News culture “Vibrant, wild and creative,” warned the director of John Wick. I saw the movie KILL and it’s even worse!
After the stylized “Monkey Man” and the crazy “Boy Kills World,” this year a much more down-to-earth proposal from India is about to put on the gloves and step into the ring. The director of the John Wick saga, Chad Stahelski, himself is full of praise for it. Kill by Nikhil Nagesh Bhat has set itself the task of securing the title of “Best Action Film of 2024.”
Everything you need to know about Kill
The Indian 7th art has enjoyed unprecedented popularity for several years now. It would be difficult, not to say pointless, to list all the cinematic gems of this region of the world. If you had to choose just one, it would be SS Rajamouli’s RRR, which impressed moviegoers all over the world in 2022. Two years later Cinemas open their doors to two diametrically opposed action films, although they have certain things in common. In the red corner is Dev Patel’s “Monkey Man,” which released in April, and in the blue corner is Nikhil Nagesh Bhat’s “Kill,” which is scheduled for September.
While the former focuses on an auteurist approach to the genre, the latter takes a more direct and deadly route. Kill is an action film by Nikhil Nagesh Bhat, which is based on a very simple situation: the robbery of a train. At least, that’s what this feature film suggests at first glance. Inspired by true events, it thrilled audiences at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2023 and the Tribeca Film Festival in 2024. Kill was shown in more than 1,000 theaters in North America and won over critics (90% on RottenTomatoes) and the general public (83% on RottenTomatoes) for its honesty and technical appeal.
The summary of Kill: On a train bound for New Delhi, a gang of thieves takes the passengers hostage, unaware that a far more fearsome man is on board than they are. When they attack the woman he loves, Amrit, a member of the special forces, reacts with merciless vengeance. (Dark Star)
The main actors of Kill: Lakshya Lalwani (Porus, Haseena Parkar, Dostana 2), Raghav Juyal (Dance Plus, Yudhra) and Tanya Maniktala (A Matching Boy, Tooth Pari: When Love Bites, Mumbaikar)
Kill will be released in French cinemas on September 11, 2024.
The “Revenge Movie” of 2024
The term “fan” would be a euphemism to describe the passion that animates my being when it comes to action cinema and especially martial arts. I grew up watching the films of Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee and Jean-Claude Van Damme and explored the 7th art of Hong Kong’s Golden Age, then Chinese, Japanese, Korean, etc. before being knocked unconscious by an Indonesian elbow strike, Pencak Silat’s signature move. In 2011, action cinema experienced a revolution. Gareth Evans’ “The Raid” hit theaters and single-handedly redefined the genre.
Without the diptych The Raid, there would be neither the John Wick saga, nor Monkey Man, nor Kill, at least in this form. It set new standards by filming the action up close and showing the martial artists working hard on set to create increasingly crazy sequences. Chad Stahelski fully embraces this vision. His strong reaction to Kill – and I quote, “vivid, wild and creative” – left me no choice but to go to the cinema to tame the beast. I saw Kill and I still can’t get over it.
Kill presents a major limitation, and that is the main quality of Nikhil Nagesh Bhat’s film, which takes place entirely on board a train (except for the introductory scene) during an eventful journey. This unity of place and time is by no means an insurmountable obstacle, but is the strength of this revenge film.
On the contrary, the Indian director makes wonderful use of this environment, which is not exactly battle-hardened, and offers fans choreographed “fight scenes,” each one more brutal and creative than the last. Chad Stahelski – a great scholar in this field – praised it, and he wasn’t lying. The plot is straightforward, without frills… In short, it gets to the point. And this is even more true after a heartbreaking event that radically changes the tone of Kill. Heroism then gives way to vengeance, beauty in violence in all its deepest aspects.
The sight becomes almost hard. The film imagines the worst situations to send its extras ad patres. The pleasure of experiencing them is all the more intense, but it leaves a bitter taste in the mouth… that of iron and blood. “Kill” is not just a film with precise action content, in which hectolitres of blood are spilled on board a train. It is a total experience that uses a knife to engrave an absolute truth into our retina, which is intended to serve here as an epitaph. : “Revenge tightens the heart as well as the jaw.”
Kill is the action film of the 2024 school year and one of the best films of the genre to hit the cinemas in recent years. Far from being perfect, it commands respect for its mastery of the codes and its willingness to confront mainstream cinema, which no longer knows how to take risks.
