The conversation around gratuitous violence on screen never seems to end, especially after the dawn of a new era of realistic and crude methods of barbarity, emboldened by the streaming space. But in 2023, theatres in India opened to a film that slashes open throats, sets heads on fire and turns man to mush with cylinder blows—and graphically—from beginning to end, arrives storming in our midst. Having already won fans at Toronto and Tribeca’s renowned film festivals, the understatedly titled Kill did well at home as well, deftly delivering a bloody catharsis constructed with action, grief and vengeance.
For director Nikhil Nagesh Bhat, who has films such as Hurdang (2022) and Apurva (2023) to his credit, Kill is a step up in terms of both aesthetics and storytelling. The skull-splintering, gut-spilling actioner, set on an express train bound for Delhi from Ranchi, depicts characters decimated in every manner imaginable as two NSG commandos (Lakshya and Abhishek Chauhan) go on a rampage against a posse of brigands, all of whom Bhat’s script remarkably allows the “tragedy of death” (like Diljohn Singh memorably said in the Netflix series IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack) and bereavement. “You don’t see Tanya Maniktala (the protagonist’s love interest) reach out for help or cower when cornered by Raghav Juyal. She picks up a knife herself,” Bhat says.
So, what’s the secret sauce to making action credible on screen? “Every great action film has an emotional backbone to support its violence, no matter if it's A History of Violence (2005), Kill Bill (2003), or any other Tarantino or Guy Ritchie movie. Once that’s ensured, you can make cars or even trains fly, it doesn’t matter,” Bhat says, pointing towards the fact that earning the viscerality of an emotion, as it translates into a physical reaction, is crucial. The filmmaker tells us about the films that have shaped his understanding of violence.
The Raid (2011)
At the very top of Bhat’s list is this cult Indonesian classic that gained fans all over the world for its shocking good action and unmitigated violence. The blows don’t stop and neither do the bullets, as an Indonesian National Police tactical squad goes from one floor to the next to reach the top of the 30-storey apartment building and nab a notorious antagonist. “Again, it has to do a lot with emotion, just like Kill. You see the protagonist (Iko Uwais) kiss his wife and unborn child goodbye prior to leaving for the mission. He also wants to find his elder brother who works for the drug lord,” says Bhat.
Aliens (1986)
Chest-bursting extraterrestrial reproductive cycles, extremely gory combat and gratuitously graphic depictions of death and brutality—James Cameron’s sequel to his 1979 film Alien is not just visually unsettling, but psychologically disturbing. The unstoppable juggernaut of violent antagonistic forces in claustrophobic settings is something one also encounters in Kill. The dread and the chills, and the constant lurking around of evil and perversion, keeps viewers on the edge constantly. “It’s a story of a battle between two mothers. The Alien is trying to save its young ones while Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) is trying to save the kid. It’s a very emotional story,” says Bhat.
A.W.O.L.: Absent Without Leave (1990; also titled Lionheart)
“I watched A.W.O.L. as a 12-year-old and it stayed with me visually for a very long time,” recalls the director. An action film with a beating heart, the Jean-Claude Van Damme-starrer follows a French foreign legionnaire who enters the murky underground fighting circuit in Los Angeles to support his dead brother’s family. Directed by Sheldon Lettich, A.W.O.L. is loved by fans all over the world “for its insistence on the distance humans can go for bonds—something that you also see in films directed by some of the best filmmakers across the world—and which all the caricature and inevitable melodrama cannot possibly overshadow”.
Enter the Dragon (1973)
“The visceral nature of violence in this film—from necks being broken to characters impaling themselves with glass shards—could get difficult to watch, but at several instances it serves as a reminder that violence cannot be hollow,” he says. Bruce Lee plays Lee, a skilled martial artist who enters a narcotics kingpin’s den, his private island, on the pretext of entering a martial arts competition there, to avenge the death of his sister. Upon its release, the British Board of Film Classification stated that the film’s “exploitative violence was both attractive and potentially harmful to teenage boys”. Enter the Dragon was also said to feature scenes with dangerous combat techniques that were easily imitable, and edits were also made to exclude all imagery exhibiting weapons like nunchucks and knives.
Atomic Blonde (2017)
Helmed by John Wick co-director David Leitch, Atomic Blonde follows MI6 agent Lorraine Broughton (Charlize Theron), sent to Berlin to retrieve classified information, with the fall of the Wall just around the corner. Wounds and bruises abound in the espionage thriller that fashions such extreme methods of punishment that might often have you cowering. Stressing on the duality of choreographed realism and the impact it lends to depiction of violence, Bhat says, “There’s style by the bucket loads in Atomic Blonde, and the choreography—especially of the single-take fight scene—makes it all so very fluid. Also, if Charlize Theron dishes it, she gets it, too.”