Kill is an action thriller in Hindi that was written and directed by Nikhil Nagesh Bhat and produced by Sikhya Entertainment and Dharma Productions. Inspired by a 1995 train heist that Bhat saw, the film stars Abhishek Chauhan, Lakshya, Raghav Juyal, Ashish Vidyarthi, Harsh Chhaya, and Tanya Maniktala.
The People’s Choice Award first runner-up: At the Toronto International Film Festival on September 7, 2023, Midnight Madness, Kill premiered. Additionally, in June 2024, it was shown at the Tribeca Film Festival. Kill received favorable reviews from critics when it was released in theaters on July 5, 2024. Despite having a 40 crore budget, the movie made 47.12 crore.
Cast and Crew
- Director: Nikhil Nagesh Bhat
- Writer: Nikhil Nagesh Bhat
- Producer: Karan Johar, Apoorva Mehta, Achin Jain, Guneet Monga,
- Star Cast: Lakshya, Raghav Juyal, Ashish Vidyarthi, Abhishek Chauhan, Harsh Chhaya, Tanya Maniktala
- Cinematography: Rafey Mehmood
- Editor: Shivkumar V. Panicker
- Production company: Dharma Productions, Sikhya Entertainment
- Genres: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
- Distributer: AA Films
- Release dates: 7 September 2023 (TIFF), 5 July 2024 (India)
- Running time: 105 minutes
- Country: India
- Language: Hindi
Kill 2024 Trailer
Film Star Cast
- Lakshya as Amrit Rathod, an NSG Commando
- Raghav Juyal as Fani
- Tanya Maniktala as Tulika Singh
- Abhishek Chauhan as Viresh “Bhukhan” Chatwal
- Ashish Vidyarthi as Beni
- Harsh Chhaya as Baldev Singh Thakur
- Adrija Sinha as Ahaana Singh
- Avanish Pandey as TTE
- Parth Tiwari as Siddhi
- Akshay Vichare as Ujala
- Jitendra Kumar Sharma as Akhilesh Jha
- Rupesh Kumar Charanpahari as Bishnu
- Sahil Gangurde as Badlu
- Priyam Gupta as Kulli
- Vivek Kashyap as Mukund
- Sameer Kumar as Bechan
- Calib Logan as Brahmeshwar
- Moses Marton as Murari
- Riyaz Khan as Surajbhan
- Shakti Singh as Laddan
- Shivam Parmar as Amrit’s friend
- Bilal Kazi
- Pechap Kumar
- Arun Thakur as Jass Pratap Singh, Tulika’s groom
- Meenal Kapoor as Tulika’s mother
- Madhu Raja as Tulika’s paternal grandmother
Story of the film
NSG commando Amrit Rathod returns to Palampur, Himachal Pradesh, with his buddy Viresh. Amrit and his lover Tulika Singh, who is the daughter of prominent business magnate Baldev Singh Thakur, have been together for a long time. Amrit and Viresh fly to Ranchi for Tulika’s engagement with another guy, which Baldev arranges one day. Amrit begs Tulika to elope with him in Ranchi, but she declines out of concern for Baldev’s consequences.
The following day, Tulika travels to New Delhi with her family in an ultra-fast express train from Ranchi. Amrit and Viresh board the train as well, although they are unaware of it. Amrit takes advantage of the trip to ask Tulika to marry him. However, a gang of armed criminals, headed by the crafty Fani Bhushan, board the train as it arrives at Daltonganj station. They intend to loot particular coaches and quickly flee. Awaiting them with their escape plan are Fani’s father, notorious dacoit leader Beni Bhushan, and other gang members. To keep the word of their crime from spreading until they make their getaway, they also use jammers.
Fani finds out that Baldev Singh Thakur is also aboard the train during the theft. Amrit and Viresh battle him as he tries to abduct Baldev and his family. To rescue Tulika’s mother, Viresh murders Babban, Beni’s brother and Fani’s uncle, during the altercation. Furious, Fani and Babban’s son Ravi, along with other robbers, flee the scene to get revenge. Amrit and Viresh repel a few bandits until Fani takes a youngster as a hostage to stop them. Fani then tries to shoot Viresh with a makeshift gun but fails. Amrit kidnaps Ravi, and Fani catches a wounded Viresh. Amrit looks for Ahaana, Tulika’s sister, who is stuck on the train. After learning of Babban’s passing, Beni and other bandits board the train when it finally stops at the railway crossing.
Fani intends to use Viresh as bait to catch Amrit, who battles through several bandits until being rendered unconscious by Siddhi, the gang’s enforcer. Arif, a fellow traveler, is slain while assisting Viresh and Amrit. Tulika confronts Fani, who enrages Amrit by fatally stabbing her and flinging her off the train. He then attacks the bandits and starts murdering them. Fearing Baldev’s wrath, a horrified Beni chastises Fani for murdering Tulika. But Fani remains true to his initial scheme to abduct Baldev’s whole family and hold them hostage. Fearing for their lives, the bandits implore Beni to let them leave the train as Amrit continues his rampage, but Beni persuades them to stay by warning them that since they have already aroused Baldev’s fury, it is preferable to follow the updated plan.
