By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 1 cat
Director: Nikhil Nagesh Bhat
Starring: Abhishek Chauhan | Ashish Vidyarthi | Lakshya | Raghav Juyal | Tanya Maniktala
Year: 2023
Running time: 115
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt28259207/reference/
Brett says: “Keys–check. Ticket–check. Popcorn–check. One hour into a film called KILL and there is still no killing–wait, what? Such is the case with this title out of India in what might be described as an ambitious effort, at best.
“The style is recognizable Bollywood at almost every level, but the film’s supposed groundbreaking milestone is that it brings a violent edge and an amount of bloodshed atypical of most Bollywood giants … eventually. The tropes and to-be-expected melodrama associated with many Bollywood titles are still there right down to the fairy tale romance plot element. Aside from the advertised addition of more violence than Bollywood is used to, it’s a lot of the same ol’, same ol’ we’ve seen so many times.
“Granted, once the audience finally makes it through the first hour, the violence and death count definitely starts to rev up. However, if you’re going to be so bold as to title your movie KILL, you’d better live up to the expectations you set. As is, this film is not a step forward for action cinema as a whole. It’s nowhere near the level of already established standards of violent action across the globe. Even the choice of a train for the locale hosting all of this action seems like an uninspired imitation of SNOWPIERCER. Perhaps this is a milestone for film-making in India, but for a global fandom of the genre this film aspires to reach, a fandom that has been relishing in far more advanced and visually appealing “kill-fests” for decades, there is really nothing new to see here. 1 cat out of 5“