The movie Kill (2023) is an action movie based on a train trip to New Delhi that all of the sudden turns into an crazy action sequence one after another, it reminds me of the movie Bullet Train (2022) with Brad Pitt where he goes into a mission and then has to fight people while he go over every level on the train, very similar in concept. Director Nikhil Nagesh Bhat, focuses on the action and tells the story of two skilled commandos who face great danger while fighting against a group of aggressive bandits, probably not a common thing in India but from what I could find the direction went through such experience, the plot goes around commandos taking the train without knowing that there is already a group of bandits inside that latter on face them, the trailer does look a bit bloody and gore, some hardcore knife fights that end up with a machete to the head so expect some cruel scenes.
The story is based on commando Amrit who just find out that the love of his life, named Tulika is engage against her will and he is pretending to stop this arrangement, she is the one on board the train so he decides to go after her but they both are involve into an attack to the train by a local gang arm with knifes, Amrit is out number but very well trained so he now has to take down every one of them not only to get out alive but to protect Tulika turning the hole train trip into an adrenaline ride.
This is the second time this year that a movie develop in India like environment caught my attention, first was Monkey Man (2024) by Dave Pattel, that movie turn out to be a good watch and I would watch it again, its interesting to me watch movies out side of the typical American style, same goes for TV series, probably its my interest to find out how is life on other countries or continents. Before I go into more details about this movie take in consideration that this article is just a glimpse about the movie, information I was able to find online and just to compare I'm don't think I'm an expert on American Cinema (Hollywood) so imagine how much I know about Bollywood, but the movie did caught my attention due to all the action onboard.
The shooting of the movie Kill (2023) took 77 days, with 66 of them being used for the demanding train scenes, as all the actors in the film had to go through a lot of training that lasted for nine months for them to meet the physical requirements of the film, consider this preparation was necessary because the film is filled with close combat action and the action choreography is done by Se yeong Oh and Parvez Shaikh, who worked together in creating the action scenes in Snowpiercer TV series. From the trailer the action scenes seem very effective and realistic, with each battle scene being shot in such a manner as to create an impression of the narrow corridors of the train cars, which makes the fighting look very intense and close range, take in consideration that for this movie to success the acting will be crucial since movies on close spaces are some times harder to bring to life, the audience focus on a close space with actors no where to go and have to constantly perform at the A game before things turn boring.
Even though this is a movie from last year it was not affected at any point by the 2023 WGA strike but for sure they probably had to work around their schedule. The movie has been categorize as one of the goriest movies ever in India, I doubt this is the case but this is part of what I could find online, for sure not a movie for all ages due to its constant violence through the on going battles at the train.
The main cast is Lakshya, Raghav Juyal and Tanya Maniktala are equally well known and talented artists who have given their best to the Indian film industry and television industry, Lakshya, the actor who has featured as Amrit in the movie is an up and coming actor in the Bollywood and other Indian film industries. He first rose to fame after landing the lead role in the 2017-2018 television drama series Porus, where he played the titular character Porus, a historical Indian king and warrior. His portrayal in Porus enthralled the audience with his fitness and capability to portray strong characters, its for this reason he was perfect for the action based Kill (2023), it's clear that Lakshya has been training seriously for films as he did nine months’ training for the rigorous role of Amrit.
Another actor who can also be considered to be quite popular is Raghav Juyal who portrays Fani, the main villain in the film, he is most popular for his dancing skills and as a participant and the host of the show Dance India Dance, Juyal has also been involved in acting in movies such as ABCD 2 (2015), and Street Dancer 3D (2020). Fani is also quite a different character from those that Bablu has played before, which gives him the opportunity to show if he can go into multiple roles and still make it a hit.
Tanya Maniktala, who take on the character of Tulika, Amrit’s girlfriend, is a good actress well known thanks to the web series A Suitable Boy (2020), in the mention series, she got the main character of Lata Mehra, a woman of Indian origin who is dealing with serious issues regarding love and family life in the early years of India’s independence. Maniktala’s performance was well appreciated as complex, this helped her to gain the recognition as a talented actress in the industry. In this movie she plays Tulika, a character who becomes a victim of violence that suddenly burst on a train, this role gives her a chance to act in a different type of movie and demonstrate her skills, probably having to put up a bit more of her acting skills demonstrating fear and worry for her lover whe he has to face the bandits on the train.
Themes and Messages
Besides been a pure action movie we can say that there is he Romeo and Juliet aspect in modern times, the classic situation where the main female character is engage against her will but her lover will do anything he has to, to get her back, there are other clear aspects involve such as violence and injustice mainly because of the soio political reality of many countries, in this particular case India as how a group of bandits think they can just take over a train and do with the passengers as they please taking from them. I sure this is something that happen in many other countries, I can recall this happening to me not on a train but it was common for buses to be "hijack" and it once happen to me when I was young, two guys jump with guns to take everything they could from passengers, the amount of crime due to the socio economic problems come into context in this movie same as it happens in many parts of the world giving certain depth and touch part of the audience that have gone through similar situation.
Going a bit farther than just the action scenes I would think that the entire scenario will make part of the audience how far someone has to be in life, the amount of problems or probably what its going through their minds when they expose themself in such narrow corridor to been face to fight for their lifes just as it happen during the movie.
Lets be honest, Kill (2023) does not bring anything new to the table, the love story we have seen many times before, and I find it very risky from the production side to be a success in such close space, other than all the stunts, actors will have to put up a lot of work to keep the audience entertain and interested throughout the entire movie, I also find the name too simple or at least its translation.
On the positive side there have been movies where the action scenes are so good that the plot and structure become secondary, the audience stays so entertain with every and each action scene, specially on this movie where it looks so bloody and ruthless, I just hope that they did not give everything up on the trailer. I think this is going to be the case were there will be evident problems of elements like plot and action but with all the preparation they had and considering the choreographed actions scenes might look like the ones on Snowpierce, but more blood more gore, that is gong to be the strong arm of this movie making it a good one time watch movie, not every movie has a to be a Blockbuster to be consider a good movie, for this reason I predict this could be something between a 6-7 out of 10.
