Ludo (2020)

Anurag Basu's Ludo made me realise the meaning of the phrase "the parts are greater than the whole".  This is a film that commands your attention, not only because it has a lot going on, but also because of the thoroughly engaging and brilliant performances of the cast. My favourites are Aditya Roy Kapoor, Rajkummar Rao and Fatima Sana Shaikh- these three lit up every single frame that they were in, and made me that much more invested in the movie. My favourite segment though would have to be the one with Rohit Saraf and Pearle Maaney. I could easily watch a full-length movie based on that storyline. 

My biggest problem with the movie is with the Abhishek Bachchan storyline. I feel like it should have been more tightly played out, because it really made my attention wander off quite a bit. That being said, the most powerful moment in the entire movie belongs to Abhishek- his climax scene gave me goosebumps, and filled me with emotions that I didn't know how to handle at 1:30 am. Well, I wouldn't know how to handle them at 1:30 pm, so there's that. But seriously, watching the entire movie just to get to that scene is so completely worth it. 

As always, Pankaj Tripathi is dependably entertaining and also lowkey scary. There is no role that this man cannot do justice to, and I am glad that writers are coming up with scripts good enough to extract the best out of this man. Cannot wait to see more of him in even better movies.

In conclusion, Ludo just might have given me hope for the Hindi film industry. Will subsequent releases sustain this hope? Stay tuned to find out more. 



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