A near-perfect balance of comedy and action
After some few romantic and feel-good movies, Anurag Basu is back with yet another film titled Ludo that recently made its way into the streaming platform, Netflix.
The multi-starter movie brings home some big names including Rajkummar Rao, Abhishek Bachchan, Pankaj Tripathi, Aditya Roy Kapur, and Fatima Sana Sheikh under the same roof. As the movie comes along with a rather interesting tagline that says, Ludo is life and life is Ludo, it sure will manage to keep you hooked till the end.
Story-line
Just like the popular game of Ludo, different lives are entangled by fate when an unwanted sex tape is suddenly out in the open and every character might have to pay a heavy price when faced with unavoidable circumstances.
Who will ultimately survive the game of life and who might end up losing it all is what makes this movie an interesting watch.
Performances
While the whole cast has been a talented bunch of actors, some new faces like Rohit Saraf shine bright in this film as the ordinary yet ambitious Rahul Awasthi.
However, we surely cannot get enough of Pankaj Tripathi as the head goon Sattu Bhaiya! There’s simply nothing this man cannot do with his colorful portrayal of the greedy yet romantic Sattu Bhaiya. His character deserves a special mention as he pretty much helps to get the whole action in motion.
While the film is a near perfect balance of comedy and action, it somehow fails to make a deepening impact at the same time.
Behind the scenes
Anurag Basu, who has written and directed the Ludo, seems to have come out of his zone. This movie breathes the fresh air of life compared to some of his earlier movies that he usually makes. If you haven’t already seen the movie, Anurag Basu gives his classic touch in the very last scene that is so very chaotic and yet gives us a perfect closure to the action plot.
Fans will also seem to enjoy the soulful musical tracks composed by Pritam and sung by Arijit Singh and other notable singers.
Editor Ajay Sharma has done a good job by putting the scenes into a proper sequence and not dragging it unnecessarily with a fast yet proper pace movement of the story.
One might carefully observe how Rajesh Shukla’s cinematography has aptly made the characters’ mix well with the actual game of Ludo with all its colours and the witty power-play that is all about life and perspective as explained by narrator Anurag Basu, himself.
Verdict & Rating
Connecting a popular game like Ludo with dark experiences in life is something which we have seen in earlier films like Table No.21 where a game is played for survival while encountering several challenges that are not only dangerous but life-threatening too.
Similarly, Anurag Basu has succeeded in amalgamating the life with Ludo, which is engaging mainly because of the treatment given to the story-lines along with the presence of a stellar star cast.
On the whole, recommended giving a try if you are thorough enough with the game of dice so that you too can play along to enjoy Ludo.
Rating: 3.5/5
