How often have we played the game of Ludo? Interestingly, it was derived from Pachisi (I presume you would remember it as the game in which Pandavas were cunningly slam dunked by Shakuni that led to the Kurukshetra War). Anywaz as has been the norm in the past, England modified the dice into a cube & patented it as 'Ludo'. In Anurag Basu's "Ludo", just as in the game; it's an anthology of four set of characters whose lives converge at various junctures with the ultimate aim being to settle down in peace. There were a few segments in the trailer which indicated that it was a fun movie & with an interesting mix of characters including our Pearle Maaney, it seemed like a perfect choice for Diwali.
Sattu Bhai (Pankaj Tripathi) was the much feared don in the area & his latest victim was a builder. However, that sets off a chain of reactions one of which included Rahul Awasti (Rahul Suresh), a sales boy who happened to be the witness to the crime & Pinky Jain (Fatima Sana Shaikh), whose husband was the friend of the builder and had used the latter as an alibi to hide his extramarital affair. At around the same time, Bittu (Abhishek Bachchan) who was once the trusted lieutenant of Sattu Bhai; came over to meet him to settle some financial disputes. Another character that was linked to the don was Akash (Aditya Roy Kapur), a ventriloquist & dubbing artist who sought the former's help to remove a sex tape of him & his girl friend, Shruti (Sanya Malhotra) that had found its way into the internet. How each of these set of characters try to get out of the mess that they found themselves in forms the crux of the movie.
It's been quite while back since we had been treated to Basu's celluloid creations with the last one being "Jagga Jasoos" that released in 2017. Even though his movies might have missed the mark at times, there is no denying the fact that he always tries to bring in something unique & different in every project that he works on. His latest release which he had scripted along with Samrat Chakraborty belongs to the crime comedy genre & it undoubtedly keeps our spirits high. Actually Basu has juggled with quite a few hats here as he has shared the credit with Rajesh Shukla for the cinematography & was also the production designer and he has handled all of it impressively. The choice of colours that has given for each set of characters was interesting with Pankaj Tripathi being the dice.
Another major positive was the choice of artists & each of them have done their parts aptly be it Pankaj who has risen to one of the finest actors in Bollywood or Abhishek whose careful choice of movies is slowly but steadily resurrecting his career. To be frank, apart from Basu; the other two people coz of whiom I was eager to watch this movie were Rajkummar Rao who nails it as the quintessential Mithun da fan & Pearle who as expected handled her part with ease. Kudos to Pritam as well for some melodious tracks rendered by Arijit Singh.
Verdict: Despite a running time of 150 minutes, it isn't the type of a movie that takes a toll on your patience. There are surely certain sequences that could have been trimmed but once the stories unfold then it's unadulterated humour. In short, you can rest assured of being entertained!!!
Rating: 3/5
Regards...Ben
No comments:
Post a Comment