‘Snakes and Ladders’ sequence evaluation: A bored sport

A nonetheless from ‘Snakes and Ladders’ 
| Picture Credit score: Particular Association

The makers of Prime Video’s newest Tamil internet sequence, Snakes and Ladders, named it so most likely to indicate the hits and misses its major characters encounter as they navigate the mess they’ve inadvertently put themselves into. However given the scarce variety of highs the sequence hits in comparison with the innumerable misses it faulters with, we will very a lot name the ratio of the percentages as a lot as discovering a ladder at a snake park.

Snakes and Ladders is about in 2006 in Rettamugadu. At this fictional hill station, a bunch of children, Gilbert (M.S. Samrith), Iraiyan (S Surya Ragaveshwar), Sandy (S Surya Kumar), and Bala (Tarun Yuvraaj) get entangled in an incident involving the loss of life of a criminal named Blade (Ramachandran). With Blade not returning to base after a heist involving a priceless locket, it units a sequence of occasions involving everybody from gangsters, cops, academics, dad and mom, and even the native faculty bully.

Proper off the bat, the backdrop, the happenings, and our younger protagonists appear straight out of the pages of Enid Blyton’s ‘Well-known 5’ and ‘Secret Seven’ and remind us of a number of titles comparable to ET, Stranger Issues, and nearer residence, Anjali. When the sequence shuttles from being a critical thriller to a darkish comedy, it even seems like Panchatanthiramwith pre-teens and given concepts the youngsters provide you with, one of many lead characters may have very properly been named Suyambulingam in order that the sequence would have doubled as a prequel to a different Kamal Haasan starrer, Papanasam.

Snakes and Ladders chorus from infantilising its lead casts or worse, performing annoyingly precocious. Satirically, the adults, some agonizingly caricaturish, come throughout as extra juvenile. The sequence treats our protagonists as younger adults who’re properly conscious of the actions brought on by their age-driven impulsiveness and the repercussions that include it, and this works each as a boon and bane for the sequence. I relished how, regardless of starring a bunch of underage teenagers as its protagonists, it’s removed from being a kids’s journey; there’s the same old degree of violence and profanity (a baby smashes an intruder’s toes with a hammer whose knee-jerk response is to swear below his breath) for these accustomed to Indian OTT content material, however they fortunately don’t really feel compelled. If Sport of Thrones can star kids, why put a cap on it?

However these specks of considerate writing — just like the episode the place the youngsters nearly get away with their shenanigans solely to get caught by one in all their dad and mom or the scene symbolising a person’s oscillating thoughts with a shot of a child on a swing — are few and much between. Snakes and Ladders undergo from an id disaster. The movie will get caught between being a full-fledged young-adult thriller and a zanily penned darkish humour. It falls flat and does little justice to the genres it tries to toy with. The characters, particularly those performed by adults are painfully uni-dimensional. The lads are both baddies keen to go to any extent to outlive or do-gooders largely donned in khaki attempting to resolve the thriller, whereas then again, the ladies are clueless damsels in misery. The characterisation of the lead solid isn’t notably ingenious both — essentially the most studious one wears glasses and stutters, and the one woman within the gang suffers from a medical situation.

A nonetheless from ‘Snakes and Ladders’ 
| Picture Credit score:
Particular Association

The sequence treats its characters and situations as massive cogs of a machine somewhat than smaller chunks of a puzzle which have to slot in completely to disclose the larger image. It fails to linger in its moments and jumps from one set piece to a different. As an alternative of shedding extra mild on the mentality and ethical compasses of the youngsters subjected to opposed tribulations, the sequence takes the straightforward approach out with handy payoffs that make the gang’s getaways difficult and even a tad too darkish.

The much less mentioned about the entire gangster phase, the higher it’s. Additionally, what’s with that Rolex-esque season finale ending? The sequence gives nothing to its seasoned and acquainted performers, comparable to Naveen Chandra, Nandaa, and Manoj Bharathiraja. It’s extra painful, contemplating Naveen’s earlier collaboration with Prime Video resulted in a a lot superior product, Inspector Rishi. Snakes and Ladders fall in need of the usual the platform has created with its different thriller films and exhibits as inconsistent writing and tonal inconsistency make sure that the cube get loaded towards it.

Snakes and Ladders is at present streaming on Prime Video