Dev Patel’s Monkey Man has wowed critics and select audiences who managed to catch the action movie at its premiere last night at the SXSW Film Festival. Dev Patel received a rare standing ovation from the crowd at the screening of the movie, along with glowing reviews for ‘Monkey Man’.
The film releases in theatres in the US on 5th April, 2024. Given the hype surrounding Monkey Man, Dev Patel’s desi roots, and also since Monkey Man is inspired by the Hindu God Hanuman, the film has huge buzz in India. Every film buff is eager to know if and when Monkey Man will release in theatres in India.
The short answer to that is that there’s no clarity on the Monkey Man India release date in theatres. Ticketing and events aggregator portal BookMyShow has scheduled the Monkey Man release date in India as 19th April, 2024. IMDb has listed the Monkey Man India release date as 5th April itself on its portal. On the other hand, there’s no word from distributors Universal Pictures on the India release date of Monkey Man yet.
So yes, official word on the Monkey Man India release date is conspicuously missing.
There’s also the issue of the belligerent climate in India currently. Any movie or series that tampers with or shows Hinduism in a bad light is hounded mercilessly. The recent pulling down of Nayanthara starrer Annapoorani from Netflix is a case in point. If Monkey Man does land in Indian theatres, it will have to ensure that there’s no hint of Hindu-bashing in the movie. It has to be an extremely sanitised version of Monkey Man that will be able to enjoy a run at Indian theatres. Any hint of disrespect towards religion, their gods, and yes, their political leaders, will not be taken lightly by the censor boards nor the audiences.
Going by early reviews of Monkey Man on social media, the film shines a spotlight on “the hypocrisy of religion, the tyranny of caste, and the oppression of a corrupt government” – everything that makes Dev Patel’s Monkey Man a pariah film in India.
As of now, the India release date of Monkey Man hangs in limbo. Let’s wait and watch whether the film gets a release in Indian theatres or goes unreleased in India like the buzzy ‘Poor Things’. If Monkey Man does release in Indian theatres, producers Dev Patel and Jordan Peele must gear up for filing of multiple FIRs against it, disruptions in screenings and what not.
Monkey Man is helmed by Dev Patel in his directorial debut. It is written by Patel, along with Paul Angunawela and John Collee. The film stars Dev Patel, Sharlto Copley, Pitobash, Sobhita Dhulipala, Sikandar Kher, Vipin Sharma, Ashwini Kalsekar, Adithi Kalkunte and Makarand Deshpande in pivotal roles. The movie was made specifically for a streaming release on Netflix, before Jordan Peele saw the big screen potential in it and decided to release it in theatres first.
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