Ludo - "you do good; good do you"

 

Ludo

Hindi, 2020

 

Directed by Anurag Basu

 

Stars

Abhishek Bachan

Iniyat Verma

 

Pankaj Tripathi

Shalini Vatsa

 

Aditya Rao Kapur

Sanya Malhotra

 

Rajkummar Rao

Pearle Manney

 

Anurag Basu

Rahul Bagga

 

Mohan's Measure ✲✲✲

 

Life, love, sex, morality and existentialism are all examined in Ludo, a neo-noir dark comedy featuring four vignettes representing the four colors of the Ludo board.   

 

The Ludo board is said to be the human condition, where each of us is just a coin, playing through the field of life, judged by an "unknown" who very much resembles the director.  One person's good is another person's bad, one man's death another man's opportunity. And, all of it ends up with the game ending, for everyone, time and moment being a matter of "karma."

 

Such a philosophical background, though, shouldn't fool you.  The movie is about muscular men and gorgeous women, after all.  This is Bollywood, mere dosth, so the good times roll, as much as the Ludo dice do.  The movie winds up turning into screwball at times, as stories overlap and separate around each other under very intelligent direction and cinematography.

While I can say I am impressed with the movie-making, the acting leaves you tired, in moments, and the stories become repetitive, at times. Most noticeable is Ms. Malhotra, who seems way out of her league when compared to others in this movie.

 

The story that brings it home, though, is the one featuring Mr. Bachchan and the beautiful little girl,  Their friendship and connection is so natural and heartfelt, we find ourselves holding back a tear.  

 

Hold your kids out of the room, though, when watching the other stories.