Rewriting Cultural Stories, or Trying To

On Monkey Man, Hindu nationalism, and the struggle for better motivating legends

For possibly up to 2,000 years—and at least up to 1,400—many humans have held dedicated festivals and offered up prayers to a being both divine and terrestrial, whose sacrifice yielded the gift of eternal life, and who is prayed to in fervent belief in his connection to a greater divinity.

His name Hanuman.

And thanks to Dev Patel’s directorial debut, Mon…