DEV Patel makes his directorial debut this week. What a debut it turns out to be. Ferocious, gritty, stark in its socio-political commentary. This is Monkey Man.

Having made his name as the sort of nice young man you’d like to introduce to your Grandma - The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Lion, Slumdog Millionaire… - a move into revenge thrillers can’t help by feel like a sharp left turn for Patel. It’s all very John Wick, albeit with a Mumbai setting.

Monkey Man concerns one man’s mission to avenge the death of his mother. Patel’s ‘Kid’ is never named in the film, his history unpeeled in flashbacks (one or two too many, it truth be told), but proves all the more compelling for it. Don’t they always? Think Ryan Gosling’s Driver or Clint Eastwood’s Man with No Name.

It is behind a simian mask that we first meet the Kid. He’s earning cheap cash as a street fighter for Sharlto Copley’s sleazoid Tiger. Here he will learn his craft, learn the ways of the beast, and become a force able to take down a class who consider themselves untouchable. The elite responsible for his mother’s death.

Patel’s narrative draws its lifeblood from the story of Lord Hanuman, the Hindu monkey god. Cursed in his childhood, and robbed of his powers, Hanuman was only able to regain his strength and identity through acts of integrity, devotion, endurance and guile. It’s an impressive deviation from the John Wick model.

Perhaps leaning into the traditions Indian cinema, Monkey Man is an all in endeavour. It’s a feast of light and shade, bolstered by David Leitch inspired combat choreography, puppetry and a particularly memorable rickshaw chase through Mumbai.

Edge of your seat action aside, Patel’s social conscience proves one more worthy distinction. His strikes, each marvellously delivered and shot, pack a poignant punch.

What’s truly remarkable, however, is just how close the film came to falling through. Mobley Man was a pre-Covid project, with work on the film well underway when the pandemic set in. As did so many, the production ground to a halt.

Even as things picked up, Patel was aghast when it appeared that his passion project was heading for a streaming-only release. It was only the intervention of Get Out director Jordan Peele that saw Monkey Man transfer to cinemas. Terrific.