#AnuragBasu. #Pritam. The game of Ludo. Black and White as Karma and Divine retribution. Yellow. Red. Green. Blue. An explosion of colours and a fusion of emotions. A black comedy with the metaphor of India’ popular board game. Great writing. Brilliant editing. A tad too long. And very bloated up. Almost like a biriyani that is over-cooked.
ASHOK’s FIVE reviews #AnurgaBasu’s latest offering #Ludo just released on #NetflixIndia.
Much like the colourful game board of Ludo, there is the black and white characters; the black one is played by #AnuragBasu himself and represents a Hindu mythological figure. The one in white is a curious character who is always asking questions.
The yellow home is made up of Akash(#AdityaRoyKapur) and Shruti(#SanyaMalhotra). Aakash is a ventriloquist who is in love with Shruti, but she is determined to marry a rich man. The question is will she admit her love for Akash and come to terms with it. They set out in search of the guys who have leaked their sex tape. Meanwhile, there is Alok (#RajkummarRao) who breaks into the #MithunChakraborty disco steps every now and then and has modelled himself hairstyle, wardrobe and mannerism et al based on the hero that his lady love likes. The lady love Pinky (#FatimaSanaSaikh) is married and has a child but that does not come in the way of Alok’s unqualified love for her. He sets out to help her get hear cheating husband released from jail. In the red corner is Bittu (#AbhishekBachchan) and his battle to get over the loss of his wife and daughter. And finally, the blue corner has an unlikely Rahul (#RohitSaraaf) and Seeja(#PearleMaaney) who can’t understand each other’s language but are bound together in a tryst of destiny. One speaks only Malayalam and the other doesn’t understand a word of it and they are held together by a suitcase filled with cash.
In between the commotion is Sattu Tripathi (#PankajTripathi) the local don who crosses all their paths to bring this mad caper to successful resolution. For fans of #ThiagarajanKumararaja’s #SuperDeluxe, the story will ring a bell as the chain of events brings four unlikely set of people in contact with each other. But what makes the narrative more layered is the theme of karma and dharma that underpins the laughter and levity of the oddball film.
#AbhishekBachchan’s piece with the little girl is meant to drum up the emotional angle but to my mind this is the weakest link in the chain and falls flat. The adventure with the little girl who fakes her own kidnapping is so full of saccharine that you feel sick. The editing by #AjaySharma is swift and manages a decent job of sifting through the different narratives, but I wish some of the sequences wouldn’t drag on; in my opinion the film could well have lost a good twenty minutes and emerged tighter for the effort.
#RajkummarRao is superlative as he gets the tragic lover act perfect. His Mithun moves are a rage and the bursting into tears in private reminds you of the brilliant #BomanIrani in #3idiots. #Pritam da and his music is just perfect and the signature track “O Beta Ji” keeps humming in your head ling after.
#PankajTripathi is his usual self in a role that is almost made for him. I am amazed at how many roles he has pulled off with that slight nod of his head and the rustic accent that just stops short of mocking the intelligentsia.
I found #Ludo a mixed bag. Full marks for the effort but in the end was it much ado about nothing? The film does a great job of taking the art to the next level in terms of story-telling but I am not sure the metaphors needed to be so over-cooked!
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