Kill: A Lean, Mean Killing Machine

Get out of the way, if you’re faint of heart. Or hold your breath, and swing aboard for a wild, wild ride. Nikhil Nagesh Bhat’s fast-and-furious tale, Kill, is its own creature, which takes care to surround us with familiar elements, even when ratcheting the kill quotient as high as it can go.

A Desi Take on the Action Genre

Those who are fans of genre movies, and have been watching the South Koreans show us how it is done (Train To Busan, Snowpiercer), will find the desi Kill derivative. The film itself makes itself desi because of all its references, from DDLJ (can there be a pair of lovers on a train which doesn’t remind us of that iconic love-story?) to QSQT (heavy-handed Thakur dads are clearly still in vogue), to the hero’s name which is that of a film in which our boys from the Army won over an enemy, to the old ‘dhanda’ of ‘chori-chakaari’ and ‘firauti’?

A still from the film

Raising the Stakes

But it’s also savage enough to really raise the stakes - it doesn’t pussy foot about trying to save all the main characters and sacrifice the ‘sidies’ - which then gives Amrit reason to rampage the way he does. So, that’s where it comes down to. Are you a fan of movies in which piling up bodies is the only reason for their existence, in which each kill comes wrapped in stylistic flourishes which then invites a counter and that’s how it goes, back and forth?

A intense fight scene on the train

A Wild Ride Ahead

Then this one’s for you. Kill is a lean, mean killing machine. Get out of the way, if you’re faint of heart. Or hold your breath, and swing aboard for a wild, wild ride.

Amrit, the protagonist, in action