Had it been made in 1980s America, Nikhil Nagesh Bhat’s film Kill might belong in that same pantheon as Commando and Rambo II of excess action films. It certainly has the narrative structure and propulsive pace of them, not to mention a degree of corniness and even the occasional one-liner. And yet a lot of it is by design not so bombastic as those -it’s raw and vitriolic in a more interesting way, not to mention a lot more gruesome. In fact, given what I’ve heard of the power of Indian film censorship, it’s astonishing this movie was allowed to be produced and distributed over there given its sheer brutality. The title really is accurate.
And it is very interesting how that violence is used, sometimes exploitatively, sometimes methodically. But either way the movie goes overboard to earn it, while accentuating it through action that is highly sophisticated and a setting that is quite logistically intense.
Lakshya stars as Amrit Rathod, a commando soldier in the Indian army whose girlfriend Tulika (Tanya Maniktala) has been engaged into an arranged marriage by her wealthy father. He proposes to her himself and boards a train to Delhi, also carrying Tulika and her family, where he intends on averting the wedding. But an elaborate armed robbery-turned attempted kidnapping and killing spree breaks out, orchestrated by a powerful gang; and Amrit of course becomes the only man on board who can fend them off, all while endeavouring to protect his beloved.
Trains have become a popular setting for action movies, I suspect due to their relative claustrophobia; from Train to Busan to Bullet Train, it’s making for quite a nifty and versatile little subgenre. So Kill isn't particularly new or distinct from a conceptual level, but what it does bring to the table is compactness. The train that this movie is set on is narrow and uncomfortable -more like an airplane aisle at times, and this makes for a tighter, more complicated space to stage the action in. But the best action movies always use limitations to their advantage, and it's no exception here -Bhat knows how to shoot the space so that the fight scenes remain dynamic and clear -meanwhile the lack of room to move around in makes the confrontations so much more visceral and threatening, especially with so many knives involved. The choreography is exceptional as well, moving in tandem with the camera and space to create some really energized scenes and beats. The actors apparently trained with MMA artists and you can tell in the versatility of their physical performance -particularly Lakshya, Abhishek Chauhan (as Amrit’s best friend and fellow soldier Viresh), and Parth Tiwari (as the brutish, seemingly unstoppable crew muscle Siddhi).
The drive of these fights come from impeccably set up motivation, and especially Bhat’s ensuring from very early on that his villains are thoroughly detestable. From Siddhi to the gang leader Beni (Ashish Vidyarthi) who becomes more unhinged as things escalate, eventually suggesting a plot everyone else thinks is mad. But most prominent is the robbery instigator, a brash and unrepentant young gun called Fani, played with the utmost malevolent charisma by Raghav Juyal in probably the stand-out performance of the film. The clear fun with which he plays this character’s pure sadistic glee is intoxicating, and he takes to the action thoroughly well -on both counts conveying a tremendous nemesis for Amrit, confident and fearless, even where he probably ought not to be. Because it is his action around the midway point of the film that completely changes its entire focus and tone, re-contextualizes the conflict, makes the violence -already ardently set up- more explosive and harrowing, and elevates the severity of stakes for both parties.
Where it was fun before, Kill becomes somewhat uncomfortable at this juncture, as it ratchets up the gory violence through Amrit essentially evolving into a John Wick killing machine. But there's relatively little of that John Wick precision and slickness to cushion the effects, no doubt in part due to the cramped conditions and lethality of the knife-wielding combat. As such, Amrit is cast in much more visceral terms that poses a curious challenge to the audience's perception of him. What humanity and emotional connection was there dips, even as Bhat still overtly maintains a level of virtue for Amrit and his side of the conflict. The opposing side are after all criminal thugs and at least one sociopath. But after a time it becomes clear who is the more vicious. And with that, other implications are drawn that contrast against what initially appeared to be a fairly conservative outlook at the start.
It's the fact of how many and how harshly the people in this film are dispatched, not just goons but innocents, that drives this point. Few can just be killed with a knife to the back, they need to be struck multiple times -in more extreme cases bludgeoned or horribly mutilated. Killing isn't enough; and though the movie is still hyper-engaging and impressive, it's not fun in the usual sense. At its most vivid, it is a mere step or two away from a horror movie. And it seems to be Bhat's intent to challenge both our desensitization to violence and our general impression of action movie archetypes -both of which he does aptly, even if he may not go so far as he could.
In spite of it all, Kill is still a restrained movie. Besides the violence it isn't particularly radical in its ideas; it doesn't blatantly shake things up the way it could, with regards to things like the relationship between protagonist and antagonist, and returns regularly throughout these latter parts of the movie to status quo moral framing. On the surface, all violence is justified; and while there certainly isn't a kind of Fight Club style disconnect between aesthetics and themes, it is a movie primed nonetheless for an audience only too willing to misunderstand its point -even with its aversion to subtlety.
Dynamic in more ways than expected, Kill is nonetheless a modern touchstone of action cinema brutality, though meticulous and self-critical in direction and design. As sceptical of the action genre as it is intrigued by it, yet still a sharply plotted and coherent narrative that puts to great use its personalities and conflicts. Watching it is a draining experience in lieu of these things, though highly purposeful -and you do walk away questioning the very tenets it and so many other movies operate under, and that have gone virtually unchallenged for decades. A good movie, albeit one I'm not particularly eager to see again.
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