Keeping It 101: A Killjoy's Introduction to Religion Podcast · Profs. Ilyse Morgenstein Fuerst and Megan Goodwin

Monkey Man!

·1 hr 8 min·4 clips

Megan Goodwin reads Monkey Man as a contemporary Ramayana retelling told through Hanuman’s perspective.

1. Keeping It 101: A Killjoy's Introduction to Religion Podcast examines Dev Patel’s film Monkey Man through religion, politics, and South Asian cultural references. 2. Megan Goodwin, a scholar of American religions, race, gender, sexuality, and politics, provides the Americanist perspective, while Elise Morgenstein-First contributes expertise in religion, Islam, race, racialization, and South Asia. 3. Goodwin and Morgenstein-First ask whether Monkey Man is a contemporary Ramayana retelling centered on Hanuman rather than Rama and Sita. 4. The hosts describe Dev Patel’s unnamed character growing up in a rural, lower-caste Hindu community threatened by law enforcement. 5. A police chief invokes God while clearing a sacred site and murdering the character’s mother, leaving scars on his palms. 6. The character pursues revenge through Queenie’s wealthy club, where powerful officials participate in trafficking, forced abortions, and sexual exploitation. 7. Baba Shakti appears as an influential guru who supports the fictional Sovereign Party and represents politicized religion. 8. The Hijra community rescues the injured protagonist, helps him recover his identity, and trains him to fight. 9. Goodwin identifies the forest, monkey mask, Hanuman imagery, and scarred hands as repeated religious signals. 10. Morgenstein-First notes that the film’s fictional city resembles Mumbai while using Hindi despite Mumbai’s linguistic complexity. 11. The hosts interpret the opening story of Hanuman swallowing the sun as a key to the protagonist’s religious symbolism. 12. Goodwin contrasts the film’s sun imagery with traditional depictions of Hanuman opening his chest to reveal Rama and Sita. 13. The protagonist’s anonymity becomes significant because other characters have names while he is called Kid, Monkey Man, or terrorist. 14. Goodwin reads the character’s changing false stories about his scars as an expression of trauma and avoidance. 15. The hosts discuss the film’s use of Vishnu-style sandals and a possible Jain prayer carved around the sandal. 16. Goodwin argues that the film removes Rama and Sita from the Ramayana while retaining Hanuman’s loyalty, ethics, and devotion. 17. Goodwin and Morgenstein-First use a conversational, joking format that repeatedly shifts between close religious analysis and criticism of action-movie conventions. 18. Their discussion also compares Monkey Man with John Wick, The Lion King, Kipling’s Mowgli stories, and wuxia while emphasizing the film’s lack of geographic and narrative clarity. 19. Listeners interested in Hanuman, Hindu nationalism, and film interpretation. 20. Listeners seeking tightly plotted action-film analysis may skip it.

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