Kill (2023)

Going into most action movies, it’s helpful to know where one should set their individual bar as an audience member, but “Kill” is the rare one to not only set the bar for its audience, but also be incredibly specific in where that bar is and what reaching it entails.

In the case of director Nikhil Nagesh Bhat’s “Kill”, the movie plops an Indian commando onto a train overtaken by a gang of bloodthirsty thieves, with his estranged girlfriend as one of the hostages, and promises non-stop action of the bloodiest and most lethal sort. Bar reached and then some, “Kill”!

Trailer

Cast

Indian TV star Lakshya makes his film debut as the protagonist of “Kill”, Amrit, with Tanya Maniktala playing his girlfriend Tulika, while Raghav Juyal plays the villainous gang leader Fani.

Abhishek Chauhan plays Amrit’s close friend Viresh, with Ashish Vidyarthi also appearing as Beni.

Additionally, the supporting cast of “Kill” includes Adrija Sinha as Aahna, Harsh Chhaya as Baldev Singh Thakur, along with Parth Tiwari in the role of Siddhi and Akshay Vichare as Ujala.

Plot

Hotshot Indian army commando Amrit is just returning from a training exercise with his unit, only to discover that his girlfriend Tulika has been betrothed to another man.

Knowing that the love between them is still strong, Amrit along with his friend and fellow solider Viresh hop on Tulika’s train bound for New Delhi in order to prevent her arranged marriage and reunite the couple.

While the plan initially seems to go off without a hitch with Tulika overjoyed to see her old flame again, Amrit’s focus is forced to turn to a much more life-threatening situation when the train is hijacked by a gang of thieves under the leadership of the ruthless Fani.

Though Amrit is a decorated soldier, even he realizes how overwhelming the situation is, but he nevertheless soon finds himself the best hope of survival for the hostages against their bloodthirsty hijackers.

Action

“Kill” Has a Quick Build-Up then Gets the Show on the Road

A movie titled “Kill” is about as straightforward about its content and subject matter as any in the history of filmmaking has ever been. And “Kill” goes a step further in moving right in for the kill with just the bare minimum of build-up and character work to take the train out of the station.

Once Amrit reunites with Tulika on the train, it takes about five minutes for all hell to break loose, and break loose it does in some of the most harrowing, heart-stopping action scenes this year.

Director Nikhil Nagesh Bhat and fight choreographers Se-yeong Oh and Parvez Shaikh really understand that the terrain of “Kill” dictates the action much more overtly than that of most action movies, and use the environment of the train as a character itself.

Amrit’s weapon of choice might be of the bladed variety, but every wall, window, mirror, and sink is a weapon of war wielded with battlefield vigor in the action scenes of “Kill”.

The tightness of the environment itself also really forces Amrit to get creative in his attacks and defenses, and the close-quarter action of “Kill” emerges as the best of its sort in ages with a commendable flair of “The Raid” in the practice of a hero adapting to his environment and a swarm of opponents.

Of course, that also makes one thing even more prominent and upfront in the train battle of “Kill”.

“Kill” is a VERY Intense Indian Actioner

“Kill” has been billed pre-release as a thoroughly intense and very bloody Indian action movie, and the marketing is spot on.

Between its title and the many graphic ways passengers and hijackers alike meet their respective fates, “Kill” could have easily been a slasher movie aboard a locomotive – and, indeed, from the perspective of the bad guys, it just about becomes one once Amrit really takes the gloves off about halfway through.

One of the bigger novelties of “Kill” is that the movie itself withholds showing the actual title card of “Kill” on-screen until about the halfway mark, and that itself acts as a line of demarcation of sorts in how Amrit steps up his approach to battling the hijackers by that point of the movie.

A minor spoiler warning, Amrit goes from an overwhelmed but determined soldier trying to save lives in the first half of “Kill” to an unrestrained war machine in its second half. What that also sets up is the other big novelty of “Kill”.

“Kill” Brings Indonesian-Style Action to India

The Indonesian action movie scene has more or less set the template for close-quarters, take-no-prisoners, and hard, R-rated martial arts action since the debut of “The Raid” movies.

However, compared to the worldwide reverence accorded to Hong Kong-style action, there have been surprisingly few attempts within other Asian markets or internationally to similarly follow the template of Indonesian-style fight choreography.

The only real example that springs to mind is Tiger Shroff’s 2016 Bollywood martial arts actioner “Baaghi” with its decidedly “Raid”-esque finale, and “Kill” is perhaps the only other major attempt to transplant Indonesian action into the Indian action movie industry.

In doing so, “Kill” is all about business in a way that Indonesian martial arts filmmaking has on a lock.

Compared to the aforementioned “Baaghi”, the average Indonesian actioner, or Dev Patel’s Indian-set, Indonesian-filmed, Hollywood-produced “Monkey Man”, “Kill” is much less codified and traditional in its implementation of Amrit and his enemies fighting skills.

In “Kill”, the lethal finesse of Indonesian action gets dialed up even further in the brutality department, with survival and revenge (in multiple directions) being the driving force behind every punch, kick, head-butt, and slash of a blade.

With the DNA of Indonesian action finally expanding outside of its native land, “Kill” pushes it to its most ruthless extremes, clearly inviting the entire Indian action movie scene to join it along the way.

Summary

For 105 minutes, “Kill” puts superhuman effort into delivering Indonesian-style action with a “Die Hard on a train” twist and “Friday the 13^th” levels of horror movie gore, and is every bit as efficient at its job as Amrit himself.

“Kill” keeps it decidedly simple on character development and a very straight-forward plot, and even manages to keep the audience on their toes with some quite unexpected twists on its largely streamlined train track.

“Kill” doesn’t reinvent the wheel of a one-man army action hero facing impossible odds against a gang of terrorists in a centralized (albeit mobile) location, but it definitely gets a ton of mileage, and carnage, out of it!

Favourite Quotes

• “Tell them I’m coming for her!” (A very angry Amrit, to one of the train’s hijackers.)
• “Who kills like this? You’re no hero, you’re a f***ing monster!” (One of the hijackers, to Amrit.)

Trivia

• “Kill” had its premiere on September 7, 2023 during the Midnight Madness marathon of 2023’s Toronto International Film Festival.
• Some of Se-yeong Oh’s other credits as fight choreographer, stunt performer, and stunt coordinator include “Snowpiercer”, “Avengers: Age of Ultron”, “Junglee” with Vidyut Jammwal, “War” with Tiger Shroff and Hrithik Roshan, “578 Magnum”, “Tiger 3”, and “Fighter” also with Hrithik Roshan.
• Additionally, Se-yeong Oh also did stuntwork on the 2019 South Korean movie “Parasite”, which won the Best Picture Oscar at the 2020 Academy Awards.
• Some of Parvez Shaikh’s other credits in stunts and fight choreography include “Sultan”, “Tiger Zinda Hai”, “Dhakaad”, “War” with Tiger Shroff and Hrithik Roshan, “Saaho”, “Junglee” with Vidyut Jammwal, and “Heropanti 2”.
• Some of Nikhil Nagesh Bhat’s other movies as director include “Saluun”, “The Gone Game”, “Hurdang”, and “Apurva”.
• On July 1, 2024, an English-language Hollywood remake of “Kill” was announced, with Lionsgate and 87Eleven Entertainment to co-produce the remake and “John Wick” franchise director Chad Stahelski attached as producer.

Film Rating: 8/10

“Kill” is now playing in theaters worldwide! Have you seen “Kill”?

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