Kill Cast/Actors: Lakshya Lalwani as Amrit Mathur, Raghav Juyal as Fani, Tanya Maniktala as Tulika, Abhishek Chauhan as Viresh, Ashish Vidyarthi as Beni, Harsh Chhaya as Baldev Singh Thakur & Others
Kill Movie Director: Nikhil Nagesh Bhat
Kill Movie Release Date: 5th July, 2024
Kill Movie Available On: Theatrical Release & likely to stream on Disney+ Hotstar digital platform
Kill Released/Available In Languages: Hindi
Kill Movie Runtime: 1h 55m
Kill Movie Critic Review:
Move over, sci-fi wars. Real, raw, bone-crunching action is here once again.
In an era where heroes have forgotten to use their fists and fighting skills, writer-director Nikhil Nagesh Bhat gives a refreshing reminder that a real world still exists.
Last week’s Kalki was typical of what’s afflicting cinema today. Make-believe, lab-created sci-fi universes where rivalries are fought with lasers, robots and special effects.
The good old times when Amitabh Bachchan would land one hard left-handed punch to fell the villain have given way to Kalki times of special effects replacing human fighting skills.
In such mind-numbing AI times, Nikhil throws it all out, large universes and big stars too.
Picking new and relatively non-star names and plonking them in the confined space of a running train, the filmmaker unleashes unfiltered gore all through the railway route to Delhi.
Two well-trained NSG commandoes, Amrit Mathur (Lakshya Lalwani) and Viresh (Abhishek Chauhan) are aboard the train that also carries Tulika (Tanya Maniktala) and her family, led by bigshot dad, Baldev Singh Thakur (Harsh Chhaya). There has been a swift introduction to them in an earlier sequence. Amrit and Tulika are a couple. Powerful dad, the kind that wields a gun and shoots the air at family functions, has forcibly got her engaged to someone else. Oh dear, is Harsh Chhaya going to reprise his role of the richly abusive Atwal from the web series Undekhi?
Fortunately, Nikhil has other plans for everybody and his going against the tide is most welcome.
The patriarch-puppeteer of a bandit family (Ashish Vidyarthi) is somewhere on the road with his mad lot of relatives aboard the train.
“Chicken chowmein ready,” flashes on their mobiles and the bandits move.
One ruthless hammer splits open the skull of the ticket collector. (The hammer could be replaced by any killing cutter and the TC could be any other petty railway official but you get what’s in store.)
The build-up is terrific. Mobiles have been jammed, the chain has been cut, the designated bogies have been shuttered down from the rest of the train, cops and drivers have no clue what’s going on, and the train’s merrily speeding down the tracks unaware of what’s happening in its belly.
That’s when four departments come into their own to aid Nikhil.
Mayur Sharma’s set design (variety within a train that distracts you from claustrophobia), cinematographer Rafey Mehmood (lighting that unobtrusively changes mood enabling visual clarity even in darkened compartments), action choreographers Se-Yeong Oh and Parvez Shaikh (throwing passengers around, nabbing them, stabbing them, jabbing them, ejecting them out of bogies, all remorselessly ruthlessness), with Vikram Montrone and Shashwat Sachdev providing appropriate background notes and Foley work (sound effects). When Amrit gets into action and he’s atop the train there’s a version of ‘Maar sakay na koyi’ chuffing him up in the background.
It is a wee bit disappointing when commandoes Amrit and Viresh take on the dacoit khandaan but land gentlemanly marshmallow punches on them that can hardly win the fight. There’s even a sequence where Amrit elaborately ties up a bandit and dangles him forever outside the door. Totally pointless.
But once there’s a turning point – a lean-mean Amrit out to avenge the dead and protect the living – there’s a visible exhale and cheer of relief. Never mind how monstrously he gouges eyes, smashes skulls and how many gallons of blood are spilled, Nikhil has you whistling, egging him to be a man and hurt the dacoits as badly as they’ve hurt the passengers.
There are many points where the director scores. He writes in a tender moment for father and daughter where an impressed Thakur looks at Amrit’s selfless fighting and asks Tulika, “Fauji?” When she nods, he wonders, “Bataya kyun nahi?” even as the action relentlessly hurtles down the track. And dacoits mingle with passengers to create brief points of confusion. Thakur is also not the usual rich man reeking of meekness, he’s ready to pitch in.
Amrit is given an emotional spine for turning into a killing machine and the showcasing of Lakshya Lalwani and Raghav Juyal, two new/underused talents, is neatly divided. Amrit’s a man in love, trained to also fight like a beast when he has to. And Lakshya Lalwani is introduced with ribbed finesse, holding his own against 40 murderous bandits, making an impressive debut.
Raghav Juyal was effetely used in Salman Khan’s Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan (2023). But, as the maniacally ruthless Fani, the petrol pump attendant who boards the train to join the family business of dacoity, Raghav is outstanding. Dialogue writer Ayesha Syed writes him some of the best lines of the film, the director allowing the bandit to draw applause for dialogue delivery that’s even more impactful than his punches. From a menacing query to Tulika on which face wash she uses for that beautiful skin to bringing Virat and Dhoni into his remarks, Raghav keeps up the comic-menace when he pats his dad (Ashish Vidyarthi) all over and asks, “Where’s your pallu?” It’s his version of the ‘choodiyan pehen lo’ cinematic cliché when a man shows weakness.
Looking at the heaps of bloodied bodies that Amrit has piled up, a rattled Raghav asks, “Aisa kaun maarta hai bae?”. Amrit is scolded that he’s no longer a ‘rakshak’ (protector) but a ‘rakshash‘ (demon) and Fani sings the ‘Nanha munna rahi hoon’ tune with ‘Toota phoota sipahi hoon’ while he cuts Amrit down to size. There’s a simple but outstanding line where he schools his father who tries to bring some humanity into him. Fani tells the parent, “Paalo billi kutta (nurture cats and dogs), galat faimi nahi (not misconceptions). We are a family of dacoits.”
Another original touch is the grief of the dacoits in the midst of the bloody mayhem where they too mourn the gruesome deaths of their family members.
Bashing a man’s head with a fire extinguisher, watching Ashish Vidyarthi literally on fire, using fire to attract stations to a speeding train in trouble, the action keeps moving.
There are flaws too. 1) It does get a tad repetitive with punched bodies on both sides getting up with regularity to jump into the fighting fray again. 2) Although the chain has been cut off, at one point Ashish Vidyarthi asks his boys to pull the chain. Huh? 3) There’s also a weak attempt to bring in feminism by having a couple of women suddenly waking up to help Amrit badger the baddies. 4) You do wonder why a man as rich and powerful as Baldev Singh Thakur is travelling by train in times when chartered planes would suit his stature a lot more. 5) Also, at the end of the carnage, when a fatally wounded Amrit gets off the train, waves of soldiers overrun the platform but not one goes near the fauji who needs urgent medical attention.
However, for much-needed relief from lab and computer-composed action, the real, raw jabs make for refreshingly new cinema, stylish and unabashed.
Kill – Watch Or Not?: Watch, watch. Unless you’re the squeamish type that can’t stand bludgeoned brains and split spleens.
Kill Movie Review Score Rating: 3.5 out of 5 (i.e. 3.5/5)
Kill Official Trailer:
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