'Monkey Man' pulls no punches in elaborate, entertaining fight scenes

Dev Patel comes out swinging in the monumentally entertaining and bare-knuckled revenge flick “Monkey Man,” serving up a series of extended and elaborate fight sequences so bruising and hyper-violent they make the action in the “Road House” reboot seem like a game of Rock-Paper-Scissors.

As director, co-writer, producer and star, Patel has created an homage to Asian martial arts movies and a modern political fable that is infused with Indian culture and folklore, with a core story that plays like “Death Wish” meets “Fight Club” meets Park Chan-wook’s “Oldboy” meets “John Wick.” (How’s THAT for a meeting!) It’s a gorgeously photographed, kinetically paced, blood-spattered and visceral gut-punch of a movie.

Fifteen years after Patel’s starmaking turn in “Slumdog Millionaire” and continuing through such works as the “Exotic Marigold Hotel” movies, “Lion,” “The Personal History of David Copperfield” and “The Green Knight,” he delivers arguably the most powerful performance of his career playing a character known only as Kid. When we meet Kid, he’s wearing a gorilla mask and getting the stuffing beaten out of him in an underground fight club where the slimy ring impresario Tiger (a fantastically entertaining Sharlto Copley) amps up the crowd’s lust for violence and pays bonuses to Kid for actual blood spilled.

For reasons explained in flashbacks sprinkled throughout the film, Kid is determined to infiltrate the city’s wealthy, elite and corrupt inner circle. (“Monkey Man” was filmed in Mumbai and Indonesia and set in a fictional Indian city called Yatana, with director Patel and cinematographer Sharone Meir favoring quick-cut closeups and neon colors.)

Kid orchestrates an intricately choreographed pickpocket scam to take possession of a wallet belonging to Queenie (Ashwini Kalsekar), who runs the city’s most exclusive high-end nightclub, and once in her office he talks his way into a job. (The pickpocket sequence is nothing short of exhilarating.) Working his way up from dishwasher to waiter to associate of Queenie’s fixer, Alphonso (Pitobash), Kid becomes a close observer of the goings-on within the club. One regular is the police chief Rana (Sikandar Kher), a vile and powerful and utterly corrupt thug who also appears in those aforementioned flashbacks, and you can probably guess that Kid has a very particular and personal reason for wanting to take out Rana.

After a brutal fight with Rana in which Kid inflicts (and receives) much damage but fails to kill him, Kid has to go on the run and eventually finds safe harbor with a community of hijra, the “third gender” people of South Asia, who nurse him back to health, teach him some valuable lessons and help him work on his fighting skills.

Under the guidance of the temple priestess Alpha (Vipin Sharma), Kid matures into a more disciplined, more determined and more dangerous warrior of the streets. He’s coming for Queenie, he’s coming for Rana, and his quest for vengeance and justice might take him all the way to the lair of the iniquitous candidate for prime minster, one Baba Shakti (Makarand Deshpande is a memorably chilling performance). We’re also hoping Kid will find the opportunity to rescue the beautiful Sita (Sobhita Dhulipala), an escort working under the abusive Queenie.

As a storyteller, Patel does a remarkable job of weaving in commentary on modern-day political and social issues in India, while adhering to a framework based on the Hindu legend of Hanuman, the god of courage and strength and self-discipline and heroic initiative — and oh yes, peppering the film with badass action. There’s even time for some action-movie humor, as when Kid takes a running start and tries to crash through a window — but instead of the usual shower of broken glass accompanying a spectacular, slow-motion flight, let’s just say the window wins this battle.

On a few occasions, “Monkey Man” might be a little too self-indulgent for its own good. The flashback sequences featuring Kid’s mother (Adithi Kalkunte), while effectively rendered, seem almost sadistic in certain lingering depictions. A bit of judicious trimming might have better served this element of the story. On balance, however, this is a well-paced and smartly edited work, with exquisite production design and an immersive shooting style that brings the city to life in all its chaotic and sometimes dangerous energy.

We often talk about how some movies really should be seen in theaters. Comedies. Horror films. Superhero adventures. Historical epics from some of our best directors. Add to that category super-charged action movies on the level of “Monkey Man.” You’ll want to join the applause when Kid springs into action.