The Karan Johar and Guneet Monga-produced Kill is a Bollywood gore fest like no other. It is a relentless blood-soaked ride for about 106 minutes that will test your capacity for graphic violence and make you squirm in your seat even if you thought you had the stomach for it.
Directed by Nikhil Nagesh Bhat, the plot itself is refreshingly uncomplicated. Amrit — Lakshya in a phenomenal feature film debut — is an NSG commando whose ladylove Tulika (Tanya Maniktala) is being married off to someone else by her influential father Bhaldev Singh Thakur (Harsh Chhaya). Tulika and her family board a train from Ranchi to New Delhi for the wedding festivities. Amrit, accompanied by his colleague Viresh (a superb Abhishek Chauhan), gets on the same train with the plan to elope with Tulika.
Their journey turns into a nightmare when a gang of dacoits led by the sadistic Fani (played with chilling relish by Raghav Juyal) lays siege to the train. Fani is struck by Tulika’s beauty but when she injures him in self-defence, he kills her and throws her off the train.
Amrit, who has been busy fighting the goons in a separate compartment until now, learns about Tulika’s death, and what follows is blood-curdling mayhem. Fuelled by rage and armed with surprising combat skills, Amrit begins to dismantle Fani’s operation one kill at a time.
Let’s not mince words: Kill is dizzyingly violent. From arterial spurts to bone-crunching takedowns, director Bhat doesn’t flinch from showing a brutal Amrit on the rampage. There’s a lingering sense of unease all through, a feeling that Bhat is constantly pushing the boundaries of just how much violence is acceptable.
But here’s the thing: it works. The violence, though unsettling, is meticulously choreographed and balletic (kudos to South Korean action choreographer Se-Yeong Oh). Bhat uses slow-motion and extreme close-ups to turn every kill into a horrifying spectacle, a morbid opera where blood splatters become the score.
The aesthetic of Kill is grimy, industrial — unlike any Karan Johar film you could think of. The train itself becomes a character, its claustrophobic corridors and flickering lights amplifying the tension, much like the pulsating action thrillers such as Bullet Train (2022) or Train to Busan (2016). Rafey Mahmood’s cinematography is masterful, capturing the frenzy of the fight sequences while also conveying the suffocating atmosphere within the train compartments.
Kill also boasts a score that throbs with a dark, electronic energy. The music by Shashwat Sachdev complements the on-screen brutality, adding a layer of urgency and nervousness.
While Amrit is the hero of this tale, it is Raghav Juyal as Fani who leaves you unnerved and steals the show. Fani is a one-man wrecking crew with a high kill count and Juyal strips this character of all sentimentality, his eyes blazing with an almost primal determination.
P.S. Parthi Tiwari as one of the dacoits deserves a special mention for his stupendous action skills. And in his brief cameo, Ashish Vidyarthi makes a mark as the ganglord of the dacoits.