Amrit hangs the bodies—including Siddhi’s father—in a coach to further discourage the criminals. In the meanwhile, Baldev, Viresh, Arif’s brother Sohail, and other travelers can prevent more coaches from entering and notify the Railway Security staff, who had not been informed of the hijacking because of network jammers. Fani barely avoids being shot as she and the others try to move outside. As Siddhi overwhelms Amrit and prepares to throw him over the train, Arif and Sohail’s parents assault him from behind, using a hammerhead to bludgeon his skull, killing him. Amrit and Siddhi battle viciously once again.
After reentering the train, Fani and two other bandits kill the cops and capture them, killing a helpless and wounded Viresh in the process. But the cops bring Ahaana and Viresh back to Baldev after saving them. Amrit murdered Ravi while fighting in a darkened carriage. But a bandit pretending to be a passenger tricks him, knocks him unconscious, and captures him. Taking advantage of the confusion, Amrit battles the other bandits, including Beni, burning his entire head with lighter fluid and a Zippo as Beni clashes with him about not killing Baldev.
Fani, the only surviving dacoit, is eventually confronted by Amrit. Amrit finally prevails, killing him with a hammer and fists when Fani repeatedly stabs him while making fun of Tulika. A seriously injured Amrit sits on a bench and imagines Tulika sitting next to him while paramedics and security guards board the train at Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhaya Railway Station in UP.
Production
The film’s production got underway in June 2022 under the working title Aaghat, which starred Tanya Maniktala in her second film and Lakshya in his first feature film. In May 2023, just one month before its Toronto premiere, Dharma Productions and Sikhya Entertainment said that Nikhil Nagesh Bhat will direct Kill, the first movie in their content partnership.
According to director Nikhil Nagesh Bhat, who spoke with Subhash K. Jha, the actors had to train with MMA fighters. In an interview, Bhat stated that a 1995 train robbery he witnessed in real life served as the inspiration for the movie.
Songs/Music
Siddhant Kaushal wrote the words and Haroon-Gavin composed the music for the song “Nikat,” which has a lead vocal performance by Rekha Bhardwaj. The song “Jaako Raakhe Saaiyan,” written by Shekhar Astitwa, was composed by Vikram Montrose.
| No. | Title | Lyrics | Music | Singer |
| 1 | “Kill” | Shashwat Sachdev | Shashwat Sachdev | Sudhir Yaduvanshi, Sanj V, Shashwat Sachdev |
| 2 | “Nikat” | Siddhant Kaushal | Haroon-Gavin | Rekha Bhardwaj |
| 3 | “Jaako Raakhe Saaiyan” | Shekhar Astitwa | Vikram Montrose | Monu Rathod, Vikram Montrose |
| 4 | “Nikat” | Siddhant Kaushal | Haroon-Gavin | Shashwat Singh |
Release
Theatrical
Kill made its premiere on September 7, 2023, during the Midnight Madness segment of the Toronto International Film Festival. The Kill Movie opened in Indian theaters on July 5, 2024. One of the first Hollywood studios to acquire a Hindi-language film for direct release in the United States was Lionsgate, which acquired the film’s distribution rights for North America and the United Kingdom in October 2023. The movie was shown on more than a thousand screens in North America. A day before its Indian premiere, on July 4, 2024, Lionsgate, in collaboration with Roadside Attractions, subsequently planned the movie’s theater debut in the US.
Kill had its Toronto International Film Festival debut in the Midnight Madness section on September 7, 2023. In Indian theaters, the kill movie made its release on July 5, 2024. In one of the first cases of a Hollywood company purchasing a Hindi-language film for direct release in the US, Lionsgate purchased the distribution rights for the movie in October 2023 for both North America and the UK. More than a thousand theaters in North America screened the movie. The movie was later slated for a theatrical release in the United States on July 4, 2024, one day before its premiere in India, by Lionsgate in collaboration with Roadside Attractions.
Home media
On September 6, 2024, Kill became available for Hindi streaming on Disney+ Hotstar in India. Additional dubbings in Telugu, Tamil, and Malayalam were added on September 24, 2024.
On September 10, 2024, Lionsgate released the movie on Blu-ray in different countries, and on July 23, 2024, it went live online.
Review
Rotten Tomatoes, a website that aggregates reviews, has an average rating of 7.2/10, with 89% of the 103 reviewers’ reviews being favorable. As stated in the website’s consensus, wrote that Action aficionados will happily devour Kill’s knuckle sandwich since it’s a relentless thrill trip based on real emotional stakes.
The movie has a score of 74 out of 100 from Metacritic, which describes the reviews from 19 reviewers as “generally favorable.”
According to India Today’s Zinia Bandyopadhyay, who rated it 4.5 out of 5, this is a must-watch for all action and non-action enthusiasts.
The biggest achievement of Kill, a very violent movie about violence, is not just the number of deaths but also how it challenges our understanding of violence, according to Sukanya Verma of Rediff.com, who awarded it a rating of four out of five stars.
With a rating of 3.5 stars, Bollywood Hungama said Kill is an all-around beautiful and violent action film.
