Kill (2024, dir. Nikhil Nagesh Bhat)

by Jack Martin | Jul 2, 2024

Certificate: 18

Running Time: 105 mins

UK Distributor: Lionsgate

UK Release Date: 5 July 2024

WHO’S IN KILL?

Lakshya, Raghav Juyal, Ashish Vidyarthi, Harsh Chhaya, Tanya Maniktala, Abhishek Chauhan, Adrija Sinha, Parth Tiwari

WHO’S BEHIND THE CAMERA?

Nikhil Nagesh Bhat (director, writer), Achin Jain, Hiroo Johar, Karan Johar, Apoorva Mehta and Guneet Monga (producers), Rafey Mehmood (cinematographer), Syed Shafqat Ali (editor)

WHAT’S IT ABOUT?

An Indian army commando (Lakshya) fights ruthless criminals on a train…

WHAT ARE MY THOUGHTS ON KILL?

If there’s one crime you can’t accuse Kill of committing, it’s false advertising. When writer-director Nikhil Nagesh Bhat’s rather brutal action movie first showed at last year’s Toronto Film Festival, critics were quick to call it one of the most violent films to emerge out of the country’s renowned film industry in years, or possibly ever. Lionsgate – who picked up the film for international distribution, thus becoming one of the first major Hollywood studios to widely release a Hindi-language Indian film – clearly saw that as a badge of honour, and proudly displayed variations of that oft-remarked quote throughout its advertising of the film, presumably in hopes of luring in fans of hyper-violent world cinema offerings like The Raid or Oldboy.

Fair play to them, for Kill is every bit as violent as it says it is. It is a brutal, ferocious, and unapologetically gory action movie that makes good on its promise of heavy violence, and then some. However, it is also a rather shallow and often unpleasant viewing experience, for while there is enough on-screen carnage to react wildly to (as many people did at my rather rambunctious screening), it’s difficult to get too caught up in its excessive and borderline sadistic nature.

The film’s plot is extraordinarily simple: Amrit (Lakshya), a highly skilled Indian Army commando, boards a train to save his beloved Tulika (Tanya Maniktala) from her wealthy father Baldev Singh Thakur (Harsh Chhaya), who has forced her into an arranged marriage with someone else. Unfortunately, said train happens to be targeted by a family of bandits, led by the sinister Beni (Ashish Vidyarthi) and his psychotic son Fani (Raghav Juyal), and Amrit must now fight his way through each and every gang member before they find and harm Tulika and her family.

With such a thin and straightforward plot, one that is as meticulously uncomplicated as can be, it’s no wonder why Kill relies far more on its exceptional levels of extravagant violence for deeper substance. After all, Bhat’s film practically relishes in its carnage as soon as Lakshya’s protagonist begins annihilating the bad guys across different variations of the same compressed train carriage set. And just like Pringles, once it pops it cannot stop; the carnage is almost relentless, as people are punched, kicked, stabbed, shot, sliced, diced, beaten to a bloody pulp, set on fire, and just about every other violent noun in the dictionary, for a vast majority of the movie (to where, after a point, you’re wondering how this guy is even still standing, let alone alive at all). In a way, Kill is a feature-length version of that one gag from Hot Shots! Part Deux, where they shoot so many people with a counter on the screen that goes past the body count on Robocop and the like, until it declares itself the “Bloodiest Movie Ever” (to better visualise this, the clip itself is below):

However, just because there’s non-stop carnage on the screen doesn’t mean that it makes for a viable substitute for actual storytelling. As stylish as a lot of the violence can be, with Bhat finding a number of impressive ways to stage fight scenes and gruesome deaths in such tight spaces, it quickly becomes pretty repetitive and not quite as fresh as it may have been once it all started. After a while, the violence starts to become unpleasant to watch, with certain characters – including our supposed hero – often going to extreme levels of torturous and murderous carnage for the sake of it, such as one rather haunting scene involving multiple bodies where, against your better judgement, you start to feel sorry for the villains more than the actual hero. There is more than a slight hint of sadism in the way that these characters dish out such brutality, to a point where you’re no longer sure who you’re meant to be rooting for or even against.

Not exactly helping matters is that there isn’t all that much to these characters either, with many of them stuck with roughly just one personality trait throughout the entire thing. There are some charismatic performances, including lead actor Lakshya who is deeply committed to his on-screen rampage, as is Raghav Juyal who expertly oozes slime and nastiness as a real boo-hiss villain if ever there was one. However, they are largely playing archetypes, as are many of the other supporting players from a hulking henchman to the helpful sidekick to the helpless love interest who is central to one of the most shocking (and arguably most gratuitous) scenes in the entire movie. Rarely do you feel enough for these predominantly stock characters to get behind them as people you’re watching for the whole journey, and much less so once you see what they’re capable of in these never-ending scenes of utter carnage that might even make the most loyal fans of The Raid a bit queasy in their stomachs.

There is definitely a passionate drive behind this film, as Bhat and his actors are firmly committed to enacting some truly over-the-top carnage that might just satisfy enough blood-thirsty (and quite possibly psychotic) audience members. However, there is such a thing as being too violent for its own good, as Kill indulges perhaps too hard in its brutality for the film to leave quite as deep a bruise as it so wishes, and ends up being a set of stylish and well-executed, but ultimately empty action sequences that, once again, you can’t blame on false advertising.

SO, TO SUM UP…

Kill is a relentlessly violent action movie that features some passionate style and firm dedication to the on-screen carnage, but after a while it becomes repetitive and even somewhat sadistic in the way that it liberally indulges in its brutality, to a point where you no longer feel anything for the otherwise thin range of characters.