Shortly after Monkey Man opens the MC and operator of an underground boxing ring Tiger (Sharlto Copey) looks at Dev Patel’s Kid and tells him that he gets paid to put on a show. This is after Kid has taken a brutal beating on stage and thrown the fight as he is directed to every night. It gives the movie a little more bite knowing that after being in film and television for seventeen years Dev is finally the one behind the camera calling the shots. And just like Dev is seizing control, Kid starts building momentum to get closer to his ultimate goal. Before we meet Tiger and his Temple, we hear the story of Hanuman, a Hindu deity, who flies into the sky to eat the sun thinking it to be a mango, and is subsequently punished by the other gods for his hubris.

That’s the story of the movie at the end of the day, Kid is our proxy Hanuman and he will quest to eat that mango in whatever way he can. Much like in David Lowery’s ‘The Green Knight’ Dev Patel has been placed into the center of a parable from hundreds of years ago. This time he’s done it to himself, but if he wants to keep following this path I’m game for it. I’d watch a modern take on Beowulf with Dev as the lead! Maybe Gilgamesh?

The movie takes it’s time revealing exactly what Kid’s aspirations are, adding a layer of mystique to the tale. He takes his licks in the ring, manages to get a job washing dishes at a high end restaurant where he meets Alphonso (Pitobash), a somewhat wretched, somewhat charming goon employed by the same system of elites that Kid seems to be targeting. Kid works his way up to waiter, staring at how the upper class live, how they treat their servants, and how “they don’t even see us” referring to anyone of Kid’s lowest class.

Taking a heist like approach we see some of the chess pieces that Kid collects to gain access to the person he’s targeting; a gun salesman asks him “Have you seen John Wick?”, a line that drove me to terror when fifteen minutes later a jaw droppingly adorable puppy befriends Kid (Light spoiler: The puppy is fine, nothing bad happens to the puppy thank god). Eventually Kid manages to get access to what Alphonso refers to as “Heaven,” the most exclusive room where Kid’s target, the corrupt chief of police Rana Singh (Sikandar Kher), will be at his most vulnerable. Kid is determined to swallow that mango whole just like Hanuman, regardless of whether it’s the sun or not and pulls a gun on Singh. This sequence is one of the tensest of the film, with loud music, a room packed full of people, some corrupt like Singh, and others just wait staff and sex workers being used by the most wealthy as they see fit.

And now we’re fully in action territory, Kid fights his way out of the bathroom where he made an attempt on Singh’s life using whatever tools he has at his disposal. There’s something about someone getting brained with a porcelain sink that really turns up the action knob, it gives Mission: Impossible – Fallout to a certain extent, if only Kid had reloaded his fists! He rushes out of Heaven and meets up with Alphonso, they hop into Alphonso’s tuk-tuk and race away from cops and gangsters. The tuk-tuk is of course equipped with nitro, Director Patel seemingly saying, “If Vin Diesel can do it, India can do it too!” They race away, only to eventually crash into a brothel where Kid is attacked by an axe wielding pimp. The choreography really does evoke a lot of John Wick, with Kid taking a brutal pummeling and just barely scraping by through every fight.

Eventually he is shot fleeing from the police and lands in a body of water. When he comes to he is bandaged in front of a statue of Ardhanarishvara, a Hindu deity that’s a blend of Shiva and Parvati. A transgender woman named Alpha (Vipin Sharma) helps Kid get back to health and explains that Baba Shakti, a politician and guru who is running in the upcoming Indian election, has marginalized their community and they fear what will happen if he takes power.

It’s here where Monkey Man loses it’s steam a little bit. This movie is so dense with religious and political intrigue it tends to feel overstuffed. Not only is there a corrupt police force, but of course they answer to a corrupt politician and religious extremist, and of course they are also marginalizing other communities. It’s not that the film is saying anything bad, it’s just that it’s got 121 minutes to say it all, which it manages in a somewhat staccato manor. Something like John Wick doesn’t need to flash back more than once to show that his wife died, whereas here we flash back considerably more than that to explain that Rana Singh and Baba Shakti are directly responsible for Kid’s mothers death, and the destruction of their peaceful village.

Kid eventually trains at the temple to enact his revenge on the two main people responsible for the corruption. He is obviously successful, but like Hanuman not without repercussions. We see him pass out, seemingly to his demise, as we flashback to his mother comforting him as a child, right before the credits roll.

I look forward to see anything else Dev Patel puts together. It’s an absolutely stunning ride, with a soundtrack that pivots from thumping bass, to a calm sitar solo, all while Kid punches and kicks his way through the evil elitist machine that too many are so accustomed to.

4/5