Kill - What a Bloody Rush!

KILL

Hindi / Action / Thriller

106 mins

Disney+ Hotstar

Disclaimer - Extreme violence, Gore - John Wick is "Toy Story" in front of this. Only for fans of gory, bloody action movies.

This movie set the film festival scenes alight in 2023 with raving reviews by some very credible movie critics. I was waiting for the clock to tick over to 12 am on 06 Sep to get at it on streaming, having missed it in theatres. At about 57 mins when the title of the movie appears, i was just glued in. 

I spent all of today (a working day!) to find pockets of time  to squeeze out the remaining 50 mins of the movie. I watch a lot of movies and television, but very few make me feel so feverish to share my thoughts this urgently. If you enjoy the genre, you HAVE to watch this film. This movie is Die Hard on a Train (quoting  from my favourite movie critic - Baradwaj Rangan ). 

An NSG Commando is  travelling on the same train as his girl's family. He had come prepared with his colleague to elope with the girl on her engagement day. The train is looted by Dacoits . The girl is from a big family, so one of the smarter ones wants to make a ransom play - something happens and then all hell breaks loose!

The movie is an unbelievably breathless symphony of bone crunching, blood gushing , slashing, thudding and so much more. The technical crew really MAKE the  movie what it is. The cinematography in the closed spaces (Rafey Mahmood) is awesome. The editing is slick (inspite of some lovey dovey scenes, it is still well "cut" as a movie).  

The action directors and the sound editor  are truly at the helm of this orchestra of cuts, nicks, slashes, sploshes, thumps, thulps , gulps, pokes, gurgles- you hear and feel it all! The throbbing background score succeeds in maintaining the thrill.

The deaths are ingenious too. While you may have seen a couple of these in some Telugu movies, but they play out more realistically (than to the caricaturishly slow mo). A guys neck is knocked down to crack, a knife slices through a face, one guy is harpooned with a knife into his mouth , one particular villain even becomes "Ghost Rider"  (you will know what i mean)  The movie makes the beheading in "Animal" feel like a trailer ! This is really not for the faint hearted

The lead Lakshya is solid, he looks the part and while some scenes do show the double, he seems to have done the heavy lift - working expertly in the tight spaces - getting the choreography spot on! Raghav Juyal (recently featured in Gyarah Gyarah ) does a superb job as the main antagonist. His dialogue and manners are on point and you really want him to be pulped at the end! Ashish Vidhyarthi  plays the leader of the pack, seemingly out of odds for the first time!

The movie is not perfect - a few lines are too filmy, specially for a movie of this type. There may be a lack of reason and logic. I had bloody good time watching. Writer and director Nikhil Nagesh Bhat gives Hindi cinema a movie which stands on its own in the league of Die Hard, Bullet Train (the new one), John Wick or any of the Raid movies.

PS:- Imagine a movie like this opens with the slow hum of "Kuch Kuch Hota Hai" - yes! - Karan Johar is one of the producers! (credit where due).