121 min | R | April 5, 2024 | Universal Pictures
Dev Patel writes, directs, produces, and stars in a revenge thriller set in India. The ambition is staggering. The action is brutal. The politics are real.
A young man known only as Kid fights in an underground club wearing a gorilla mask. He lets bigger fighters beat him for money. He is also working his way into the orbit of a corrupt religious leader and the politicians who protect him. The reason is revenge. His mother was murdered when their village was destroyed to make way for development. The film is John Wick filtered through Hindu mythology and Indian class warfare. Dev Patel made this film with his own body and his own money and his own rage. It shows.
Patel plays Kid with a physical intensity that transforms him from the gentle characters he is known for. He is gaunt and focused and violent. The fight scenes are ragged and desperate. Kid does not win fights with skill. He wins them with endurance and fury. Sharlto Copley plays a fight promoter with seedy charm. Sobhita Dhulipala plays the woman Kid uses to get close to his target. Vipin Sharma plays the corrupt guru Baba Shakti with the serene cruelty of a man who believes his own divinity.
Patel directs his first feature with the energy of someone who has been waiting his whole career for this moment. The film is chaotic in ways that are both deliberate and occasionally undisciplined. The Mumbai setting is shot with frenetic beauty. The action choreography is visceral and painful. The camera stays close. You feel every impact. The third act draws explicitly on the story of Hanuman and the imagery becomes mythic. The score blends electronic music with traditional Indian instrumentation.
The film is messy. The pacing stumbles in the second act. Some of the narrative connections are unclear. But the messiness is part of the appeal. This is a directorial debut that swings for everything and connects more often than not. Patel has something to say about India’s caste system and religious nationalism and he says it through broken bones and burning buildings. Jordan Peele championed this film when it needed a distributor. He was right to.