Kabaddi Kabaddi Kabaddi !!
I think documentaries or docuseries or basically anything that follows a real person's journey has become restricted to a formula. You show their humble beginnings, their struggles, then their rise to fame, then the corruption of the mind due to the fame, and finally how they overcome that by harking back to their initial days of struggle. For the most part, Sons of the Soil does exactly that, and for a person who hasn't watched a lot of kabaddi, it was fairly engaging. It zoomed across the nation to show every player's background and it got me in the feels as well. The cross-cutting between the soft centers of these people and the hard exteriors that they've to put on to make a living was interesting. But then suddenly, it just turned into an out-and-out tragedy and started to rush towards the ending, failing to tell the complete story.That said, it does show that neither Abhishek Bachchan nor the team is afraid of showing themselves at their most vulnerable. See, we know a lot about Bachchan, his filmography, and how he has constantly faced criticism for being a product of nepotism. But does that make him a bad person? I don't think so. Here he's evidently using his privilege to shine a lot of light on people who probably would've never gotten the opportunity to shine. He is almost devoid of arrogance and given how the series focuses on the JPP's failures, he makes it clear that he isn't afraid to show that. I think that's quite a bold move considering the kind of flak he faces every time he says anything. However, if that was always the intention of the series i.e. to normalise failure and show it as a part of our lives, I think that the approach should've been a little more concrete and not so meandering.
Overall, a very good watch for everyone, especially if one is into Kabaddi. The only grouse is that 5 episodes isn't enough to tell the entire story. I wish they make more of this to take forward the stories of small people from distant places, just to inspire everybody in the vicinity to shout about their dedicated efforts and hard work.
score 6/10
madhukar30 5 December 2020
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw6338942/14437
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