Ludo (2020)

 *Plays the intro of Without Me by Eminem* 

(Picture Source IM Mashable)

Good morning, good evening or good afternoon to you whenever you're reading this or wherever you are. It has been quite some time. Life has been hectic, so I had to put this on the back burner for a while. So to let you know, I'm back hopefully for a bit too. 

Without further ado and much more fuss, I wanted to talk to you about a film named Ludo. My regret about this film was that many people never got to experience this film in the cinema due to COVID-19 (released in November 2020, COVID restrictions were still pretty strong at that time.) For something that had an enthralling yet chaotic storyline, it would have made for such an experience in the cinemas. 

Nevertheless, this is one of the best films I have seen recently.

"Ludo is a strategy board game of 2-4 players in which the players race their four tokens from start to finish according to the roll of their die."

(Picture Source: News 18)

I like how the two narrators of the film set the tone with the quote, "Ludo is life and life is Ludo." It's an exciting way to set the scene. As the film progresses, you better understand who the characters are and what they represent, but I will let you find that out yourself and let me know who those characters are when you watch the film if you haven't already. But these two characters set the tone for what is to come for the rest of the movie.  

What I enjoyed about this film is that it followed four different stories in the same way four players can play Ludo. Now, who thought of that idea? As a viewer, I felt the complexity of each account, and it was manageable to take in as the general viewer. 

Usually, watching movies following different storylines in films like this can often be overwhelming. Sometimes filmmakers can neglect someone else's story for the sake of others, which can leave the movie wanting. You can also find ensemble-type films with too many storylines in there. As a result, I have to credit Anurag Basu, the director of Ludo, who made this film easy to follow. 

Not only that, the film was largely unpredictable; just when you think the plot twist was going to happen in this particular moment, it happens in the next moment and in a completely different way to what you would have expected. You expect the unexpected, and the unexpected still comes to whoop your butt differently, a bit like this film. 

(Picture source: Indian Express)

I was a fan of how the colour grading matched the colour of each character's assigned game colour. The four colours were red, blue, yellow, and green. The director used three colours throughout the film, but only green was not. It keeps the beautiful cinematography that assisted the colour grading. I'm a sucker for landscape shots that encapsulate the setting and the area. 

I have often maintained the opinion that Black Comedy, as a genre, is one of the most difficult to pull off. Yet, I think we have a nice balance of Comedy in different forms through the violence, the dialogue, or the slapstick nature in some of the fight scenes throughout the film. The Comedy is neither forced nor too dark for the viewer to consume. 

⭐️Star of the film ⭐️

(Picture Source: The Telegraph India)

I was doing a lot of thinking for this film, there were a lot of exceptional performances throughout, but I find that Pankaj Tripathi played the best role as the Gangster, Sattu. He had everything in the film; even though he was the 'bad guy,' it was easy to like him. His comedic timing was an incredible way to break the tension in profound moments. 

You'll also understand why, but I was so shocked to see him at the end of the film, you can't seem to get rid of him! 

I will say that Ludo is a breath of fresh air as far as crime films go and continue to be an excellent advert for Indian cinema. I recommend this film to those who still need to see it. If you have, please lend me your thoughts and let me know what you think! 

Until next time.