Dil Kabaddi movie review – no kabaddi only kho-kho

The Cast and Crew

Rahul Bose, Irrfan Khan, Rahul Khanna, Konkona Sen Sharma, Soha Ali Khan, Payal Rohatgi, Saba and others

Music: Sachin Gupta & Dhruv Dhalla

Cinematography: Anay Goswami, Namrata Jani

Director: Anil Senior

Producer: Shailesh R Singh

Banners: Studio 18 & Paramhans Creations and Movies N More Pvt. Ltd.

The Film

Dil Kabaddi is a bold film discussing sex on screen. This film has a lot of shock value, but the impact value is doubtful because of the structure of presentation.

Dil Kabaddi is immensely influenced by Woody Allen’s 1992 film Husbands & Wives. While Woody Allen’s film received two Oscar nominations, Dil Kabaddi may leave only a few scars.

The Synopsis

The film deals with the lives of two couples who are gripped with incompatible marital relations and post-marriage emotional fatigue. They are dissatisfied with the present liaisons, seek extraneous escapades, but remain frustrated.

Samit (Irrfan Khan) and Mita (Soha Ali Khan) are one couple while Rishi (Rahul Bose) and Simi (Konkona Sen Sharma) are the second couple. Kaya (Payal Rohatgi), Veer (Rahul Khanna) and Raga (Saba) form the others who taunt and tantalise the emotionally estranged couples.

The film is a montage of a series of incidents involving two or more of all the characters.

The Performance

The cast of the film includes the who-is-who of the best actors in the genre of alternate cinema that experiments with bold themes and so all of the artistes of Dil Kabaddi give superb performances of the characters they enact.

The Techniques

The structure of the screenplay is that of a quilt sewn from a number of patches. Some are good. Some are bright. Some are lackluster and some others are simply unimpressive. Finally, a quilt cannot compete with a well-knit blanket or a smoothly woven tapestry.

A rash of unrelated episodes rushing away on the screen does not give a wholesome meaning to the film. The film should reflect either the director’s point of view or that of one of the characters or reflect the relevance of the theme.

Brilliant cinematography coupled with bold dialogues once in a while will not make a film. A film need not be merely entertaining. It can be analytical and educative, particularly dealing with a subject like sexual incompatibility.

The cinema is an audio-visual format. Too much of talkative characters restrict the visual quotient.

The Verdict

A bold theme, beautiful performances, shocking dialogues, poor presentation in spite of brilliant camera work, jumbled screenplay that strains the audience to unscramble what tale the film is trying to tell, sums up Dil Kabaddi.

Kabaddi is an Indian personal contact game where the opponent is caught in a vice-like grip and prevented from crossing over. In this context, the title Dil Kabaddi is a misnomer because it fails to grip the attention of the audience.

Dil Kabaddi has abundant shock value, but absolutely no impact value.

The Rating

2 out of 5

Review by Deen Kumar

Dil Kabaddi Photo Gallery

Dil Kabaddi Audio – mp3 Songs

Dil Kabaddi promos