Patel's shaggy directorial debut is surprisingly serious

Dev Patel looks good punching people in a suit. In the moments before he launches into Monkey Man, his tall, elegant frame looms menacingly, limbs hanging loose and poised, eyes shining beneath twisted locks of black hair. When he hits, it's with whipcrack fluidity and control, but also emotional conviction – there's a reasonable desperation or anger to the way he moves.

Patel is one of the actors most often fancast as James Bond, so it's very exciting to see this taekwondo black belt flex his action star muscles in Monkey Man, a feverish revenge film set in a fictional India that also marks his directorial debut. The film can easily be seen as an audition tape; now we know he can evoke the brutal edge as well as the smoldering stares. On the other hand, the film heralds a restless filmmaker who may not be content to spend the next 15 years toiling in the franchise mines, even the most luxuriously appointed. Patel clearly has images in his head and things to think about.

That Monkey Man would be handsome and brutal was clear from the trailer. What may be more surprising is how slow and serious it is. The plot is sparse and simple, but it takes a full two hours to wind up. In between bursts of intense hand-to-hand action, the film takes its time soaking in richly colored, dirty visuals and seething with rage at India's inequality, discrimination and corruption.