Ludo is the kind of film that works because it embraces dank humor early on and rides off all the way into the sunset with it. Not just a dark comedy of errors, the four different pieces of Ludo overlap into each other by way of clever conception and scripting. The good thing about it is that each segment holds good as a standalone as well as part of a meshed storyline. This is largely due to several knockout performances we come across in the film's 2.5-hour runtime.

Pankaj Tripathi leads from the front as gangster Sattu, who's involved in a big-money deal. Part of this segment also features Rohit Suresh Saraf as a hypermarket employee and Pearle Maaney as a Malayali nurse (with all her innate Mallu-ness). Tripathi truly knocks it out of the park enacting serious stretches laced with plenty of dark humor. Pearle Maaney also delivers the goods with aplomb, never for once overdoing the Mallu gimmick.

Abhishek Bachchan plays Bittu, a local thug who's also a single dad. After being released from prison, he wishes to reconnect with his daughter but fate has other plans. Mini (Inayat Verma - gosh, what a cutie!) enters his life, and everything changes. Anurag Basu picking Abhishek for this role makes so much sense given he's the (real-life) doting dad to Aaradhya. Abhishek gets a couple of emotionally charged scenes and he does good on those. The Bittu-Mini duo is tremendously funny and cute.

A sex tape begins doing its rounds on the internet, putting old flames Akash (Aditya Roy Kapur, whose vulnerabilities are put to good use by the director) and Shruti (Sanya Malhotra, who seems to be getting better with each film) in jeopardy - actually, more for the latter, as Shruti's marriage to a wealthy businessman is set to happen soon. A segment that's the equivalent of an adult rom-com, the memorable things about it include Sanya's performance and some hilarious moments, especially in the final act.

Alu (Rajkummar Rao), a bearer at a restaurant (and a stage performer), still yearns for his (ex) lover Pinky (Fatima Sana Shaikh) who's now married with a kid. The first half of Ludo makes you believe that this is one of the lesser intriguing segments but what transpires in the second completely undoes that. Rao gets more screentime and he shines, as expected. So does Fatima, in a role that requires her to be selfish and always getting insanely difficult tasks done by her ever-willing ex. The pairing is brilliant and this helps elevate the segment to one of Ludo's best.

The connective tissue between the four segments - that of gods discussing butterfly effect, grey-shaded humans, and the comparison of life to a game of Ludo (where's the subtlety, bro?) - is the film's weakest element. Even with a COVID mention, this whole expository stretch felt prolonged, pointless, and indulgent. A multi-narrative film like Thiagarajan Kumararaja's Super Deluxe did away with this and it worked wonders for that one. I'd still recommend Ludo for what it is - an engaging dark comedy with a detailed, well-structured screenplay.