We've Finally Got A New Brown Action Star In Hollywood

Despite its flaws, Dev Patel's “Monkey Man" is a gritty, effective thriller that brings western audiences into his world — and not the other way around, for a change.

Let’s get this out of the way first: With “Monkey Man,” Dev Patel, 33, co-wrote his way out of what might have been years of more Hollywood hell. White male-directed films like “Slumdog Millionaire,” others where he would have played the love interest of white women like in “Lion” or the nice, tokenized South Asian character like in “The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.”

As the lead in “Monkey Man,” the actor and debut director has the free rein to portray his full potential. His character in the new movie, referred to as Kid, is a street-fighting, wrecking ball of a man with nothing to lose except his will to obliterate everyone and everything who’s ever stood in the way of he and his mom (Adithi Kalkunte) living free lives in India.

That includes the corrupt cop (Sikandar Kher) who assaulted and killed Kid’s mother when Kid was a mere child. Kid is the brown manifestation of the quintessential Hollywood action hero — think John Wick or The Bride in “Kill Bill” or any one of Pam Grier’s characters from the ’70s or Bruce Lee’s influential roles — who’s had enough. Kid is pissed, poor and angry.

It’s immediately clear that Patel was inspired by some of those famous fictional heroes that all left an indelible mark on the action genre. They’re motivated by a need to avenge and usurp the actions of the more powerful, propelled by their own grit, unprocessed trauma and rage.

With co-writers Paul Angunawela and John Collee, Patel tries to bring all of those inspirations to the fore as he reinvents his Hollywood persona into Kid, a sleek character who’s also not afraid to, say, act as a monkey-masked punching bag in a boxing ring for the right amount of rupees.