KILL -- Brutal, Hyperviolent Indian Actioner Provides Familiar Thrills

Review by Daniel Lima

Lakshya in Kill. Courtesy of Roadside Attractions.

I distinctly remember that in the fall of 2023, I was listening to an interview with stuntman/action director Lee Whittaker about his experiences working within the various Indian film industries (on Action Talks with Eric Jacobus, highly recommended). At one point, he was asked whether it would ever be possible for an Indian filmmaker to make something akin to the Indonesian film The Raid, that is, a stripped-down, brutal action film that abandons the ample melodrama and gravity-defying opulence of many Indian blockbusters in favor of a more grounded genre experience. It’s a question that made me chuckle, as while the interview was months old, the Hindi actioner Kill had just premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, and it promised precisely that.

The film has consistently been described as “The Raid on a Train,” and there’s no better way to do so. An army commando finds himself on a train that dozens of bandits have taken over, and it’s up to him to take them down. The film is under two hours, set almost entirely in one location, the fights are visceral and violent to an almost shocking degree, and there is only the barest amount of narrative groundwork laid. In short… it’s The Raid on a train.

Obviously, the selling point here is the action, as hyperviolent and frantic as one would expect, given its obvious influences. Pitted against such an overwhelming force, the protagonist is forced to use every tool at his disposal against his foes, including the claustrophobic environment. To that end, the choreography departs from the typical Indian style of pseudo-superheroics, instead adopting a more realistic approach. Well, as realistic as carving through forty armed men can be.

Throughout the many, many fights, characters utilize whatever weapons they can, from knives to canes to guns to fire extinguishers. Navigating the confined space provides an additional challenge and aids in combat, restricting movement but allowing one man to take on many without being swarmed. While limited to only one setting, there is a deliberate attempt to break up the visual staleness of the surroundings and introduce new dynamics to the action: taking a fight to the bathroom, opening a locked door while a friend provides cover, facing down one particularly large adversary. And, of course, all of this is uncompromisingly bloody, with an almost overwhelming amount of stabbing, mauling, cutting, and killing.

It’s all admirably intricate, as one could expect from the action director pairing of Parvez Shaikh and Se-yeong Oh (who previously collaborated on films such as War and Tiger 3). However, it cannot be helped that there is a sameness to all the action, largely because of a lack of variance in both the actual choreography and the intensity of the action. Violence breaks out about fifteen minutes into the film and carries on at the same level for the next hour and a half. Considering the premise, we will inevitably see the number of villains dwindle, and there is a dwindling return on the impact of all the gore. Worse yet, there is little to distinguish all the combatants while they are fighting, as impressive as it all is to coordinate. Watching The Raid, there is a clear difference in how all the characters fight, befitting their personalities and the martial abilities of their actors. That personal touch is lacking here, and by the end, it all blends together. ​

Lakshya in Kill. Courtesy of Roadside Attractions.

Adding to this effect is the strength of the narrative, or lack thereof. As silly as it seems to critique a film like this for how it establishes its ensemble, it must be said that the short amount of time spent with them is not enough to engender any strong feelings about whether they survive. There is an atmosphere that anyone may die at any moment, but it is impossible to care, since they are all so thinly sketched anyway. If anything, the perfunctory romance that serves as the protagonist’s motivation actually does the movie a disservice, as the treatment of the love interest feels almost distasteful. Even the villains, as dastardly and cruel as they are, never feel particularly threatening to the commando hero.

None of this would matter if this movie delivered action that felt as fresh and exciting as its inspiration. Unfortunately, we already have The Raid, and plenty of other action movies have taken their own cues from that film’s brand of grounded martial arts mayhem. This raises the question: why is the thought of an Indian take on this same style appealing in the first place? As over-the-top and bloated as many Indian blockbusters can be, it is a style that other industries around the world are slow to draw influence from. Is it not more exciting to see the lengths that minds like Anbariv, Dhilip Subbarayan, or even an imported talent like Yannick Ben push the homegrown approach to stage action, rather than see the likes of Bollywood, Tollywood, and Kollywood adopt the same thing everyone else is?

All that said, it’s not like Kill is not successful at what it does. For those looking for frenetic, close-quarters combat that leaves pools of blood on the floor and ears ringing with the sounds of crunching bones and disembowelment, this will supply that. Despite its missteps, it’s not even a bad version of its premise. Seeing the diversity and singular nature of Indian action cinema today, however, we should expect more than just “The Raid on a Train.”

Kill hits theaters July 4.

Rating: 3.5/5