Kill : I remember that one scene from Pataal Lok in which Hathoda Tyagi crushes someone's head and we see visuals of his brain squeezing out. That was four years ago and I still can't stand the sight of it. And now, action thriller Kill has a similar visual involving a fire extinguisher and a man's head that's reduced to pulp.

Violence taken up a notch

Forget what you know about violence in Hindi cinema, as Kill takes it a notch—or many higher. It is a gory ride that's all about bloodbath, slit throats, smashed heads and all we are left with to see is snarling, half-dead men, falling down and standing up again to continue the killing spree. It's not an exaggeration when I say this is something we haven't seen in Indian cinema so far. If one action sequence in Animal's climax between Ranbir Kapoor and Bobby Deol gave you the chills, Kill is that scene multiplied by a hundred.

Director-writer Nikhil Nagesh Bhat (who last helmed survival drama Apurva), presents action in its most raw, ruthless and reckless form, and leaves us with no time to breathe. Men are being killed one after the other. In one scene, when a big guy is lying on the floor with his head almost split into two halves, his T-shirt has 24 written on it with blood. Yes, 24 men are already down by now, and there are still some crazy killings to follow.

What left me truly amazed is the fact that within this narrow premise of just showing men killing men, how Bhat manages to come up with new and innovative techniques of how you can kill. Knives, axes and hammers turn into deadly weapons. At one point, an entire compartment of the train has nothing but blood-soaked bodies of men hanging from the ceiling and tied in a manner that even the best contortionist can't ace. It’s a sight straight out of a horror film.

Kill story

I also liked how Bhat wastes no time setting context and straight away dives into the world of good and bad men. The storyline is actually a one-liner — two army commandos, Amrit (Lakshya) and Viresh (Abhishek Chauhan) are onboard a train from Ranchi to Delhi, in which Amrit's love interest Tulika (Tanya Maniktala) is also travelling with her father Baldev Singh Thakur (Harsh Chhaya), sister Aahna (Adrija Sinha), and rest of the family, after she's been engaged against her will.

The train ride turns into a bloodbath when a group of bandits, led by Fani (Raghav Juyal) start robbing innocent passengers, and the commandos get into action to rescue fellow passengers. Being the strong, and good boys that they are, Amrit and Viresh don't really kill anyone and continue to handle the bad gang with a few punches and high-flying kicks. But soon, after a pivotal and brutal moment in the film, Amrit goes all out, guns blazing and not sparing anyone who comes in his way. The train is speeding and there's blood spattering from one corner of the train to the other, and a bit off the roof too, where we get to hear the cliched, yet funny Chaiyya Chaiyya reference.

Emotion takes over action

Given that the entire film has been shot inside a moving train and narrow, dark, clumsy compartments of a moving train, it's not easy to execute the fight scenes with such precision and perfection. It might be easy and equally difficult to spot errors in any of the scenes. Rafey Mehmood's cinematography and Shivkumar V Panicker's crisp editing totally do the magic here.

Another thing that stayed with me is how Bhat lets emotion often take over the action. When Amrit witnesses a shocking loss, he can't express his misery, which later gets unleashed in form of uncontrollable rage. Or when even the bandits are losing their men one after the other, we see how connected they are as a family, as they shed tears each time, they see their cousin or uncle dead.

Here, I have to mention that for the genre Kill belongs to, I was pleasantly surprised to not hear a single cuss word on screen from any of the characters. Maybe the sanctity of censorship on the big screen saved us from that bit, which Mirzapur and Pataal Lok makers definitely are going to exploit in its full glory on streaming.

The performances

Kill shows violence as you have never imagined, and what makes it even more satisfying are the men in action. Lakshya, who was earlier to debut with Dharma Films' Dostana 2 must thank his stars for Kill happened to him. From a doe-eyed lover to a mean machine, he just nails his part. The film gives him ample scope to flaunt his chiselled abs and with those good looks, watching him do brutal action is just outstanding.

On the other hand, Raghav Juyal is such a revelation. The brilliant dancer and humorous fella he is known as, seeing him play this ruthless baddie is as perfect as it gets. He gets into the character from the word go, and his comic lines make you cheer loud. Loved his comic punches, especially the lines when he says, “Aise koi maarta hai kya bey? Tum rakshak nahi raakshas ho! (Who hits like this? You’re not a saviour, you're a demon)”

Tanya Maniktala is the pretty girl men are fighting for (no spoilers here!), and she has a few scenes but manages to impress.

In conclusion

Kill is gruesome and awesome in equal parts, though definitely not for the faint-hearted. At several places, you feel your body shudder and shiver, and shut your eyes a lot more than you'd actually want. But it's a thrilling ride, just that I can't begin to imagine the amount of fake blood or ketchup used here. Watch the desi version, as John Wick makers are already in talks for a Hollywood remake. Why wait when the original is so well made!