Kill (2024) Movie Review.

Movie Synopsis:

Kill is the story of a man fighting baddies. Amrit Rathod (Lakshya) is an NSG commando who has just returned from an operation. As soon as he reaches his base, he gets SOS messages from his girlfriend Tulika Singh (Tanya Maniktala) that her father Baldeo Singh Thakur (Harsh Chhaya) has fixed her engagement. Amrit takes fellow NSG commando and friend Viresh (Abhishek Chauhan) to Ranchi, where Tulika’s engagement is taking place. Tulika and her family are returning to Delhi by train. Amrit and Viresh also book berths on the same train. During the journey, Tulika and Amrit secretly meet and the latter promises to marry her. Sometime later, a huge gang of dacoits, who are also on the train, start looting passengers. Amrit and Viresh, at first, surrender to them. But when they see that the gang members, headed by Fani (Raghav Juyal), are harming Tulika’s family, they spring into action. They use their commando skills to assault the dacoits. In the ensuing madness, Amrit kills a senior member of the gang. Meanwhile, Tulika’s younger sister Ahaana (Adrija Sinha) has been separated from the rest of the family. Fani, on the other hand, is devastated by the demise of the gang member, who is also his uncle. He swears revenge. What happens next forms the rest of the film.

Cast: Lakshya, Tanya Maniktala, Raghav Juyal

Director: Nikhil Nagesh Bhat

Review:

Nikhil Nagesh Bhat’s story is basic. But Nikhil Nagesh Bhat’s screenplay is taut and engaging. We have seen Western or South East Asian films set in the train in the past. But this is a film set on an Indian train that has a unique design. As a result, one is glued to the screen from start to finish. The dialogues are sharp and a few one-liners stand out.

His direction is terrific. As said before, an Indian mail express is different and it gives the makers a lot to explore. And they make good use of it. Moreover, the protagonist is fighting in a certain way but changes gears (and how) after a shocking development. It also gives him a solid reason to go all out. Most importantly, the audience will also root for him. In fact, a few scenes are too violent but will be greeted with claps as the viewers want the hero to win.

On the flipside, a few aspects are not clear like who is where on the train. It creates confusion as well and the makers should have taken care of it. In the past, we have seen films set in trains like TRAIN TO BUSAN [2016], BULLET TRAIN [2022] etc. in which these things were explained in a neat and simple manner. Secondly, there are far too many cinematic liberties, especially how the protagonist is able to fight despite serious injuries or how the cops had zero idea what was happening in a part of the train.

Performances:

Lakshya puts up a confident debut. He looks dashing and has a baritone voice that adds to his persona. Performance-wise, he’s first rate and looks convincing as an action hero. Raghav Juyal is a revelation. He rocks the show as the villain and this is surely one of the best performances of the year. Ashish G Vidyarthi (Beni), as expected, is superb and the dilemma that his character goes through makes it even more realistic. Tanya Maniktala has an amazing screen presence and deserves to be seen more.

On the whole, KILL gives us some truly claustrophobic, intense, gory, exhilarating action sequences. A Great Watch & Not for the faint of heart!!