Ludo, created and helmed by Anurag Basu, is what you would imagine the game to be like, only that it's a tale of life. Set in a suburban some place, Ludo cohesively connects four different stories and a plethora of characters from different walks of life to a centripetal point where all must converge.

The stories aren't thematic or preachy. They are as different as chalk and cheese, but love and affection are the binding philosophy and Sattu Bhaiya (Pankaj Tripathi), a violent gangster is ironically the pivot. Sattu Bhaiya's once protege, Bittu (Abhishek Bachchan) returns from the jail to his estranged family, but alas, his wife has moved on and remarried his friend. Bittu's daughter Ruhi is away at a hostel and has forgotten him. The couple now owes Sattu Bhaiya a large sum of money that Bittu is requested by his friend to arrange for, in lieu of reuniting him with his erstwhile family.

There are three other stories. Akash (Aditya Roy Kapoor) discovers a porn film uploaded to the net where his ex-girlfriend's face is visible and the latter is about to get married to a rich young man in 5 days. He must seek help from Sattu Bhaiya to find out who the culprit behind the upload is, so that it can be removed from the public domain. Then there's Aalok (Rajkummar Rao), who is so lovelorn and devoted to his childhood crush Pinky that even after her marriage, he can go to any extent to help her restore her household to normalcy after her husband is arrested by the police, charged for the death of a builder who was actually murdered by Sattu Bhaiya. Finally, there's a nurse Sheeja who tends to Sattu Bhaiya after a horrific accident and discovers a fat wad of cash in his custody, that she and Rahul, an eyewitness to the builder's murder, must usurp at all cost.

Ludo brings these four stories crisscross into a logical end, where like all else, there's a winner and the others lose, some by a whisker and others by a mile. Abhishek Bachchan stands out as Bittu in a poignant display of a subtle, low key character that yearns for his daughter's love, a role that may remind some of his volatile performance in Yuva. Pankaj Tripathi is a hoot and the life of the movie, enjoying the best ofcthe script tailor made for him. The rest are tolerable, Rajkummar Rao enthralled with his wide repertoire of histrionic capabilities. The music of the movie by Pritam is a encore - you can repeatedly listen to "Hardam Humdum", "Aabaad Barbaad" and "Dil Julaha" without tiring.