KILL
****
Directed by Nikhil Nagesh Bhat.
Starring Lakshya, Raghav Juyal, Tanya Maniktala.
Action, India, 105 minutes, Certificate 18.
Released in cinemas in the UK on 5th July by Lionsgate
Two minutes into KILL and the signs are not good.The music and cinematography have a bland daytime television quality to go along with the rote, scene setting dialogue delivered by a pair of cliched macho soldiers. The plan is for Amrit to spirit away his girlfriend Tulika, before her arranged marriage. Arranging to meet her on a train bound for New Delhi the whole tone of the film suddenly shifts when their plans are soon scuppered when a large gang, with lots of machetes, have seeded themselves throughout the train and execute their plan to hijack and rob everyone. Unfortunately Amrit hardly sees things their way, particularly when they discover Tulika and her rich father are on board. Violence ensues.
One of my favourite things in cinema is when a film's title card takes an absolute age to make its appearance. So you can imagine my delight when director Nikhil Nagesh Bhat decides to let it drop nearly an hour into the film, after a particularly jaw dropping scene of violence occurs. The title then also seems to echo the audiences and Amrit’s desire to stop this bloodthirsty gang, particularly their cruel, vain and slimy boss Fani. Up until then though, and even after that less than promising beginning, KILL has already proven itself to be one of the year's most blistering and entertaining action movies of this year. It manages to deliver on its premise, setting it on a quality scale close to but still behind TRAIN TO BUSAN but far, far ahead of the immortal clunker that was UNDER SIEGE 2: DARK TERRITORY.
Comparisons have also been made to THE RAID, that classic of action cinema that expertly combined brutal hand to hand combat within a close quarters setting. At times KILL nearly lives up to the hype with its equally brutal and expertly choreographed action scenes. Relentlessness is the name of the game here and at times it is hard not to feel pummelled down by the sheer amount of carnage on display here. Machetes and axes are often thrust at characters and only evaded by gripping the blades bare handed, leading you to wonder how the characters aren’t slipping on the blood slicked floors of the train carriages that soon resemble slaughterhouses with the sheer amount of carnage strewn around them.
A certain amount of exhaustion soon sets in, not only for the characters but the audience also. Repetition is unavoidable in this genre, no matter how many implements, including fire extinguishers, cans of lighter fluid and toilets you bring to a fight. At some point though, similar to comedy, the repetition becomes its own gag as is evidenced here, particularly in the multiple showdowns between Amrit and one particular hulking henchman which pays off in an unexpected and surprisingly affecting fashion.
Of course a US remake has already been announced, with JOHN WICK director Chad Stahelski in charge, but it feels that this could be yet another commercial exercise in futility as it is hard to imagine something as bloodily visceral as this playing in a shopping mall multiplex. Besides, with subtitles becoming more and more accepted by audiences there is no reason for KILL to find its own sizable audience tuned into its own blood crazed frequency. Get on board now.
Iain MacLeod
