'Ludo' Movie Review

Introduction

Four players, four paths, one game. This is life.

Key themes

Two men play the popular game of Ludo.

Rahul, a criminal, walks in and kills a man and his wife.

Akash's sex tape leaks onto the internet. The woman in the video, Shruti, is to be married in a few days.

Alok, a previous criminal, starts a restaurant with his friends. He is still in love with his high-school friend, Pinky, who is now married and has a child.

Pinky suspects her husband is cheating on her.

Bittu was a serious criminal, but gave up his life of crime for Asha, whom he loved. They had a daughter. Unfortunately, Bittu was caught and arrested for his crimes and imprisoned for 6 years. During his imprisonment, Asha leaves him.

A young man, Rahul, turns up late to work. He tries to slip in unnoticed. His employer finds him and tells him he'll be fired if he is late again. Rahul is homeless.

A naïve nurse, Shreeja, who is teased by her colleagues, is told she will meet a man who will change her life.

Akash, young Rahul and Bittu go to Rahul's criminal dump. Rahul's dump is blown up. Many die and many are injured. Pinky's cheating husband is arrested for the murder of the couple Rahul killed.

Rahul, injured, is travelling in the ambulance with nurse Shreeja and young Rahul. They intercept and push Rahul off the bridge and run off with his money.

Pinky goes to Alok for help considering her cheating husband has been falsely arrested.

Akash, a ventriloquist, tells the story of how he met Shruti. They were not a 'marital match' but when drunk, they both had fun and sex.

Young Rahul pays his overdue rent, with the stolen money, and is let back into his apartment. Both he and Shreeja launder the stolen money.

Bittu helps a little girl, Mini, looking for her dog. She reminds him of his own daughter that he hasn't seen for 6 years.

Alok helps Pinky to threaten the woman having an affair with her cheating husband, to give a statement proving he did not commit murder.

Asha's new lover asks Bittu to help him save their beauty parlour that is being closed down. He says in return he will leave Asha and her daughter, allowing Bittu to see his child and be her rightful father.

The young Rahul shows up to work. He explains he didn't come into work, the day before, due to his injury. His employer dismisses this and taunts him, telling young Rahul to 'hit him'. He does and quits his job.

Shreeja sticks up for herself from the teasing colleagues. She discovers that Rahul is still alive and he knows she stole his money.

Bittu discovers that the Mini faked her own kidnapping so that her parents would pay more attention to her. He agrees to help her.

Akash and Shruti aim find the hotel where their sex tape was illegally film, so they could report the hotel to the police and get the video taken down.

Young Rahul and Shreeja run away with the stolen money to escape Rahul who is still alive.

Alok sets up a plan to rob a man to get the money needed to help Pinky get her cheating husband out of jail. It goes wrong and Pinky kills three men. The money they stole from the dead men was not enough.

Bittu pretends to be the Mini's kidnapper, and he asks for ransom money, enough to pay for the beauty parlour.

Pinky asks Alok to help her cheating husband escape from jail. He obliges

Mini's father drops off the money.

Akash and Shruti get drunk and hook up. They discover that Paradise hotel is the hotel with the hidden cameras.

Young Rahul confesses his love for Shreeja whilst at Paradise hotel in hiding.

The police find and shoot Bittu as they think he is Mini's kidnapper. He escapes in a police car and goes to see Asha's new lover with the money. He sees his daughter for the first time in over 6 years. She does not recognise him.

A security man at Paradise hotel forces Shreeja to open the hotel safe and give him the money he's been spying on. Rahul comes to the hotel to retrieve his stolen money.

The police, looking for Rahul, show up at Paradise hotel. They request backup, which Bittu responds to as he is in the stolen police car. There is a shoot off in the hotel.

In the end, Shruti realises her love for Akash and breaks off her engagement to be with him. Shreeja had taken some of the stolen money and lived a rich life with young Rahul. Pinky shot her cheating husband dead and asked Alok to help her hide his dead body, which he obliged to. Bittu died in the shoot off. Mini was now happy at home with her parent's attention. Rahul survived being shot again and took off with the rest of his money and lived happily as a disabled man with his lover - the nurse who took care of him in the hospital.

Key questions

• Why did Rahul want to kill Asha's new lover?
• Was there a significance to the song 'Good days and Bad days'?
• Where the 'devil' and 'angel' playing the Ludo game?

Conclusion

'Ludo' is a confusing, all-over-the-place, amazing film. The film jumped back and forth to intertwine four different stories. I loved how everything in the narrative made sense and everything happened for a reason - just like life. I liked how each story provided their own life lessons. The main moral of the story is: You can't control life, it never goes as expected. I really liked how the film had an anthropological aspect to it. But I question whether the two men (supposed 'devil' and 'angel') were playing the game of Ludo; were they controlling the character's lives? Overall the film was action-packed and thought provoking.

And as one of the characters stated:

Life is like a game of Ludo, no matter what life the players live, they all end up in the same place

Cast

Sanya Malhotra - Shruti

Aditya Roy Kapur - Akash

Fatima Sana Shaikh - Pinky

Rajkummar Rao - Alok

Abhishek Bachchan - Bittu

Asha Negi - Asha

Inayat Verma - Mini

Rohit Saraf - Rahul

Pearle Maaney - Shreeja

Pankaj Tripathi - Rahul