October 18, 2025

Given Kabaddi is a quickly paced, end-to-end, sport that appears to combine the athletic aspects of wrestling, judo and rugby, I struggled to see what the point was in slowing it all down, cutting off the heads of those playing and generally presenting us with something as lacklustre as it was befuddling. Lots of almost inaudible repetitions of “ka ba ddi” and the odd squeaky shoe are all our ears have to contend with and the mid-shot and low-ang… read the rest.

Given Kabaddi is a quickly paced, end-to-end, sport that appears to combine the athletic aspects of wrestling, judo and rugby, I struggled to see what the point was in slowing it all down, cutting off the heads of those playing and generally presenting us with something as lacklustre as it was befuddling. Lots of almost inaudible repetitions of “ka ba ddi” and the odd squeaky shoe are all our ears have to contend with and the mid-shot and low-angle coverage of the action gives us neither any context of the play nor appreciation of the skills of the players as this ten minutes goes precisely nowhere. Perhaps it’s a labour of love for director Alia Syed, either that or all the competitors are in witness protection, but in any case this just didn’t register with me at all.

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