Robin Hood from slums

Why is the “mankimen” from the Virgin Patel turned out to be not just an action movie, but a serious statement about social inequality and the so -called third world

The directorial debut of the famous Indian-British actor Virgin Patel, who was filming in the "millionaire from the slum", "Leo" and "Life Pi". The exciting action talks about a young participant in battles without rules, who is obsessed with the idea of ​​revenge: because of officials and mafiosi, he lost his house and beloved mother in childhood. The context is distinguished by the context of the other militants about the retaliation: the patel's film immerses the viewer in the Indian criminal underground and acutely poses issues of justice and gender equality. The film critic Oleg Tundra looked at the premiere, which many managed to call the “Indian John Wick”, and tells how the debutant Patel is trying to imitate the boilies, Scorsese and Coppole, but still remains himself.

Like many Indian children, the main character (girl Patel) grew up on folk tales, prayers and street puppet performances. But in early childhood, the land and his own house were taken away from him and his beloved mother was killed. Now the mankimen, who took the pseudonym in honor of the Hanuman Indian God, is involved in underground battles and cherishes a plan of revenge against everyone who is guilty of his misfortunes, and there are at least dozens of such a fictitious Yatan (fictional city written off). Hand -to -hand combat in the mask of a monkey and an overnight stay with other poor people - a life that new mankimen employers are not aware of. He sets up in a golden place-the prestigious Kings nightclub-a cleaner and a dishwasher and decides by any means to get into the VIP-halls to the most wealthy customers: among them are oligarchs, diplomats, local security forces and corruptions from the tax-and, of course, the killers of his loved ones.

The higher post a person takes, the more dangerous he is - such introductory ones give a senior partner to the mankimen, a swivel Hustler with a car, which is gently called "Cardi Bi". Kings do not give menu to customers with food, but with the parameters of available sex workers (among girls-retired beauty queens, models and immigrants from exotic countries), cocaine are carried in test tubes, and champagne is poured like water. The gaze of the mankimen immediately falls on one of the escorters with a tattoo of the cuckoo on the shoulder; She penetratively notes that with his squeamishness to arrogant money bags it will be difficult for him to endure such a vile work. But among the guests, Mankimen quickly meets old offenders and decides to prepare for a good moment for the attack.

Mankimen has every chance to like not only the fans of the Millionaire from the slum, which he greatly resembles, but also to those who read Hunter Thompson or the White Tiger , grew up on a “taxi driver” or “frantic bull”, or nourishes a weakness for a cult “raid”. A typical postmodern genre cinema, “Mankimen” takes from them a little by a little, hypnotizing the audience primarily the operator work of Sharon Mayr (“obsession”) and the chopped installation as from the beginning of the zero - with the jampkots, time jumps and military scenes from Asian cinema.

You cannot refuse the film to the rhythm and visual integrity, which so distinguishes it among the paintings about revenge on category B:

The city of millions humiliated and offended rarely looks so authentic and catchy on the screen.

This is, in the best sense of the word, a masculine action movie with a serious warning against violence and social injustice. Here crime has familiar outlines: all -consuming corruption, cardboard elections and street lawlessness. Hiring children help to sell weapons, and their sisters consider themselves lucky if they sell their body to the bandits of small damage. All the troubles of society with catastrophic stratification come to life in the frame without sentimentality and pathos: something is given in addition, something is told in details, without a view from above. Here are demonstrations with bloodshed, here are whole streets from trading containers, here are the homeless, here are the trans-likes from the Casta Loor, here are the next decorative elections during the main national holiday, here is the hostess of the brothel, whose office decorates the letter for contribution to the economic development of the region.

"The pain will leave as soon as he finishes you to teach",

- Hears Mankimen, entirely woven out of pain for himself, his loved ones and his homeland. Gladiator Maximus, Oldbo, Travis Bikl or Despeado of our days, he is obsessed with a typical mania of the action hero, but lives in the unimportant reality of operation, homelessness and poverty, which few of the directors manage to display on the screen. It is no accident that the Mankimena arranged a loud cinema premiere by redeeming the rights from Netflix, the director and producer Jordan drank, mercilessly cracking down with American vices in “away”, “we” and “no”.

Patel as a director pays special attention to violence normalized in Indian culture: local tales are bloodthirsty, folk heroes constantly shed blood, women in legends are hit and raped, they joke and compose songs about cruelty. To be a woman in Indian society is already a kind of punishment: from birth, you are an object of desire, transaction or a pear for beating, and this is a perception of a woman who has been going on for several thousand years, it seems, not to break. Creation and destruction, like a couple of shiva and parvati gods, are holding hands, and the cycle of violence cannot be stopped - you can only briefly get out of it the winner.

Patel himself admitted that he feels at the same time not enough British because of the color of the skin and is not enough an Indian due to the fact that he did not grow in India. In the suffered debut, he understands not only with his roots, but also with the phenomenon of the “third world”, from which millions of people rush to a better life. Is the fictional Yatana not an Indian purge, but a hyperbole of the whole society, divided into caste since time immemorial? Excessively avoiding the exotization and exploitation of Indian color, Patel told the story of Robin Hood in his own way, so that his film is felt by the skin - especially if you have encountered a policeman or official at least once, who is sure that he is allowed.