The film Dil Kabaddi may tread the forbidden ground of sex, but it can hardly claim to be original. The film's plot has been lifted from a Woody Allen film called Husbands & Wives. Despite it being so heavily inspired, the screenplay is unable to hold one's attention. And what may have been an interesting outing, turns out to be a damp squib.
The only highlight of the movie is its actors. All of them, Irrfan Khan, Soha Ali Khan, Rahul Bose and Konkona Sen Sharma, are a treat to watch. They are, perhaps, the only redeeming feature in this movie. Dil Kabaddi's debutant director Anil Senior has even gone so far as to copy his protagonists' professions and even the manner in which they talk to the camera at many instances, just like they do in Allen's movies. The other problem with the movie is that despite the novelty of its script, in India at least, it does not seem to form a cohesive whole, appearing more as disjointed sequences.
The film is an urban take on the real nature of marital relationships, up close and real. The film delves into the lives of two married couples, they have been married just for two years, and are already suffering from a kind of boredom in their relationship. The couples in question, Samit & Mita (Irrfan & Soha) and Rishi & Simi (Rahul Bose and Konkona), are a true case of opposites. Samit feels suffocated in his marriage to Mita, who he finds to be cold, intellectual and constantly nagging. He is having an extra marital affair with an aerobics instructor played by Payal Rohatgi. The other couple, has Rishi, a professor, having an affair with one of his students (Saba). Simi, a journalist, tries to fix up Mita with her editor Veer (Rahul Khanna) and then discovers that she fancies him for herself.
The film is paced well and some of the dialogues and situations are really comic. But if one were to compare it with the original, then one has to say that this film lacks the ease with which funny one liners and situations appear in the Woody Allen movie. That sense of ease and organic unity between plot, screenplay and intent is definitely missing here. As a debutant director, Anil does a decent job, but would have fared better had he gone with a more original story. He also does not manage to have a proper story graph in place and flounders in the manner in which he brings everything to a resolution.
The film's music is just about competent, nothing which stands out. The styling is quite natural and appealing and so is the cinematography. The film fails in the area of story and screenplay but more than makes up for it with its performances. Irrfan is in fine nick and delivers another of his natural performances. His counterpart, Soha, seems perfectly suited to her role and plays it with delightful ease. The second couple, Rahul and Konkona, already share a terrific chemistry on screen and it is evident in this film as well. Both the Rahuls, Bose and Khanna, too deliver very nuanced performances. Konkona puts in a strong performance too. The only discordant note is sounded by Payal Rohatgi, who fails to match up to this fabulous five. After a point of time, her character begins to grate on one's nerves.
This film needs to be watched for its actors alone. At the end of the day, Dil Kabaddi promises much more than it delivers.