Dev Patel got into impeccable shape and trained rigorously for his passion project, the action thriller “Monkey Man,” which the Oscar® nominated actor (“Lion,” ”Slumdog Millionaire”) also wrote and stars in.
“Dev is one of the hardest working filmmakers I ever worked with,” says fight coordinator Brahim Chab (“The Foreigner”). “He would come to practice with me and the stunt team once in the morning and again in the afternoon. He embraced the choreography I created for the film but also brought his own suggestions that always made a lot of sense for me to adjust the fights to the story.”
Inspired by the legend of the Hindu deity Hanuman, a symbol of wisdom, strength, courage, devotion and self-discipline, “Monkey Man” is an action thriller about one man’s quest for vengeance against the corrupt leaders who murdered his mother and continue to systemically victimize the poor and powerless. Patel plays Kid, an anonymous young man who ekes out a meager living in an underground fight club where, night after night, wearing a gorilla mask, he is beaten bloody by more popular fighters for cash. After years of suppressed rage, Kid discovers a way to infiltrate the enclave of the city’s sinister elite. As his childhood trauma boils over, his mysteriously scarred hands unleash an explosive campaign of retribution to settle the score with the men who took everything from him.
“Some of my favorite movies are ‘Man from Nowhere’ and ‘Oldboy,’ also a wonderful film from Indonesia, ‘The Raid,’” says Patel. “We had a number of ‘The Raid’ team working on this. As well as the ‘John Wick’ team, who happen to be producers with Thunder Road. We put all of these in a blender, added some masala from India.”
The epic fight between Patel’s character, Kid, and his mother’s killer, Rana (Sikandar Kher), is a no-holds-barred fight to the death. “The final showdown with Rana was one of my favorites to create,” Chab says. “We got them both ready separately, so that when they meet… there are fireworks. The result we got out of both was beyond anything I imagined. They performed the whole fight by themselves without any doubles or camera tricks. I am certain that this fight will satisfy the audience.”
Kid’s final battle in Kings Club is a cinematic tour-de-force that is sure to leave audiences breathless. “When we rehearsed the fights with Dev, I realized that Dev was truly not only a gifted actor, but also one hell of a martial artist,” Chab says. “He was able to remember long chunks of choreography and knew how to sell that for the camera. Instead of having smaller cuts we went, at Dev’s suggestion, with longer pieces of choreography.”
One particular fight in the club elevator is certain to be a favorite with action aficionados.
“I walked in thinking perhaps the action would be what a first-time director’s action might look like,” Peele says. Instead, he was stunned by it. “The action topped the best action films around. I know that, as an action and a revenge film, this is going to be huge.”
