The best action film of the summer

KillThe title doesn’t appear until 45 minutes in, and then this insane Indian action film shifts from conventional violence to jaw-dropping, eye-opening, gasp-inducing brutality. Nikhil Nagesh Bhat’s film is an unrestrained mess that does exactly what it says on the tin, leaving barely any time for plot and even less for character development. What it does have to offer, however, are brawls marked by the kind of viciousness that genre fans will be familiar with homegrown (John Wick, Atomic Blonde) and foreign (The malice, Coachman) Bloodbaths are in demand. After appearing at the Toronto, Sundance and Tribeca film festivals, the film hits theaters on July 4th and is a typical midnight beat-’em-up.

Amrit (Lakshya, in his screen debut) and his best buddy Viresh (Abhishek Chauhan) are National Security Guard soldiers and best friends. After returning from their last army tour, Amrit learns that his beloved girlfriend Tulika (Tanya Maniktala) has been forced by her father to accept another man’s marriage proposal in his absence. Distraught by this news, Amrit attends the engagement party with the intention of eloping with Tulika, but she is reluctant to go through with the plan. Far from being dissuaded, Amrit tells Viresh afterwards that he is not giving up on his and Tulika’s future because, “Brother, our love is much stronger than her father.” “What a saying, Captain!” Viresh replies, no doubt because the two love nothing more than starting every sentence with “brother.”

Amrit is a manly man whose every shirtless pose, intense stare and head turn is accompanied by an over-the-top musical cue. After his failed attempt to elope with Tulika, he boards the evening train that takes her and her family—including her teenage sister Aahna (Adrija Sinha) and their father Baldeo Singh Thakur (Harsh Chhaya), a wealthy business tycoon—to Delhi. Away from the watchful eyes of her clan, Amrit proposes to Tulika in a bathroom, and she accepts. In theory, this should cause conflict, considering that Tulika is now engaged to two different suitors, but Kill ignores these complications. The later revelation that Baldeo never knew about Amrit despite being with Tulika for four years (!) proves similar nonsense that is never adequately explained.

This could be important if Kill would be a romantic drama. But since it is not, such enigmatic details are quickly drowned out by a tidal wave of carnage. Unbeknownst to the passengers, the train is full of bandits whose boss Beni (Ashish Vidyarthi) is orchestrating things from a van at an upcoming stop. His main crook is his son Fani (Raghav Juyal), a handsome if “scrawny” villain whose ruthlessness he flaunts with a sneer. Fani and his gang initially plan to rob the train passengers. However, when Fani learns that Baldeo is present, he changes his plans and decides to kidnap the tycoon. This would be a smart move if Amrit and Viresh do not react kindly to criminals, especially those who threaten their friend’s relatives. During an initial fight, Viresh kills Beni’s brother, further enraging the villains.

When Beni accompanies Fani on the train and learns of his brother’s death, the bandits immediately seek revenge, and as if their unjustified anger wasn’t funny enough – they were the ones who started this whole sadistic affair! – their incessant crying over the murder of their worthless comrades is the height of comedy. Rarely have action film villains shed so many tears as in Killmaking them a bunch of bad babies who deserve whatever punishment they receive. As it turns out, that’s enough, as Amrit is as deadly as he is handsome – a winning combination that the director plays up in a series of escalating scenes.

Kill is fairly straightforward in the first third and then goes completely crazy after a tragic murder, with Amrit eliminating his opponents in every possible way. In contrast to the wit of Express trainBhat stages his chaos with ruthless grimness and, in some cases, unrestrained bloodiness.

Amrit often takes on multiple attackers at once in tight compartment hallways and bathroom lobbies, smashes a guy’s face in with a fire extinguisher, throws a dagger into another bandit’s mouth, beats and stabs henchmen with a machete, kills others with a sledgehammer, throws numerous men into walls and windows (and out of open doors), and breaks their limbs in a variety of creative ways. No matter how many blows he takes, how he dishes out (with his fists, his feet, and his weapons), Amrit is an unstoppable assassin. At some point, even his enemies think twice about continuing this foolhardy endeavor – despite being given plenty of opportunities to escape.

While making his way through these bandits (who number over forty!), Amrit tries to protect Tulika and her father, as well as rescue Aahna and Viresh, who is in a bad state as a result of these skirmishes. These storylines are largely irrelevant, but they provide some basic structure to Bhat’s script, which additionally contains a subplot – in which a heavyweight passenger wants to help Amrit in his cause – that takes a confusing turn and is then dropped without resolution. From a basic storytelling point of view, this is Kill is melodramatic and a bit sloppy. But none of that diminishes his fundamental punching power. Nor does the fact that Amrit recovers from his severe injuries with video game-like speed. Give him a few seconds to refill his figurative health bar and he’s as good as new!

When Amrit hangs corpses in a darkly lit car to turn it into a haunted house trap for Fani, Beni and the rest of their accomplices (who all seem to be related), Kill has long since evolved into an R-rated cartoon in which good and bad are equally driven by vengeance. Only Fani is driven less by personal grudges than by pure greed, though that doesn’t protect him from Amrit’s wrath. Echoing countless ’80s action blockbusters, the film has its hero blatantly proclaim of the bandits: “They’ll definitely get off this train… but only for their funeral.” With this cheeky attitude driving its jaw-dropping bouts of chaos and cruelty, Bhat’s film earns its crimson stripes.