Kill has a moral compass and provides a clear backdrop for the ‘war’ that takes place, according to NDTV’s Saibal Chatterjee, who scored it 3.5 out of 5 stars.
A more complex narrative and a more terrifying enemy would make Kill, as a movie, even better, according to Rishil Jogani of Pinkvilla, who scored it 3.5 out of 5 stars.
The Indian Express’s Shubhra Gupta described Kill as a nasty, lean killing machine.
The Hindu’s Shilajit Mitra lauded Lakshya’s performance and noted that the film, which has been widely hailed as the new “killing machine” of Hindi cinema, is boiling, sweating, and powerful. The young actor chooses a more focused, aggressive fighting technique over the athleticism of a Tiger Shroff or Vidyut Jammwal.
Kill isn’t essentially an action film, according to Uday Bhatia of Mint. No breathing room, no relief, no slo-mo.
In Kill, the most unforgettable sequence puts the film squarely in the horror category, according to Nandini Ramnath of Scroll.
The New Indian Express’s Kartik Bhardwaj rated it with four out of five stars and said it tells its own story. First are the flying kicks and fistfights.
International critics gave Kill praise.
The first half isn’t particularly slow, but the establishment of fundamental connections must come before the actual action can begin, according to Kim Newman of the British Film Institute.
Manipulative to the extreme (one distressing murder is nearly pornographically prolonged), “Kill” is dizzyingly stunning and punishingly nasty, according to Jeannette Catsoulis of The New York Times.
According to Catherine Bray of The Guardian, Kill’s goals are accomplished with such vigor and passion that it’s a delicious action movie that doesn’t hold back; it’s finger-cracking fantastic.
The Times’ Kevin Maher said that the narrative is incredibly cliched and introduces a deadly “national security guard commando” named Amrit
The brutally violent action movie directed by Nikhil Nagesh Bhat is sure to become a cult classic, according to Collider’s Nate Richard, who gave it a B+ rating.
As brutal a film as the nation has ever produced, Kill is a shockingly graphic action showcase from an industry that typically plays violence in a more cartoony register,” Variety’s Peter Debruge said.
According to Randy Myers of The Mercury News, “Kill” sheds all of its baggage after a groan-inducing fifteen minutes of exposition to become an unmitigated blast while making a strong case for Lakshya becoming our next big action hero.”
According to Frank Scheck of The Hollywood Reporter, the battle scenes are incredibly expertly coordinated, filmed, and edited, but they move at such a relentless pace that watching them becomes numbing.
When everything is said and done, “Kill” lives up to its ridiculous title, but perhaps the most unexpected aspect of Bhat’s action extravaganza is that it subverts expectations without ever veering off course, according to David Ehrlich of IndieWire, who gave the movie a B+ rating.
Action lovers should keep an eye on Kill, one of the year’s top action movies, according to CGMagazine’s Shakyl Lambert, who gave it an 8.5 out of 10.
The movie received a 9 out of 10 rating from /Film’s Matt Donato. No happy Bollywood dancing breaks—this isn’t RRR, he said in his writing. Take-no-prisoners Indonesian badassery, such as The Night Comes for Us or The Raid, is more reminiscent of Bhat’s sublimely ferocious Kill, which emphasizes fast violence that pours like a gushing torrent of blood from open knife wounds.
As humans bounce off seats, windows, floors, and ceilings, the motion is energetic and chaotic, according to Ross McIndoe of Slant Magazine.
Andrew Mack of Screen Anarchy observed that the violence is quick and brutal, with a survivor’s instinct at its core, rather than elaborate and fancy.
According to Barry Hertz of The Globe and Mail, Kill’s battles are many throughout the first thirty minutes, but a little clichéd in terms of timing and staging.
By eliminating a lot of the heavy weaponry connected with weapons, Bhat’s film offers visceral, bone-crunching episodes that have a tremendous effect despite their comparatively overdone nature, according to Jonathan Hickman of the Newnan Times-Herald, who awarded it a rating of seven out of ten stars.
RogerEbert.com critic Simon Abrams noted in a mixed review that Kills checks off most of the necessary boxes for a solid popcorn movie, making it difficult to resist but not impossible to pass up.
Reviewing the Time Out According to Phil de Semlyen, who rated it three out of five stars, Bhat deserves praise for deviating from the tried-and-true action movie formula to provide a surprising, pessimistic mid-movie surprise. The feeling of déjà vu that then creeps in is the issue.
Although Kill has its action downright, Lyvie Scott of Inverse said in a mixed review that it lacks a sense of narrative variation.
Box office
- India Net: 24.2 Cr
- Worldwide: 47.25 Cr
- Overseas: 18.5 Cr
- India Gross: 28.75 Cr
- Verdict: Disaster
References
- Team, S. (2024b, August 9). Kill Box Office Collection | All Language | Day Wise | Worldwide. Sacnilk. https://www.sacnilk.com/news/Kill_2024_Box_Office_Collection_Day_Wise_Worldwide
- Wikipedia contributors. (2025j, April 24). Kill (film). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kill_(film)
- Kill (2023) ⭐ 7.5 | Action, Crime, Drama. (2024, July 4). IMDb. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt28259207/
