If you enjoyed the hyper-violent 20-minute finale of Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon A Time In Hollywood” and wondered if you could just have that for the whole movie, you have the movie of your dreams in Indian revenge actioner “Kill.” Relentless bloodletting is not novel to Bollywood cinema, but the volume & degree here might represent a dubious new milestone. As might the fact that “Kill” is one of the very few Indian films acquired for semi-wide release in North America, making its way to nearly 1000 screens.
READ MORE: Summer Movie Preview: 50 Must-See Films To Watch
The acquisition by Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions itself is notable as Indian films are largely self-released, aimed solely at the affluent Indian diaspora, and have no purchase with non-South Asian audiences, save for the odd flash-in-the-pan like S. S. Rajamouli’s “RRR.” “Kill” has undoubtedly made an impression, though, winning the runner-up audience prize in the Midnight Madness section at the Toronto Film Festival last year. It is already set for an English-language remake by “John Wick” impresario Chad Stahelski and his 87Eleven collective. Much like “The Raid” films, the appeal is readily apparent.
“Kill” is essentially one long, sustained, 1-hour 40-minute action sequence, set in a train, taking place in relative real-time. With an admirably simple setup, it doesn’t waste any time getting going. Tulika (Tanya Maniktala), set for an arranged marriage against her will, boards a train from Ranchi to Delhi with her family to meet her future in-laws. Her boyfriend, National Security Guard commando (roughly the Indian equivalent of a Navy Seal) Amrit (Lakshya), also boards the train to try to derail the marriage. Soon after, a massive cabal of bandits board, terrorizing and looting the civilians, setting the fight back and action in motion.
Writer-director Nikhil Nagesh Bhat uses several shorthands to set the stage for maximum carnage. The train had few stops, and the passengers’ phones were stolen so that nobody could call law enforcement. The bandits deactivate the emergency breaks so that the train can’t be halted. All of this is in service of limiting the story to the train itself with no possibility of a reprieve or outside intervention. Action films aren’t models of plausibility, and allowances must be made for obviously artificial scenarios.
“Kill” is more akin to a slasher movie than it would like to admit. Only in this case is the slasher the “hero”. Most of the ultra-violence is committed by Amrit against the bandits. The fig leaf of self-defense was obviously deemed insufficient by Bhat for all the extra-judicial killings by a member of the armed forces. He hence resorts to the most tired, risible, dated trope for providing motivation to the male protagonist – fridging the girlfriend. Tulika is sliced and diced in slow motion and graphic fashion so the audience can cheer on Amrit butchering the bandits.
There is no interrogation of the excessive violence, and there is no curiosity or attempt by the filmmakers to contextualize it. With the wafer-thin story and characterization, there is nothing else to “Kill” besides 100 minutes of mangling and mutilation of bodies. That by itself, though, might be enough for some audiences, as evidenced by the celebratory glee and joyous exhilaration at my screening. Those seeking any commentary on violence and its depiction must find it within themselves.
The action is well-staged, given the confined conditions, and “Kill” does manage to find any number of creative methods of dispatching goons. The blood and gore effects are largely believable. Despite the limited setting, though, the geography is completely muddled, and there is no knowing who is in what coach and where they are in relation to each other. No left-to-right or right-to-left screen orientation is deployed, dissipating suspense as characters metaphysically traverse distances with little logic.
The performances, to the extent they matter, are serviceable. Lakshya is a lab-created leading man – tall, handsome, buff, but bland. The beautiful, large-eyed Tanya Maniktala fares better, as do Raghav Juyal and Parth Tiwari, two of the leading bandits. Juyal is particularly wily and charismatic. Much like Hollywood, sex and nudity in Bollywood are strictly off-limits, but violence has no constraints. The central romance is infantile and sexless though “Kill” is mercifully devoid of songs. Competent, righteous law enforcement and military personnel remain a fantasy of the patriarchal Indian film industry, a vehicle for the glorification of macho, He-Man-like male movie stars. Instead, the path to realistic insight into India, for Western viewers, might lie through the work of female artists like Payal Kapadia, who won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival this year for “All We Imagine As Light.” [C-]
“Kill” is playing now in theaters from Lionsgate.