monkey-man | 23rd Filmi: Toronto's South Asian Film Festival Dec 6-7 2025

Shiv, a New York City based Bengali-American photographer, is sent on an assignment to Kolkata by a Western Stock Footage company to capture the “real” India”.

While Shiv wants to show the extraordinary economic growth, wealth and vibrancy of today’s India, he is harshly reminded by his boss of the perceptions of India from a Western gaze as being one of Exoticism and Poverty.

What follows is a series of adventures and encounters where Shiv is forced to decide. Will he continue to be “The Monkey” who is being forced to dance to the tune of “The Man”; or the other way round?

Director Biography – Korok Murmu

Korok Murmu is an alumnus of St. Xaviers College, Kolkata, India (Mass Communication), and Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute.

He has directed more than 7 web series, in both regional and national streaming platforms, including the FIRST Bengali web series, Khyapa (AddaTimes). Other notable works are Kaali (Zee 5), and Vidyasagar (HoiChoi).

Director Statement

Being an avid world cinema fan, I have always been fascinated about which films the Oscars choose to recognize from around the world.

Indian cinema is the largest film industry in terms of the number of films produced, yet over the years, the Academy continues to only highlight films that are about the poverty of India (Slumdog Millionaire) or that boxes India in as Exotic Dance numbers (Naatu Naatu). The truth is Indian cinema is vast in its multilingual content, rich with complex dynamic human stories of different cultures and deeply layered in its presentation of their ever-growing economy and global entrepreneurial spirit.

We created “The Man and The Monkey” to battle the current state of the western gaze on to India. To break narrow minded views of India. To help share the arrival of today’s India onto the global map. Thru colonialism and beyond, the west often has acted as having control of places like India. And times, it still does.

The west signifies the Man and India it’s Monkey. This film has been created to challenge those ideas by going deeper to capture today’s layered India and its place in the Global Diaspora. It’s story of a New Yorker who is challenged by his own circumstances to ultimately transform from the monkey to the man.

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