Ludo review :

Two strangers play a game of ludo even as one of them explains the meaning of 'paap' and 'punya' through six unrelated stories which merge together in the climax. Let me attempt to narrate the same through its characters :

Pankaj Tripathi plays a bhai who kills a builder and is happy to find some other person jailed for his crime.

Fatima Sana Shaikh's husband is that guy framed for the builder's murder and so she approaches her college friend Rajkummar Rao for help. Rajkummar, a Mithunda fan, still loves Fatima and can do anything for her...

Abhishek Bachchan is a goon who has an axe to grind with Pankaj Tripathi who got him jailed for six years. He returns home to find his wife married to another guy and his little daughter living in a hostel. Bachchan attempts to reconcile with his daughter at any cost.

A little school going girl elopes to seek attention from her ever busy parents. Coincidentally, she meets Abhishek and strikes a deal with him to feign her kidnapping.

After their one night stand goes viral on internet, Aditya Roy Kapur and Sanya Malhotra keep searching for the seedy hotel which filmed their sex act.

Rohit and Pearle accidentally stumble upon Pankaj's black money and run away with it. His goons are now on their trail..

Anurag Basu's ambitiously mounted Ludo is one of the most muddled and confusing screenplays I have witnessed this year. The stories - per se - are actually simplistic and somewhat bland but the presentation is one hellavu convulted mess.

Despite the solid ensemble cast, not one performance is worth a praise. Pankaj Tripathi is getting repetitive with his bhaigiri roles. Abhishek Bachchan gets no scope at all. Rajkummar Rao overacts as Mithun Chakraborty fan. Just to clarify, swinging hips wildly is not Mithunda and those who feel so should watch Mrigaya (1976), Agneepath (1990), Tahader Katha (1992) and Swami Vivekananda (1998) to understand his range of acting. Aditya Rao Kapur makes weird faces at the camera. The Dangal (2016) girls - Fatima and Sanya - are strictly okay. As for Pearle, she shouldve chosen a better Bollywood debut than this.

Technically, Ludo scores well if we can discount that badly recreated Pankaj Tripathi den. Anurag Basu's cinematography is first rate. Pritam's music is another plus point.

Finally, Ludo is yet another underwhelming film from Basu. Gangster (2006), Life in a Metro (2007) and Barfi (2012) are his best works till date. The director hasnt been able to match up to his own standard making highly indulgent cinema offlate.

Regards, Sumeet Nadkarni.