Kill
Indian action-thriller is over-the-top and overlong, but it's still largely killer and little filler.
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You’ve likely seen or heard of “Snakes of a Plane.” How about “’The Raid’ on a Train”? Well, that’s pretty much what writer/director Nikhil Nagesh Bhat’s “Kill” (in select theaters beginning Thursday, July 4) is in a nutshell and it’s a bloody blast.
Amrit (Lakshya) is an army commando who’s in love with Tulika (Tanya Maniktala). Unfortunately, she’s been betrothed to another man by her wealthy industrialist father Baldev Singh Thakur (Harsh Chhaya). Baldev, Tulika and the rest of their family board a train for her impending nuptials. Amrit and his buddy Viresh (Abhishek Chauhan) follow suit in hopes of breaking up the engagement with a better proposal. (Eat your heart out, Benjamin Braddock!) Also boarding the train is a band of 40 thieves led by father-son duo Beni (Ashish Vidyarthi) and Fani (Raghav Juyal), who have conflicting ideas about how to best go about their nefarious business. It’s now up to Amrit and Viresh to run roughshod over these rebels in a two-versus-40 battle royal in order to save Tulika, her family and their fellow passengers.
Bhat’s “Kill” is all that and a bag of chipped bones and teeth. It’s admittedly a bit overlong at nearly two hours and likely would’ve played better at an hour and half, but “Kill” is unabashedly an exercise in overkill that’s largely killer and little filler. Lakshya’s Amrit mercs more fools than Michael Myers and Jason Vorhees combined … on steroids … and cocaine. A baddy gets his brains bashed in with a fire extinguisher like this is Gaspar Noé’s “Irreversible” or some shit. There’s a slow stabbing that’ll make you wince like you’re watching a similar sequence from Steven Spielberg’s “Saving Private Ryan.” Suffice it to say, this ain’t for the faint of heart.
Bhat opts to wait 45 minutes into the movie before dropping a delayed title card – a technique I adore, which ushers in a whole new level of gore. The action up until this point was like a seven or eight out of 10. From this moment onward it’s an 11. When I interviewed Bhat (please be on the lookout for it) he said once he got a taste for blood he needed more. The proof is certainly in the pudding … the blood pudding. Props to him, his action directors Se-yeong Oh and Parvez Shaikh and lead performers Lakshya and Juyal for making what’s been referred to as the most violent movie in India’s history. I, much like Bhat, have a taste for blood (at least cinematically … I’m not a vampire or nothing) and need more. I’m game for whatever exercise in over-the-top ass-kickery he wants to unleash upon us next.