'Kill' review: Violent film should have been titled overkill

THE Indian action movie has followed up a world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2023 with a cinema release on Friday (5).

Two tough commandos from the Indian army board a sleeper train. The woman one of them loves is also making the same overnight journey with her family. The train is then raided by a large group of blood thirsty bandits. Things soon get out of control and the two fearless army men decide to take on the bad guys, whilst trying to protect the passengers.

One of the most violent commercial Indian movies to have ever been made has fighting, killings, bone crunching action, big knives, and lots of blood. Although there is a loose romantic sub-plot and an attempt to combine honour with the relentless combat aboard a moving train, the storyline is definitely secondary in the claustrophobic entertainer.

Newcomer Lakshya shows he has what it takes to be an action hero and shows a strong screen presence. The rowdy bunch of villains are all convincing, with Raghav Juyal surprisingly good as an unhinged psychotic leader.

The confined space adds a sense of urgency, and the fight scenes are mostly well choreographed.

 Kill has drawn comparisons to iconic Indonesian thriller Raid, which also had one setting, but it doesn’t match up to that.

The romantic elements, including the action hero pausing the bloodshed to have wistful moments comes across as unintentionally funny. There are also elements that don’t make much sense, including the bad guys not taking repeated chances to kill the man who has wiped out many of their gang, which includes close family members.

Many of the killings are overdone, where it kind of becomes unnecessarily gruesome. Those who enjoy nearly two hours of ultra-violence will like this film, but others will perhaps feel it should have been called ‘overkill’ instead.