‘Ludo’ Review : Anurag Basu’s Got Game!
When it comes to storytelling and dark cinema, chess is the board game of choice. But director Anurag Basu used a more colorful, more pedestrian game of ludo to tell his story.
Here is a spoiler free review of Ludo (2020).
The players :
There are four players whose visual stories are accented by the four colors of ludo pegs – red, green, blue, yellow.
The red goti is Bittu (Abhishek Bacchan), a former criminal who is trying hard to leave the world of crime, only to discover that the world of crime is not ready to leave him. The kingpin of the crime world is Sattu bhaiya, and who better to play a powerful gang-leading bhaiya than Pankaj Tripathi.
The blue goti team is Sheeja Thomas (Pearle Maaney) and Rahul (Rohit Saraf). Sheeja is a nurse and Rahul works in a mall. Both hate their workplaces but their fate changes (surprise, surprise) as they navigate the ludo board.
Alok Kumar (Rajkumar Rao) and Pinky (Fatima Sana Shaikh) play as the green goti. Pinky is married to a man who cheats on her, yet Alok helps her help him. Simp much? But it is hard to not like Rajkumar Rao and his Mithun Chakraborty inspired moves, and his portrayal of a loving man.
The yellow goti are Shruti (Sanya Malhotra) and Akash (Aditya Roy Kapoor). Akash is a ventriloquist/comedian who has unfunny jokes and no money, so Shruti refuses to marry him but they have sex anyway. The sex-tape gets leaked and they struggle to get it off the internet.
Overseeing all this, Anurag Basu and Rahul Bagga narrate the story as they play a game of Ludo.
The game :
Just like a Ludo game, our four teams are trying to reach ‘Home’ to win the game. They cross paths and affect each other’s storylines, pushing them back or making them change paths. All stories reach a zenith, and that is when the climax occurs, right at the Home square.
The story-telling :
The genre of ‘Many stories in one movie’ gets confusing. Take for example, Dus Kahaniyaan, or even Basu’s earlier venture Life in a Metro.
Ludo, however, is better narrated and better compartmentalized so that the viewer is able to keep an eye on which player is moving where.
In the middle, when the stories stretch on their own, the intersections between them are shown repeatedly from different POVs. This gets repetitive, but it is still entertaining.
Music :
The movie left me with an earworm. Sattu bhaiya (Pankaj Tripathi) has his own theme song, which is perfect and adds just the right comedic element. The song is ‘Qismat ki Hawa Kabhi Naram’ from the movie Albela (1951). It serves as a good ‘wow element’, sort of how TVF uses vintage songs in their Tech Conversations With Dad sketches.
Conclusion :
Ludo is getting a lot of well-deserved media buzz. It is a very entertaining movie, although the dark comedy might not be for some viewers. You can watch the official trailer here and the movie here on Netflix.
Rating :
