‘Monkey Man’ Review: Sets The Bar For Indian Representation In Hollywood

It’s 1:30 AM, and I just got back home from the Thursday preview screening of one of my most anticipated films this year, Monkey Man. You may have heard of it, as it recently premiered with the highest appraisal at the 2024 SXSW Film Festival—written and directed by Oscar nominee Dev Patel who also stars in the film.

Patel, as you may know him, was popularized into general-celebrity-knowledge status after starring in Danny Boyle’s 2009 Best Picture winner Slumdog Millionaire. He continued his career with roles in The Last Airbender and Lion (The latter earning him another Oscar nomination), leading up to David Lowery’s A24 hit, The Green Knight. This decade-long streak catapulted his status to be considered well-respected in the acting industry, something very few darker-skinned Indians have achieved.

Furthermore, Patel, being one of the only “respected-on-all-accounts” South Asian presences in Hollywood, set a spotlight on himself back to the motherland of India. The only thing matching the ethic he puts into his craft is his wit. The decisions he makes for his filmography are, in my opinion, on the same balance of maturity, curiosity, and privilege that actors like Emma Stone, Margot Robbie, and Donald Glover have when they plan the next projects in their careers. 

“There were some incredible people that pushed me into this director’s seat, and once I was there, I didn’t look back,” Patel continued. “It was by any means necessary I was going to birth this dream so I really love it, and I would love to do it again if I was so lucky.”

What’s interesting is that this wasn’t the career path that Patel necessarily wanted to take, making it an incredibly more impressive feat for him to have identified the blind spots in Hollywood that this film needed to target. Hollywood has a problematic system when accounting for diversity, as they primarily abide by the percentages of racial populations in America to distribute the variance of characters with a South Asian race. This conclusion becomes fragile when Hollywood and the U.S. hold the responsibility to distribute generally appealing media through their monopoly on global entertainment, which not only systemically leaves out Indians, but other prominent minorities representing their identity in the U.S.; such as Middle-Easterns, Hindus, Muslims, and more. 

There have been a few characters recently written on screen to reconcile the decades of writing Indians into taxi driver and angry parent roles. Still, we’re only now starting to break the threshold of how Indians, especially ABCD’s (Abroad-Born Confused Desis), are perceived in the media. Bright, South Asian, ABCD, Gen Z actors; such as Iman Vellani, Aryan Simhadri, Avantika Vandanapu, and Maitreyi Ramakrishnan; share the same passion, intellectuality, and self-awareness that Patel brings to his presence on and behind the screen; making his job to pave the way forward with Monkey Man necessitate him to act intuitive. 

The movie itself pays homage, very brilliantly, to the fight choreography of both Hollywood and Bollywood’s most popular action films, brutally fusing how both audiences enjoy the genre. Beyond the stunts, I can’t omit the combination of cinematography, lighting, and visual trope techniques; popularized through Western, European, and East Asian media; with the grounded feel of the crew’s recreation of India. I’ve been patiently waiting for a mainstream Bollywood-inspired movie with a Hollywood crew and budget to release in the U.S. since I was born, so this is a huge deal for me.

Monkey Man also holds a considerably larger budget than the majority of Indian cinema, a privilege very easy to overlook if you don’t follow the budget margins compared with Hollywood. Recognizing this, and then using that money to accelerate the discussion of debated topics that haven’t had the benefit of influencing millions through a movie, indubitably brings us a few steps closer to having a range of South Asian projects that everyone, regardless of their unique qualities, can identify with. 

I was disappointed with the lack of a score or soundtrack, as there was too much potential in that field; but I can’t say that I can ask for more than a nitpick otherwise. To set a bar this high with his directorial debut, with the clearly evident potential for his directing talent to grow, is a monumental achievement. 

I don’t care if people compare this to the Yash Raj Spy Universe and say they’re better, I don’t care if people point to John Wick and say they’re better. Monkey Man is trying to land something on its feet that’s never been done before, the same as shows like Never Have I Ever and Ms. Marvel, so that we can pave the way for roles away from the recurring tropes, like Grover in Percy Jackson and the Olympians or Karen Shetty in Mean Girls (2024). 

Fifteen years have passed since the holy trinity of cable TV: Baljeet, Karan Brar, and “Raj from Big Bang Theory.” I just can’t be more thankful to Dev for standing up for what’s right, being a leader, and paving the way for Brown filmmakers like me to have a space in Hollywood.

Monkey Man is produced, directed and written by Dev Patel. The film also stars Sharlto Copley, Pitobash, Vipin Sharma, Sikandar Kher and Sobhita Dhulipala.

If you liked this review, please be sure to check out some of our other articles and reviews here at Feature First. Thanks for reading!