Dil Kabaddi (2008)

Too much of everything

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

The first must-see film of the year.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

I watched this movie in 2010 and had decent opinion about the movie. Recently I saw "Husband and Wives" and was completely shocked to see the amount of plagiarism. The movie is literally copied scene to scene, even the professions of protagonists are not changed.I won't the say the movie is bad, but some of the performances really stink. Rahul Bose maintains his usual crap standards, Payal Rohtagi brings no freshness or life to the character and even other characters have not done justice to the original characters. Watchable movie if you haven't seen "Husbands and Wives". If you have seen Woody Allen's original then don't bother yourself.

Dil Kabaddi is another "event" that fills the heart with joy. Just to see story-tellers (and not just star kids and diamond merchants) get a chance to create real cinema in Bollywood is so heartening. We loved this movie and so did the half-empty PVR audience, median age 35, if the constant eruptions of gleeful laughter are any indication.Unlike many good attempts, Dil Kabaddi does not falter in the second half simply because the director had a POINT to make. Maybe he has Woody Allen to thank for it, but this did not become a montage of slick shots against Mumbai's backdrop. All the humor and all the "slice of life" shots told a story. This is where the movie truly scores.The other reason for its success, of course, is the excellent casting and performance. Each character was well-etched, including the "almost correct" English grammar and "avant garde" dress sense of Samit. His pairing with an intellectual, stylish, smart Mita is not that surprising in today's aspirational India-- a lot of successful women are truly happy with a less successful husband. I also liked the minor characters of ex-boyfriend, office hunk and Chirag the lech neighbor. Their body language and motivations reveal a well-written character as part of the screenplay. Something so rare even in mainstream Bollywood cinema. Ditto for the sex-jokes; they were much more tasteful than what is dished out in family-comedy "U" rated movies every week. That said, the "Kaaya" character could have been better etched.Perhaps the movie targets a very specific audience, the mid-30s Indian, that grew up on Karan Johar's bubble-gum romance in the 90s and are "happily" married for 4-7 years now, like the characters in the movie. It is possible that this crowd will laugh the loudest, while those older and younger may find less to identify with in this story. They may yet discover it on DVD a few years later and laugh hearty. At its core, it is a story about our quest for love and our failure to recognize it when it happens. A tale of finding love versus our 'fantasy' of love.While some have panned the movie for it's shameless copy of Husbands and Wives by Woody Allen, others have cringed at the barrage of sexual jokes and innuendo. In my opinion, it works where Mixed Doubles (the previous multiplex outing about infidelity) failed simply because it does not hold back or have any intellectual pretense. The movie keeps you laughing almost the entire time and yet makes an honest observation about modern Indian marriages.The fact that it holds true for India 16 years after Woody Allen's 1992 original is a telling comment on Indian society playing catch-up with the west. For better or for worse...

Till sometime back, the three-letter word, sex, was considered taboo on the Hindi screen. But it's out of the closet now. Dil Kabaddi goes a step further it takes you inside the bedroom of two couples and makes you listen to the bedroom chat that they indulge in, bringing the sex lives out in the open.It tries to explore fields like sexual needs and fantasies in marriage but the movie ends up showing nothing but confused relationships .Dil Kabaddi is a humorous and exaggerated take on the dynamics of the relationships between married couples, without being judgemental. It reveals the internal dilemma of the characters as they struggle to maintain or easily let go of their marriages, to fulfill their deeper desires.Rahul Bose and Irrfan Khan have done challenging roles and same for the actresses Soha Ali Khan and Konkona. The film has been made keeping multiplex viewers in mind but it is not for kids and families. Even all multiplex viewers won't go for the kind of confusion concept.The question is not whether Indian audiences are ready for a theme like this. The question is, does the script hold your attention for the next 2 hours? Sadly, it doesn't!

I saw the first day first show at 9.45am. And let me tell you all that I never have laughed so much in any film screening as I did while watching this.Its bustling with humour in every scene, almost. And the humour never goes cheap or slapstick.I have never seen Woody Allen's Husbands and Wives, but I know he is a great director. However, Director Anil Senior's Dil Kabaddi has all the charm and laughs in the right place.Every character in the film is enjoyable and the actors put up fantastic performances, be it those who come in for minuscule roles.After reading few reviews here and there now, I guess only those people who accept that Infidelity is very much part of a metropolitan city's life will be able to enjoy the humour.For all who are conservative or traditional or does not want to accept the reality, are in for a rude shock! Go on enjoy this film. It surely deserved way better promotion and youth will hit on it for very sure.A very easy 4 out of 5 for a film which not just has performances and script, but fantastic camera movements (I guess it is hand handling motion frame), perfectly in-sync background score, appealing cinematography and some good production values.