‘Kill’ Review: A Train, Two Commandos and 40 Thieves Add Up to One Bloody Action Bonanza

variety.com:

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic SPOILER ALERT: The following review contains spoilers about the reason for all the killing. Years ago, Indian director Nikhil Nagesh Bhat fell asleep on a cross-country train ride, only to discover upon reaching his destination that the cars on either side of his had been robbed by armed bandits, known as “dacoits.” The heist couldn’t have been too intense, or it would have awakened him, but it got the helmer’s gears turning about what a truly terrifying train raid might look like.

The answer: “Kill,” in which a crew of 40-odd thieves board a train, intending to steal passengers’ watches and phones, then turn bloodthirsty after running into a pair of hardheaded commandos.

As brutal a film as the country has ever produced, “Kill” is a shockingly graphic action showcase from an industry that typically plays violence in a more cartoony register. “Overkill” probably would have been a better title, considering how far Bhat takes each and every altercation, milking it for maximum vengeance.

It’s the kind of movie where, when studly Amrit (“Porus” star Lakshya) grabs a fire extinguisher and smashes a doomed thug’s cranium into dog food, the theater erupts with applause, effectively raising the question: Does it qualify as “excessive” if the audience keeps clamoring for more?