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Monkey Man movie review,Dev Patel and Sobhita Dhulipala

 Monkey Man is a good action thriller, it is obvious that it could be better.

Dev Patel will undoubtedly helm a fantastic film one day. Monkey Man, a furious action-revenge thriller that is better known for its daring editing and incredibly brutal, up close and frightful battle scenes than for its plot, its attempts at political resonance, or any nuanced portrayal of its protagonist, shows that he obviously possesses the talent. Naturally, if these other factors weren't important to the film, they wouldn't matter at all. As an action movie, Monkey Man is frequently highly engaging, but it constantly draws your attention with scenes from the movie it's attempting and frequently failing to be.

The movie itself, which both directly and indirectly alludes to Chad Stahelski and David Leitch's now famous Keanu Reeves vengeance shoot-'em-up, will encourage comparisons between Monkey Man and John Wick.It also makes references to a plethora of action movies from Hong Kong, Indonesia, and India, as well as a handful of vaguely remembered straight-to-video flicks. However, this time around, the main character isn't an infamously cold-blooded killer. A bare-knuckles boxer in an ape mask, Kid (Patel) is known primarily for getting the shit beat out of him by bigger, stronger, better fighters. He is a helpless, impetuous nothing. However, he is also passing the time in Yatana, a fictitious version of Mumbai, in an attempt to draw closer to the top echelons of authority.

We soon learn that the Kid's real objective is Queenie Kapoor (Ashwini Kalsekar), a restaurant, pimp, and dealer who offers a variety of less-than-scrupulous services to the affluent. He harbors a deep-seated grudge against the city's police chief, Sikandar Kher, who happens to be closely associated with the Sovereign Party, a Hindu nationalist group headed by a self-styled guru by the name of Baba Shakti (Makarand Deshpande), who appears to lead a modest life but is in reality just another religious hypocrite. (The movie's Sovereign Party bears a striking real-life similarity to the reigning Bharatiya Janata Party in India.) As a result, there may be some censorship and release issues for the picture in that country, especially as elections approach.

We find out that the Kid's adored mother, Adithi Kalkunte, was slain when authorities forcibly removed a group of people from their woodland home. The past is revealed throughout the movie in dreamlike drips and drabs, but we already know what it is around halfway through; the graphic and painful facts are all that remain. There are also many endearing flashbacks in which our little hero is taught by his mother the customs of the forest, grows to admire the bravery of the monkey god Hanuman, and dreams of becoming just like him.

We learn that Adithi Kalkunte, the Kid's beloved mother, was killed when a group of people were taken against their will from their house in the woods by the government. Dreamlike drips and drabs of the past are revealed throughout the film, but by the midway point, we already know what it is; all that's left are the gory and horrific realities. Throughout the numerous charming flashbacks, our little hero learns about forest customs from his mother, develops an admiration for the bravery of the monkey god Hanuman, and dreams of being just like him.

Patel appears keen to take his genre-specific thriller to a higher level of spiritual gravity and deeper meaning. Which is unfortunate because he has created a genre potboiler that is otherwise excellent. Because the hero isn't very skilled at fighting, at least not at first, Monkey Man's close-quarters action scenes—which feature eye-gouging, nut-punching, head-smashing, and what must be a world record for throat-stabbings—have a pleasant immediacy. It everything comes together to create a delightfully chaotic experience, including the rhythmic cutting, the eclectically poppy score, and the bright color scheme.

What is missing from the movie is  and I can’t quite believe I’m writing this  Dev Patel, the actor. A supremely talented leading man, he’s one of those performers who mixes great range with great presence. All this was on full display in 2019’s The Wedding Guest, a now somewhat-forgotten Michael Winterbottom action-romance that proved Patel could be a genre lead, mixing his usual charm and depth with an alluring physicality. He’s got even more physicality in Monkey Man, and it’s clear he’s spent a ton of time trying to get these action scenes right, both as performer and director. But we so rarely glimpse Patel’s face at rest in this hectic, stylized film. The flashback structure, with its constant temporal leapfrogging and nightmare visions and bursts of music, does most of the emoting for the character, so the movie is not cold, exactly. But in the search for visceral thrills, something seems to have faded into the background: a sense of depth, or inner life. And no, the overload of spiritual imagery doesn’t quite cover for it.

To be fair, action movies frequently use this technique. Arnold Schwarzenegger was a cold-blooded killer; Keanu Reeves's character, John Wick, was stoic to the point of absurdity; and Liam Neeson's characters suffer subtly. When they work at their best, those single notes become symphonies of mayhem in the flicks. However, it's obvious that Monkey Man wants something more—something transcendent and significant. Furthermore, it seems wasteful not to use the lead actor given his exceptional talent. It would be a good idea for someone to tell Dev Patel, the filmmaker, that he is also an actor with much more potential.