Kill: Film Review
If you think of The Raid mixed with Train to Busan, you might have some idea of what to expect from Kill, India’s most violent action movie ever.
The film follows National Security Guard commando Amrit (Lakshya), who boards a train bound for New Delhi to propose to his longtime love Tulika (Tanya Maniktala) after learning of her arranged marriage. When a gang of knife-wielding thieves lock down the carriages and attack the passengers, stealing their money and possessions, Amrit and his colleague Viresh (Abhishek Chauhan) intervene and a bloodbath ensues.
Kill does exactly what it says on the tin – this is 105 minutes of brutal, shockingly graphic violence and cringe-inducingly bloody kills. The creative fight choreography really makes use of the confined space and it is very cool to watch these talented stunt performers go at each other while listening to a pumping techno score.
This is best enjoyed if you leave your brain at the door because there is no way Amrit and Viresh would have stood a chance going up against 40+ gang members with weapons while stuck on a train. It is very much a reciprocal bloodbath – the gang leader Fani (Raghav Juyal) kills someone important to Amrit, so Amrit seeks vengeance and this cycle goes round and round (although Amrit racks up substantially more kills).
However, I must admit that it got a bit repetitive and I started to lose interest. There are only so many times you can see someone getting stabbed before it becomes boring. Sure, some of the kills are inventive but a lot of them involve punching and stabbing so the novelty does eventually wear off and you become aware of the runtime, which is too long for what it is.
The dialogue is pretty iffy too, with some bangers (“I haven’t taken a peaceful dump in 10 days”) to some cringeworthy duds. People don’t come to a movie titled Kill for the dialogue but Amrit would have been more badass if his fighting talk sounded convincing and genuinely threatening instead of woefully cliche. The acting isn’t great either so the emotional beats don’t land (that might be the script’s fault) and the CGI is dodgy, particularly when it comes to fire.
This Hindi-language action thriller delivers exactly what you’d expect from a film titled Kill – many deaths in a spectacularly brutal fashion. Just don’t expect much more than that.
In cinemas from Friday 5th July
I had a similar experience last year with the last John Wick film. I never thought I’d fall asleep during the action. I enjoyed this review; insightful as always.
It just gets so repetitive and dull after a while! You can’t help it haha! Thank you for your kind comment as always.