Analyzing ‘Ludo’ and Anurag Basu’s vision – who won the game?

Films are an expression and a reflection of reality… and reality is messy. That’s the space Ludo plays in and attempts to push creative boundaries where the treatment is superior to the plot, and it only works if you’re in the mood for a fun experience.

Note: This is not a review – this article is about appreciating Ludo and analyzing (or perhaps over-analyzing) Anurag Basu’s vision!

[FYI – some spoilers ahead]

Ludo does not fall into any one specific genre. It explores various themes, genres and storylines.

The film opens with two characters, played by Rahul Bagga and Anurag Basu, whom we later discover are Chitragupta and Yamraj, respectively. They decide to play a game of Ludo while they await the arrival of the main characters at an undisclosed location.

Their conversation provides a narrative to the plot where each character is clustered in a color quadrant, basically playing their parts as pegs on the board game… or in the game of life.

Let’s breakdown the key characters and decode their tracks:

• Yellow: Akash Chauhan (Aditya Roy Kapur) and Shruti Choksi (Sanya Malhotra) who take on a journey in search for love, intimacy and trust.

• Green: Alok Kumar “Aalu” (Rajkummar Rao) who blindly follows love and plays a passive role in Pinky’s (Fatima Sana Shaikh) life.

• Red: Bittu (Abhishek Bachchan) who learns to fight his demons.

• Blue: Rahul (Rohit Saraf) and Sheeja (Pearle Meaney) whose worlds collide resulting in the biggest adventure of their lives.

The individual storylines move carefully on their mission, as tokens on the board game to reach the finish line. They roll with the punches, face challenges, cross paths and even hit roadblocks only to be sent back to base.

Ludo is an inspired depiction of life and human nature that’s eager to arrive at the destination (or ‘home’). However, they forget that the game ends when you reach the safe zone on the board. Defeating opponents in the race simply means that you’re out of the game before the rest of the players.

This is elaborated from each team’s journey –

Akash and Shruti travel for miles to find the hotel that illegally recorded and leaked their sex tape. Their journey should’ve / could’ve ended at the hotel, however they step into a new phase of their lives (or a new cycle in the game).

Similarly, Aalu is on a mission to protect Pinky until they arrive at a turning point after the latter’s husband’s murder. Hence, making way for a new journey together.

Bittu is lost on his path. He has a goal but is unsure of how to accomplish it; he merely keeps moving forward on the trail.

Rahul and Sheeja are the underdogs who keep rolling the dice, dodging every obstacle.

This leads to one of the central characters who is not assigned a color – Rahul Satyendra “Sattu” Tripathi (Pankaj Tripathi).

Sattu keeps coming back to life over and over again. He refuses to give up or die. Is it maybe because Sattu is the die of Ludo that keeps rolling and deciding the fate of all characters?

Like every game, Ludo ends with a winner and loser. So who wins the game?

It’s possible that Bittu (red) is the first to complete the cycle which ends with his death, followed by Aalu (green) who comfortably plays the game without fear of winning or losing.

Next would be Akash and Shruti (yellow) who seem to be leading in life (though losing as per the rules of the game) but unexpectedly gets pushed away from their target.

That leaves us with team blue – Rahul, Sheeja… and Latha Kutti (Shalini Vatsa).

While Rahul and Sheeja obviously win the game, Latha is the real winner who even manages to control the die, Sattu.

The climax at the hotel is nothing but all the characters inching towards ‘home’ till the die is rolled again, sending some back to base while ending the game for some.

Ludo explains the philosophy of life which is simply about the journey you lead till death – or till you reach home.