Get Your “Kill” on! 4K UHD and Standard Blu-ray Available at Amazon!
Captain Amrit of India’s National Security Guard boards a commuter train to stop the arranged marriage of his true love, Tulika. As the two lovers reunite and promise each other to one another, a large family of thieves hijack the coach cars to loot the passengers. Amrit and fellow captain and friend Verish fight to protect Tulika, her family, and the innocent passengers for the sake of their very lives. When Tulika is taken by the hands of Fani, the ruthless thug son of the thieves’ leader, Amrit’s kill switch engages an unstoppable force of ferocity to get his blood-soaked hands around Fani’s neck. He’ll first have to brutally bulldoze his way through 40 melee-weapon armed looters, all related to Fani, to get to his target while, at the same time, protect more innocent passengers from the hands of killer, uncompressing thieves and it’s a long train ride to destination New Delhi.
An India film that doesn’t have the typical unrealistic Bollywood action and violence and is labeled India’s most violent and gory film ever, “Kill” comes from writer-director Nikhil Nagesh Bhat (“Long Live Brij Mohan”). Every ounce of close-quartered, free-for-all action is set entirely inside carefully detailed and constructed railcars that replicate almost down to the paint the very commuter diesel trains coursing the India rail lines. “Kill” accurately describes what Bhat accomplishes with a nonstop drive to protect the ones you love at no matter the cost and when moral planks are broken right underneath your feet. The Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions presentation is a production of Sikhya Entertainment and Dharma Productions and is produced by Guneet Monga Kapoor (“Darkness Visible”), Apoorva Mehta (“Bhoot: Part One – The Haunted Ship”), Achin Jain, Hiroo Johar (“Bhoot: Part One – The Haunted Ship”), and Karan Johar (“Bhoot: Part One – The Haunted Ship”).
“Kill” introduces actor Lakshya as the one-man army and killing machine Amrit, driven by love’s unflinching rage that’s about as unstoppable as the freight train he’s on. The train has become a bout ring of carnage when a literal 40-person family of thieves, or dacoits, suddenly disperses to take control of multiple train cars, killing some passengers in the process. At the head of the snake is a battle in itself between father Beni Bhushan (Ashish Vidyarthi, “AK 47”)) and son Fani (Raghav Juyal) but though they don’t see eye-to-eye on handle a sudden downturn with Amrit being a wrench in their looting scheme, there’s a glue that keeps them aligned. Much of the loyalty is present throughout without ever a sense of treachery on either side but Vidyarthi and Juyal delineate juxtaposition well, especially with Fani’s loose cannon antics that make him formidable even if he’s not fully in charge. Lakshya and the rest of the cast move with intent when considering their action choreography but Lakshya offers one step further being a romantic and a tragic hero when it comes to his darling Tulika (Tanya Maniktala, “Tooth Pari: When Love Bites”) as she’s used a pawn when the bandits discover her wealthy and powerful father on the train, Baldeo Singh Thakur (“Harsh Chhaya), to exploit him for more ransom riches. There are also great dynamic interactions with standout sublevel principals in Amrit’s brother in arms and best friend, Viresh (Abhishek Chauhan) and Fani’s towering large and strong cousin Siddhi (Parth Tiwari) that support the main adversarial opposites. The Bollywood actors in “Kill” round out with Pratap Verma, Devang Bagga, Adrija Sinha, Meenal Kapoor, and a train load supporting cast to play bandits and passengers.
Bollywood films are known for their grandiose appeal with beautifully crafted costumes, large scale sets, and physics defying action that’s makes the “Matrix” look like child’s play. “Kill” hits different. “Kill” offers some of the same characteristics of a “Bollywood” production, such as a lone-wolf hero slathered in a focused and swathed cool aura, but the film heavily contrasts with aspects that are uncommon in India’s moviemaking industry. “Kill” is uber-violent that’s graphic, gory, and on a more realistic scale than other Bollywood action films which typically go against the laws of physics for pure ego-eccentric entertainment. “Kill’s” heroic heart goes icy cold, reforming the moral principles of a man who out of duty and respect upheld life as precious to a man hurting with antiheroic qualities that sees every bad guy as just another disposable body in the way of his goal – revenge. Amrit doesn’t turn into a Frank Castle killing machine until a little after 45 minutes when, at the same moment, the title drops in a surprise move of editing. You really find yourself unaware that “Kill” did not name itself until almost halfway into the story and it becomes an indicator, a switch if you will, that Amrit, as too with the story’s tone, is different from before. The kills pre-title and post-title change from barely a whisper with a few shrouded stabbings to a varietal, punchy onslaught of massacre proportions.
Pulling into the physical media station, carrier a story all the way from India, is “Kill” from Lionsgate. The 2-Disc 4K UltraHD and Standard Blu-ray set comes with an HEVC encoded, 2160p resolution, BD100, per other source outlets on the UHD capacity; however, I only see two layers with code identifiers, which might suggest BD66. Given that the UHD houses the movie plus special features, I’m inclined to agree with the BD100. The Standard Blu-ray is AVC encoded, 1080p resolution, on a BD50. HDR on the UHD provides a deeper saturation with easy transition between hues with the Blu-ray accomplishing much of the same with lesser color reproduction but that doesn’t stop the release from being vibrant and bold as mood density changes from a colorfully rich, jovial scheme of celebration and love to a colder tone with muted yellows, harsh grays, and milky blue as destruction and death continue down the rabbit hole. The trains confined space doesn’t deter depth in either the parallel or perpendicular view of camera direction. There’s also a great reproduction of textural details from clothes to skin to finer points, like hair or silks. The Hindi Dolby Atmos 5.1 is a blaze of glory with full-bodied, immersive sound that puts you right in the middle of Coach A1 for the hand-to-hand melee with the rear and front channels while the back channels isolate the train’s depth of railway locomotion and exterior audibles created by the train’s passing, such as air ambient rearrangement when occupying the same space. Dialogue is not compromised with a clean and forefront present track that progresses with each state of action. The English subtitles are burned into the coding. If native language audio tracks are not your thing, there is an English dub Dolby Digital 2.0 track available. Spanish subtitles are optionally included on both tracks with English subtitle optionally available only on the English dub. An approx. 46-minute making-of featurette How to Kill: Making of a Bloody Train Ride goes into depth with set construction, interviews with cast and crew, action choreography, and the overall cinematography from the blood to standout in the picture to the natural colors of India being tweaked for the camera. There are also individual behind-the-scenes and interviews that are basically Cliff Note versions of the arterial bonus feature with Making of the Train, Introduction Lakshya, Behind the Blood, and Behind the Action. The theatrical trailer is also included. The dual format release centers Amrit (Lakshya) about to take on knives, axes, and pipe-wielding attackers with the title yellow and largely in bold behind him. The green UHD Amaray comes housed inside a rounded cardboard O-slipcover with a glossier version of the same cover art. A disc of each format is snapped into each side interior with a blue hued 4K UHD for the hero and a red hued Standard Blu-ray for the villain. A digital code is included in the insert of the 4K and Blu-ray release but is feature only. Rated R for strong bloody violence throughout, grizzly images, and language, “Kill” is presented with a hard-encoded region A playback and clocks in at 105 minutes.
Last Rites: Kill, Kill, Kill! India has stepped up the violence not yet seen in the land of Bollywood and “Kill” introduces a whole lot of new to the country’s movie industry that will revolutionize India’s filmmaking game.
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