Clint Eastwood. Mel Gibson. Dev Patel?

It’s hard to believe that the likable British star of “Slumdog Millionaire,” “Lion” and “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” could be the next actor to become a hard-charging action director. But Patel’s filmmaking debut, “Monkey Man,” makes a bone-breaking case for just that.

The film, which Patel also co-wrote and stars in, is a modern urban revenge thriller inspired — in a twisted way, like its protagonist — by tales of the Hindu monkey deity Hanuman. Socially conscious themes slither through the scenario alongside spiritual sentiments, but Patel’s real game is given away when an arms dealer offers up a monster handgun and says, “You like John Wick? This just came in.”

Patel’s out for blood and extracts it in dazzling ways. Complex, kinetic chases and brawls display his overall command of the material; one-on-one fights get in there and personal, making viewers feel every jab and stab. The filmmaker acknowledges the influence of South Korean revenge cinema (a stairwell gang-up is like a vertical version of the signature sequence in 2003’s “Oldboy”) and “The Raid” Indonesian martial arts film franchise spectaculars. There’s a desperate, angry energy to Patel’s fighting and filming style, however, that hits in its own, unique way.

Set in a fictional Indian city called Yatana, the movie introduces Patel’s character Kid wearing, yes, an ape mask. He plays the villain in an underground, bare-knuckle fight club, and appears numb from getting the stuffing beaten out of him nightly for money. Though he is something of a masochist, it emerges that Kid is dead set on going after the rich and powerful who burned his village, scarred his hands and killed his beloved mother when he was a boy. This involves worming his way into an impossibly posh brothel where the bad guys party. It’s a coke-dusted, high-rise old boys club that couldn’t contrast more with the grimy streets below where destitute families sleep.

This plan does not go smoothly; nothing goes smoothly for Kid. But it leads to some great, one-of-a-kind set pieces, such as an absurd high-speed chase involving a souped-up tuk-tuk rickshaw, Italian sports cars and small fleets of other, disposable vehicles. There’s also a mind-blowing training montage a la “Rocky,” but with a sack of rice punching bag substituting for sides of beef, and set to a blazing tabla beat (performed by Bay Area musician Zakir Hussain) rather than “Gonna Fly Now.”

Those scenes take place in a refuge for hijras, the traditional transgender communities of South Asia. It’s immensely cool how the hijras help Kid out and empower themselves in the process. Other sociopolitical points, such as how religious phonies and Hindu nationalists manipulate the populace, should be clear to anyone from anywhere with a brain.

The production itself involved cross-cultural improvisation. COVID pandemic lockdowns coincided with the filming start date, forcing a last-minute location change from India to a quarantinable hotel complex on the Indonesian island of Batam. Crew members had to double as actors. Cell phones and GoPros were employed when cameras broke, and a rope rig was devised to replace a busted crane. Set dressing was a Herculean effort.

The resulting visuals may not always look the slickest or 100% authentic (nor should they; “Monkey Man” is set in a fantasy India where superhuman athleticism and endurance occurs), but they are palpably gritty and immersive. Patel takes us inside Kid’s vengeance-fueled world view with the same intense intimacy he applies to the man’s external battles.

It’s a different kind of action movie from a new kind of actor-director.

Bob Strauss is a freelance writer.