'Dil Kabaddi': funny, but incoherent (IANS Film Review)

Comments [ 0 ] By IANS | 06 December 2008 | 5:34pm

Film: 'Dil Kabaddi'; Cast: Irrfan Khan, Soha Ali Khan, Rahul Bose, Rahul Khanna, Konkana Sen Sharma, Payal Rohatgi; Director: Anil Senior; Rating **

This happens in many urban homes. But to say that extra-marital affair is only an urban phenomenon is wrong.

Anyway, 'Dil Kabaddi' is about two young urban couples whose conjugal lives have gone a bit awry and they begin to look out to have some flings on the side to keep the flame burning.

Samit (Irrfan Khan) finds his wife Mita (Soha Ali Khan) has got too absorbed in the concept of conventional marriage and their married life has become a routine of sort, a life where there is no scope for thrill and passion, but one which is fraught with marital discord and acrimony.

So, Samit falls for Kaya (Payal Rohatgi), an aerobics instructor.

Rishi and Simi (Rahul Bose and Konkana Sen Sharma) are another disenchanted couple. But, unlike Mita, Simi is too passionately aggressive and possessive for Rishi's penchant for a carefree life. To Rishi, marriage means togetherness, not bondage. So, he unintentionally gets drawn to a free-spirited student of his (debutante Saba Azad), but succumbs to her passion nonetheless.

Well, Simi, too, is not bound by the marital vow either. She has a crush on young journalist Veer (Rahul Khanna) even as she thinks he would make a perfect husband to her friend, Mita.

The plot however begins to meander, leaving the audience confused and in the maze of relationships everything gets blurred and it is difficult to ascertain who is loyal to whom.

Perhaps, that is what director Anil Senior has intended the movie to be: funny and puzzling. After all, even though marriages are believed to be made in heaven, the gods do not ensure happiness in marriage.

The movie is funny, but much of the fun-filled incidents are borrowed from Woody Allen's rib-tickling mature movie 'Husbands and Wives'. It is incoherent as there is no definite storyline. The fun emanates only from the forays of the characters and that is all about there is in the movie.

The only good thing about the movie is that it has a perfect cast, as all the lead actors fit the respective roles they play.

Irrfan Khan acts out his dalliance with his usual straight-faced style. Soha Ali Khan plays the role of a cantankerous wife without going overboard, Rahul Bose's sensitivity comes across right in keeping with his role, but one only wishes Payal Rohtagi could have done with screaming in lower decibel.

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