Monkey Man

 Calling it John Wick in Mumbai might seem reductive and lazy, but Monkey Man - Dev Patel's action vehicle and directorial debut - openly, consciously courts the comparison. Openly when a gun dealer tries to sell him 'John Wick's gun' (which Patel's character snubs for... a snub-nosed .38), slightly more quietly in its moody shots of inner-city squalor, wardrobe choices, and carefully choreographed violence.

 It's always clear, though, that it comes from a place of love and enthusiasm. Besides Chad Stahelski's opus, there are multiple references to Nicholas Winding Refn, a little the Raid, a little Villainess... maybe a even a teeny tiny bit of Polite Society in a fight where flowing traditional hindi dresses are a visual highlight.

 And it's not just the action; Patel and his DP Sharone Meir fill the film to bursting with memorable images and lovely sequences such as a stolen wallet's journey from hand to hand across the busy streets, a psychedelic interlude with mythological echoes, or commentary as the film cuts away to the more unfortunate (most memorably when a Tuk-Tuk cab tears across the road, disturbing a family sleeping in an alley on a cardboard mattress). And it never really comes across as disjointed - maybe a little overstuffed, but mostly just exuberant, as if Patel is finally getting to let out a thousand bottled-up ideas.

 Patel also writes (along with Paul Angunawela and John Collee) and stars, of course, as Bobby - a young Indian nobody who bides his time fighting in underground tournaments hosted by Sharlto Copley while he patiently positions himself at the (menial) employ of a pimp (Ashwini Kalsekar) who runs a successful club catering to the rich and powerful.

 Bobby's plan is to get close enough to get revenge on Rana (Sikandar Kher), the police captain who murdered his mother and torched his jungle village. Once everything lines up, with the help of a sleazy crook named Alphonse (Pitobash), it leads to the first of the film's action sequences - a series of scenes where a botched assassination attempt leads to an exhilarating running battle across the club, a neighboring low-rent whorehouse and then the city streets. Bobby escapes, just barely, and is taken in by an order of marginalized, transgender monks.

 This leads to a lovely, kick-ass rendition of a standard action movie beat: the protagonist being nursed back to health at a place of healing, confronting his past and getting his mojo back in time for a second attempt. The montages featuring a cool, percussion-led training style (helped along by Zakir Hussain) are very original and worth the price of admission alone. From there it's a straight shot to a final confrontation.

 The structure of the script is pretty elegant; there are only two real action sequences, if you ignore a tournament fight, and everything else is the lead up to them, the second time around with a realigned focus. Another lovely touch - the first set of fights is shot much more chaotically, with close ups edited together in short cuts that sometimes make the action a little bit (but not too) confusing, while the final action scenes are made up of longer takes with the camera capturing the action much more clearly. A really fun concept that lets Patel and his stunt team (fight coordinator: Brahim Chab) indulge in very different styles even before you take into account the varied settings, gimmicks and lighting and colour schemes. It does mean that the first action scene isn't that great, but it fives the film a sense of progression.

 I do have a pretty major problem with the ending, which I found underwhelming for a variety of reasons. Can't really discuss any of them without spoilers - I'll just say that despite a spiritual awakening things ultimately end up about it still being a very selfish (and counterproductive in the bigger scheme of things) revenge story. I'd be fine with that if it weren't completely at odds with the film's openly political stance and the tone of its ending*.

 However. The acting is superb, with Patel giving an enormously magnetic performance and lending a surprising amount of physical power to the fights - the guy can seriously sell a punch! The pacing is excellent, very rhythmical, and along with the dazzling variety to the film's visuals, the colorful characters, and a great soundtrack (by Jed Kurzel) had me completely engaged for the duration. There's a very good boy who gets a creative and funny role in Bobby's revenge, and some great, unexpected gags sprinkled throughout the movie.

 A poor ending will always leave an outsized impression, and I don't want to let it sour me on this  movie. I suspect this will grow on me on rewatches, and it's definitely made me excited for whatever Patel chooses to direct next.

*: OK, Spoilers - seriously, don't read this until you've seen the movie: What do you think will happen after an apparent terrorist kills a beloved, powerful religious figure and a (seemingly upright) police captain who were publicly supporting the political right-wing party that's fully on-board with the systemic horrors the movie is railing against?

 Even the warrior monk's involvement is going to end in tragedy. Never mind that they have such a perfunctory showing that they might as well have sit this all out. Oh well, at least they got a lovely scene.