Haider Khan is a photographer and a director in the Indian film industry. He was the winner of the National Award, India, in the 2022 Sony World Photography Awards. In 2024, he placed second in the wildlife & nature category at the Sony World Photography Awards. His directorial debut feature film “Rohingya – People from Nowhere” was released on 15 November 2021 and has won International Awards. His documenatry, “Langur The Man Monkey” was selected to compete at the 29th Kolkata International Film Festival and has already screened in Tehran International Short Film Festival.
“Langur The Man Monkey” review is part of the Submit Your Film Initiative
The film begins in music video style, focusing on a man with body paint and a mask that make him resemble a monkey as he commutes by train and walks the streets, inevitably drawing attention to himself. The next scenes show him performing at various festivities and shows, with his monkey-attire this time including a long tail. Scaring people, jumping onto the shoulders of men, playing with kids, dancing, all highlight a true performer.
As soon as the music video style tones down, we get to know the man behind the monkey. His name is Jacky Wandwani, and he begins narrating his dramatic life story, which includes losing his father at a very young age and growing up in poverty. He recounts meeting Guruji, who introduced him to monkeys and told him to treat them as family. Later on, and as his fashination with monkeys increased, he told his mentor that he wants to become a monkey himself. That begins a “trip” through watching, studying, and essentially living as close as possible to monkeys, until he became as close to one as a human could. Soon, his trip into entertaining people also begun.
A very interesting part of the documentary comes when the director turns the camera to Wandwani’s mother, who is quite vocal on how she considers her son’s endeavours silly. This sentiment is echoed by Wandwani himself, particularly when he speaks about his loneliness, which sets in whenever he is not performing, adding another layer to his portrait. Lastly, his meeting with Haider Khan and how it ultimately led to this film brings the narrative to a fitting conclusion.
Haider Khan has come up with a very interesting movie that highlights a truly unique person from all angles, even in just the 30 minutes of the short. That Wandwani is presented as not only a performer but also as a human being emerges as one of the best traits of the movie, while adding a very appealing dramatic hypostasis to the documentary. At the same time, the combination of footage of him talking and his performances, along with a small break when his mother talks, allows the story to unfold nicely, a trait that should also be attributed to the director’s editing.
Duleep Regmi’s cinematography is also impressive, with the colorful days and the subtly lighted nights being impressive to watch on occasion, while the moments when Wandwani is interacting with monkeys are induced with a more documentary-like realism. Granted, the director does overdo it a bit with the music video moments, but this is not a significant problem and does not harm the overall quality to a significant degree.
“Langur The Man Monkey” is an excellent documentary that thoroughly presents a truly unique man while remaining entertaining from beginning to end.
