Ludo Movie Review - Kudos!

A still from Ludo's trailer. Image sourced from mid-day archives

On: Netflix
Director: Anurag Basu
Cast: Rajkumarr Rao, Abhishek Bachchan, Aditya Roy Kapur
Rating:

There's basically so much simultaneously happening in this film, between so many characters over several storylines, that more than once, the screen splits three or four ways, simply to give you a sense of where we are, at any given point of the scripts' timeline. Usually, this sort of split-screen is a lead up to an interval.

Make no mistake. There is no break here. And at no point, do you wish for one. Because you're firstly struck by a series of beautifully constructed moments - by way of lights, colour, and shadows; background score, locations, and production design; a casual shot here, that lovely interlude there…

There is a certain level of scalable aesthetics - what's labeled form/craft - that one has come to expect from Anurag Basu's films. Ever since even Murder (2004), which was in effect a sex romp (decidedly a B genre, if you may). Whether or not his films thereafter - Kites (in English/Spanish), Barfi (silent), Jagga Jasoos (theme-park adventure) - have wholly moved/touched you is another matter. He has filmed wonderful ideas before.

This is beyond doubt his most accomplished, intricate screenplay - along with some subtle gems for lines on love and life. For whatever it's worth, that acknowledgment/review (for a script) needn't have waited for the film to release, or drop (on Netflix, as it were) - if you simply consider the cast that said yes to it.

Check out the trailer of Ludo here:

Pankaj Tripathi plays an adorably dreaded don, leading a pack of morons. Abhishek Bachchan was once his trusted deputy; he's quit his job. Rajkummar Rao - his looks/manners probably modeled on the late actor Razak Khan - is a Romeo, love-struck with the same girl (Fatima Sana Sheikh) since school. Aditya Roy Kapur is a ventriloquist, who has Sanya Malhotra for a friend, with benefits.

While there are even more actors that I haven't mentioned, with almost equal screen-time, just look up that stellar line-up again. Each one, Tripathi included, basically plays solo-leads in films/series, wholly centered on them.
What are the chances they'd manage anything more than an extended cameo in a hyper-link movie, with all of them bunched together, over a running time that's hardly over a couple of hours? They evidently saw in the script (more likely, in the director) an opportunity to shine on their own, still. And, frickin' hell - they do!

Ludo melodiously starts with the old Albela (1951) song, 'O Babuji, kismat ki hawa' in the background, and a cold-blooded murder on screen - of a builder called Bhinder, shot at point-blank range, by the don, in his bath-tub. This death sets off a series of events around everyone in this film, who are otherwise going about their lives in other directions altogether.

The four main characters/plots metaphorically represent the four quadrants of the Ludo board. So much happens to every character, mostly to do with deaths and destruction - and they carry on still as if not much has - you're aware this is a fantasy space.

Also Read: Abhishek Bachchan: Being A Part Of The Anurag Basu Film Ludo Was No-Brainer

Cities like Bhilai and Ranchi do have names, but you can't tell one from the other. Even the car number-plate says Ludo! And there's only one cop investigating all the crimes/cases, relentlessly piling up in this fictional universe. The epaulette in the police uniforms simply says, Police - not Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Bombay, or Calcutta Police - just police!

The setting, therefore, is like the malleable Aloo - as Rajkummar Rao's delectable character in the film refers to his own name: "Fits into (both) chaat or biryani". Of course, only a Bengali writer-director, Basu, who's also shot this film, even briefly acted in it, will associate aloo with biryani!

Ludo is basically a suspense thriller, fully choreographed like a Bollywood style musical. A better word to describe it is a pop-culture pastiche, which in most films turns into pasta since you can't consequently concentrate on the story being told between the amazing soft-focus shots. That is not the case here, since the film remains just as deeply focused on the narrative; taking the story forward, as it were.

Sure you might even lose your chain of thought/storyline here and there - wondering where you started from, who's who, where you are, and where you're headed - between multiple sub-plots. But you just want all of them to continue - building brick over a brick of an atrangi world, that you're happy to stay inside for as long as you can. Have watched it twice, so I know!

Also Read: Sanya Malhotra Talks About Her Experience Of Working Without A Script In Anurag Basu's Ludo

Catch up on all the latest entertainment news and gossip here. Also, download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps.

Mid-Day is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@middayinfomedialtd) and stay updated with the latest news