a bigger puzzle.
The result is a maximalist pastiche interwoven with Patel, Angunawela, and Collee's tributes to action cinema: The Bruce Lee-inspired underdog-to-hero arc; a Mumbai reenactment of the one-take axe attack in Oldboy (2013); and the ruthless, bone-breaking fist fights straight out of The Raid (2011). Keanu Reeves' John Wick even gets a direct mention in the film, Patel reinventing the lone wolf legend into the class-conscious Kid.
But in spite of his charisma and badassery, Patel as a first-time writer-director (and starring actor, to boot) bites off more than he can chew. The multitude of Hindu mythologies, contemporary Indian politics, and critiques of inequality, while meaningful to explore, are lumped together. Despite the evident heart and soul poured into this passion project, Monkey Man feels reduced to formulaic imitations instead of a true, creative homage.
Gender: 2.5/5
Does it pass the Bechdel Test? NOPE
As written by three men and directed by a man, Kid remains the front and center of this film. But four supporting female characters grab our attention. Kid's single mother Neela (Adithi Kalkunte) appears in his childhood memories, the two of them living peacefully before Rana massacres their village and beats Neela to death. Then there’s the villain Queenie, who trafficks young women and coerces them into sex work while catering to corrupt and powerful clientele, such as Rana. One of the sex workers, Sita (Sobhita Dhulipala), becomes Kid's romantic interest in need of saving. And when Kid suffers a near-death experience, he’s fished out of a river and rescued by a nonbinary hijra, Alpha (Vipin Sharma). Alpha leads a marginalized Hindu sect made up of other hijras, or India’s third gender, along with sympathetic allies who rehabilitate Kid from his injuries and offer him guidance on his mission.
Of these characters, Neela lays out the film's spiritual foundation by teaching her son about the half-monkey, half-human Hindu god Hanuman. She also gets a considerable amount of screen time, all of it endowed with Kalkunte's ethereal elegance. In a vital, heart-wrenching scene, she puts up a fearless fight against Rana. But she eventually falls into one of action cinema’s most pervasive cliches—the “Dead Mom” or “Dead Wife” trope, a woman whose brutal death gives a man purpose.
The self-assured Queenie might seem commanding, barking at henchmen left and right, but she’s a pawn for Rana to command at will. And Sita never escapes the male gaze; the camera lingers on her body and often films her diminutively, peering down at her from a high angle to show her victimization. She does get a moment of pseudo-empowerment, killing one of her oppressors, but its inclusion feels half-hearted at best. In short, all three cisgender women fall into gender stereotypes and exist to propel a bloodthirsty male hero onto his revenge journey. The hijras have much more agency, particularly during one of the film’s most exciting fight sequences. But ultimately, they’re also two-dimensional and idealized, unconditionally supporting a cisgender male hero on his journey.
Race: 5/5
As women of color retreat to secondary roles, Monkey Man clearly evinces the worldview of men of color. It offers a big-budget platform for its stellar Indian cast, and behind the lens, the film was directed by British Gujurati Patel, co-written by British Sri Lankan Angunawela, and co-produced by Black American Jordan Peele. Patel infuses the film with rich visuals, the Hanuman tale woven through the story via poetic illustrations of the Hindu deity. Hindu beliefs, along with unwavering support from Kid’s devout friends from the slums, sustain him through the trials and tribulations of taking down bad men in power.
Among them, Rana's boss and religious leader Baba Shakti (Makrand Deshpande) exposes himself as an egomaniac politician who takes advantage of the common people to line his own pockets. Baba serves as an analogy to real-life religious fanatic Yogi Adityanath, as Patel uses this political metaphor to indict contemporary India's right-wing Hindutva government. As the film accelerates, these allegories bring out rarely-seen lenses through which global audiences can look at Indian culture and politics.
Bonus for Disability: +0.25
Kid’s frequent flashbacks to a tragic event and resulting panic attacks clearly telegraph post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). His mental illness shapes his determination for vigilante justice, and by powering through these immense struggles with the help of friends and community, Kid becomes a more multifaceted protagonist who we find ourselves rooting for.
Bonus for LGBTQ: +0.75
Monkey Man puts forward an unprecedented look at India's unique third gender community, shining a positive light on its hijra characters. Though society elites ostracize them, their wisdom, integrity, and love for one another shine brightly. Among them, Alpha plays a pivotal mentor in the hero's journey of self-discovery by giving Kid the tools to process his trauma and begin healing from the inside.
Mediaversity Grade: B 3.83/5
Monkey Man brings spectacle to the big screen with culturally specific panache. It does lean on tropes about women to get there, but its inclusion of marginalized hijras works brilliantly. Furthermore, Patel’s gut-wrenching depiction of a man struggling with PTSD makes a powerful representation of mental illness survivors.
Like Monkey Man? Try these other revenge journeys.
John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum (2021)
Shadow in the Cloud (2020)
Promising Young Woman (2020)