Ludo Movie Review - A Pleasant Game

Similar to the board game it is named after, Ludo features colorful characters participating in various moves and double-crossings to secure their ticket to home.

Perhaps if one asked Anurag Basu to select his color for ludo, he might pick the blue. This conclusion comes from the presence of blue in almost every frame in his latest dark comedy Ludo. Given blue is generally associated with wisdom, it should then not come as a surprise that Basu plays one of the two commentators observing the unfolding of a criss-crossy event. He translates the role of a director to a cosmic being. An interesting facet until he starts showering themes in exposition, weakening the novelty. It is not so damaging, but you wish Basu would have trusted his audience a bit more with his mystical morality. Then I wondered if the failure of his ambitious Jagga Jasoos had slightly crippled him from taking that leap of faith. My greatest pleasure with Jagga Jasoos came from Basu's flight of fantasy as he didn't care for any rules or imposed restrictions on his vision. In Ludo, he occasionally points a finger towards his intended direction as if scared of losing the audience on a different lane. What still invigorates Ludo is Basu's determination for experiments and offbeat storytelling. Inspiration, too, corresponds with the color blue, and Basu finds his in the game of, well, ludo. The screen becomes the board, and the characters represent the different - red, yellow, blue, green - pieces.

Ludo starts off with one of the best assassination scenes ever shown in a film. Sattu Bhaiya/Rahul Tripathi (a scene-stealing Pankaj Tripathi) breaks inside a bathroom and exposes his thighs. No, he is not a male stripper, although his action resembles one. Instead of breaking into a pole dance, he takes out his gun, speaks one of the best lines ever spoken to a victim, and bam! The scene does not end here. As Sattu is about to leave, the man wakes up and tries to escape. Sattu catches him and fires another round throwing him down the balcony, leaving him hanging through a roof below. Naked. On the other end, below the roof, is another Rahul (Rohit Suresh Saraf). Unlike Tripathi, he lets himself being bullied by his employee at the mall. Violence resides as a thought within his mind and reflects in his eyes when being taunted by his boss. Not for long, as all the suppressed anger erupts like a volcano lifting his hand (and legs) on the body of this tyrant employer. Still compared to Tripathi, it is only the first name he mutually shares. Thanks to this similarity, Tripathi does not pull the trigger on him but captures the witness.

People like Sattu Bhaiya have enemies because they brush on the wrong side of their friends, families, or other human beings. One such hatred is developed by Bittu (Abhishek Bachchan), a former goon who worked under Sattu. He retired after finding love in Asha (Asha Negi) and settled with a baby. Sattu is not able to move on with his absence and starts giving hell to his family so that Bittu returns. It's not just Sattu who is unable to move on. Enter Alok/Aalu (Rajkummar Rao), a diehard Mithun fan who adopts his favorite actor's moves, hairstyle, and mannerisms. Apart from Mithun, he worships Pinky (Fatima Sana Shaikh), the love of his life. She may be married to someone else, but Aalu would still do any chores for her. All she has to do is simply ask. And she does ask for help when her husband is arrested for murder.

Then again, this is not the only complicated love here. Akash (Aditya Roy Kapur) and Shruti (Sanya Malhotra) are going under turbulence. Trouble kicks off when their sex tape leaks. With few days left in her marriage (the groom is someone else. Someone rich), they set off on a quest to locate the abominable hotel room responsible for it. Akash is a voice artist. When not dubbing cheesy commercials, he does a puppet show for the crowd. Shruti aims for a wealthy partner. She devoted her life to learning singing, cooking, good etiquettes, and fluent English so that she could get a well-to-do family - something she had been taught since she was little. Another film would have used this opportunity to use Akash as a messenger speaking volumes on patriarchy to an unsuspecting Shruti. Thankfully, not Ludo. Her statement comes across as principles fed by her family. She wants what she wants. No compromise. No filter.

There is another girl who craves something. She is a small child, Mini (Inayat Verma), wanting her parents' attention. Due to improper attention, she fakes her kidnapping, courtesy of CID, and ends up with Bittu. Another girl, not a child but her presence in a place where no one speaks her language, renders her as a newborn, ends up with Rahul (the no-gangster guy). She is Shreeja (Pearle Maaney), a Malayalam-speaking nurse intimidated by her colleagues into uttering a Hindi tongue twister. Feelings and instincts form the basis of romance between Rahul and Shreeja. Neither speaks the other's language.

The way Pinky uses Aalu for her tasks could have fallen under a negative light. In situations like these, women are portrayed as bad, and we are made to root for the male partner. Ludo is not so black and white. It exposes faults in Aalu's romanticism and Pinky's palaversion. With Akash and Shruti, there is an interplay between virtue and immorality. She is supposed to get married, but that doesn't stop her from falling for and sleeping with Akash again. Mini's fake kidnapping is further supported by Bittu, who, as an adult, should have guided her better. Bittu's greed - of using Mini as a surrogate for her daughter - drives him to participate in the game. No formal declaration of romance happens between Rahul and Sheerja. Yet, when he sees her dancing with a man, he drags her away like an owned property. We already know Sattu Bhaiya is no saint. The nurse who falls for him supports his actions when he kills a (pervert) doctor. Yes, the doctor was evil, but ideally, shouldn't the law handle the situation. What inference do you come up with based on her enthusiastic support towards this elimination?

The point I am trying to make is that beneath all the quirkiness, these are actual human beings, with flaws ranging from minor to major. Everybody here acts on motivation. Their decisions are anchored by their past. I believe if I ever meet any of these people on the street, I would be able to converse about their goals, their present, and their future. These are not merely movie characters but people living in our world. Somehow, even Aalu's dance, arriving before the scream, feels natural.

Ludo gets significantly enjoyable after you start seeing it as the game itself. If that opening assassination scene leads you to expect an odd Delhi Belly-type comedy, then be ready for a surprise. Like the dice changing its number on every rotation, Ludo shifts from one tone to another. So after black comedy, you may end up with romance and then drama and then action and then thriller and then again black comedy and so on. Of course, there is no particular order to it. This dice-gambling is noticeable in scenes like the one where two parties find themselves armed, pointing guns at each other. If their "You do it!" is the number one on the dice, then the firing of guns is like getting a six. And no game of ludo goes without cutting off another player. This bit arrives with Sambhavi (Gitanjali Mishra). Interesting twists occur with her.

Basu changes motifs. First, it is a song Qismat Ki Hawa Kabhi Naram from Albela signifying the various turns that would take place in Ludo. Then it is a jump. To reach Bittu's shelter, one is required to spring on the other side. It specifies the leap towards the danger. No wonder explosion spurts shortly after. This motif is next replaced by train. The train passes by at crucial moments to act as a distraction. It passes when someone is thrown from the bridge and, at another point, interrupts a personal query. Both times it works as a cover-up for the main event.

Eventually, according to the game's rule, the pieces return to their homes. Looking back, one could not ask for a more satisfying ending for the characters. They got what they deserved. They reached where they belong. After an exhaustive session of planning, shooting, and double-crossing, it's soothing to find oneself inside the serene confines of home.

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