Back in the 1960s, Hollywood hit a bit of a snag: the Golden Age was over, the Hays Code was petering out but still in effect up to 1968, and the studio system was falling to the wayside. While the decade produced some undeniable Hollywood classics (Dr. Strangelove, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Hud, Psycho, The Apartment), hyper-commercialization took hold and, in spite of these incredible gems, artistry took a fair beating.
Meanwhile, France, Brazil, Japan and Czechoslovakia experienced peaks in new wave movements, and timeless directors like Frederico Fellini released magnetic works such as 8 1/2 and La Dolce Vita in Italy off the cusp of their neorealism movement. As Hollywood figured out its new landscape, cinema thrived around the world — and, arguably, we're currently in the midst of watching history repeat itself.
Dwindling box office numbers have dominated much of the movie discourse this year — a result of the fact that, generally speaking, 2024's movie offerings have been simply satisfactory. (As our Editor-In-Chief has described it: "2024: Year of the 7/10.") Hollywood's adequacy has only been emphasized by the tremendous offerings from international cinema: La Chimera, Perfect Days, Robot Dreams, Godzilla Minus One — and now we can add Kill to the list, an action-packed thriller hailing from India.
Making its premiere at TIFF last year (where it was voted in as the first runner-up for the People's Choice Award: Midnight Madness), Kill, for the most part, restricts its drama to a train bound for New Delhi. On board is Tulika (Tanya Maniktala) and her family, including her father, a wealthy and important businessman. Recently betrothed to another, Tulika's heart belongs to Amrit (Lakshya), an army commando who gets on the same train in an effort to derail her engagement, unbeknownst to Tulika.
As Amrit and Tulika plan for a future against her parent's wishes, a group of bandits catch the train with the intention of robbing the passengers. Led by Fani (Raghav Juyal), the amateur gang finds more than they bargained for when Amrit and his fellow soldier Viresh (Abhishek Chauhan) make themselves known. The situation quickly gets out of control, with Fani eventually recognizing Tulika's father and Amrit and Viresh going to extremes to protect Tulika and the other passengers.
Kill's action draws favourable comparisons to the hallway fight scenes of Park Chan-wook's Old Boy and Gareth Evans's The Raid: an enclosed environment, one-versus-many. The claustrophobia of the compact train elevates the violence and action, creating some intense and visceral visuals. Unsurprisingly, given the title of the film, Kill contains some incredibly gruesome sequences, much to my macabre delight.
Bollywood is known for producing long, drawn-out films, but writer-director Nikhil Nagesh Bhat keeps Kill at a tight 102 minutes, never a moment wasted as the film moves at a clip with the appropriate ebbs and flows allowing audiences to catch their breath. The actual narrative and dialogue don't offer anything particularly new to the genre, and it's that simplicity that allows the film's action to dominate to great effect, and gives space for the actors to truly shine.
The two leads, Lakshya and Juyal, stun individually and as a duo. Both give their characters an unexpected nuance, where sympathy for the baddie and eyebrow-raises for the hero reveal themselves throughout the film. Lakshya and Juyal demonstrate a raw brutality that reflects the darkness of Bhat's screenplay and a sharp edge from the actors, which works especially well against the softer moments Lakshya and Maniktala share.
Non-Hollywood films have occupied more and more space on critics lists and award shows, it's only natural that popcorn flicks follow suit. Kill combines ghastly imagination and pin-point execution, resulting in one of the most electric theatre experiences I've had this year. It's terrifying, bloody and outlandish — exactly what we've always wanted in a summer blockbuster.
