The series breaks down at times due to action and confusing cumming
New Delhi:
Four inseparable schoolboys, some cops looking for clues in a robbery and assault case and a gang of evil criminals whose depravity wreaks havoc on a fictional hill town Snakes and Ladders is a moderately interesting Tamil web series created by Kamala Alchemys and Dhibhakar Kamal.
Karthik Subbaraj as creative producer is a low-intensity and uneven show, using the tropes of a cops-and-thieves thriller to examine the power of family and friendship to deal with serious and unexpected dangers.
The sporadic flow of the Amazon Prime Video series is occasionally broken by the action and confusing comings and goings of both the city and the gang’s hideout. The life it leads is not steady enough to consistently absorb crime response and police investigation.
That doesn’t mean Snakes and Ladders isn’t worth watching. Of particular note are the sub-plots which focus mainly on the boys’ relationships with their parents, particularly their fathers, and with each other. These highlight some of the show’s more diverting tracks.
But it’s the cops and the crooks and the boys (and a girl they all bond with) who get into an initial melee with snakes and ladders. This is where the show needed a more liberal injection of excitement, energy and intrigue.
Show’s gentle canter never gives way to a full-out sprint. At times, the leisurely pace of life in picturesque Rettamugadu (standing for the city of Kodaikanal) seems to match. In others, it seems overly thoughtful, perhaps even a touch persuasive.
Gilbert (MS Samarith), Irayan (Suriya Ragveshwar), Sandy (Suriya Kumar) and Bala (Tarun Yuvraj), like other boys of their age, are lured by adventure. In the bargain, they get into trouble with the school headmaster, their parents and the more dangerous world of adults outside their immediate environment.
Teenagers’ problems – they ride their bicycles around town in ways they seem to avoid at home – are exacerbated by ill-advised choices made in haste or under pressure.
Their impulsive actions inadvertently pit them against a group of thugs who have their eyes on a valuable artifact in a country art museum. Two thieves working under the orders of a crime syndicate enter the city and steal valuables.
One of them, a borderline psychopath named Blade, then makes a spur-of-the-moment decision to attack and loot two bungalows on his way out. That move backfires. Both end up separately in places they didn’t bargain for.
Snakes & Ladders, written by Alchemis and directed by him (two episodes), Bharatha Muralidharan (four episodes) and Ashok Veerappan (three episodes), is set in a fictional town in the midst of mischief where the police don’t have much to do. within the year
A chain of events triggered by the two robbers, and many other misguided individuals in their wake, especially the extremely hot-headed Richard “Rico” (Muthukumar), sends the police on a hunt that assumes the unpredictable nature of Snake’s game. And ladders take far fewer steps than they go back and forth.
Leonard (Naveen Chandra), a man with many secrets that hold the key to many important revelations, doesn’t help matters. He moves to the city and rents a residence owned by a policeman who also happens to be the father of nerdy class topper Irai.
The nine-episode series begins with an attack on the home of a school teacher (Srinda). The robbers, before making off with their loot, attack the woman, leaving her in a coma and her haemophiliac young daughter Ragitha (Sasha Bharen) in shock.
The violent robbery is followed by another similar attempt that ends up in a kitchen closet and sucks Gilbert and his unsuspecting friends to bewildering consequences.
A burglar breaks into the bungalow where Gilbert lives with his grandfather, an ex-military man, and his wife. An unintentional act of self-defense creates big problems for the boy. He enlists the support of his friends to deal with the fallout and find a way out of the mess.
The more the boys try to lure the cops and criminals away from their hideout, the worse things get for the foursome trapped in a swamp. Irai’s father is Chejian (Nandha), a police sub-inspector. But the man in uniform has no idea what his son and his friends are up to. He isn’t even aware of what’s in Leo’s bag of tricks.
Gilbert, Gilly to his friends, laments not seeing his parents in person for over five years. The reason for their absence is never revealed—all the audience learns is that the separation is almost final.
Sandy, a rebellious boy, has an uneasy relationship with his father Mahalingam (Manoj Bharathiraja), a factory worker who tends to overdo the disciplinary work.
There is another father in the plot, Inspector Rajendran (Sreejith Ravi), who struggles to rein in his son Vinay, even as he leads a robbery investigation. The boy hoists a high school bully with his own petard when one of the four junior boys socks him in the face, leaving him in a rage and a sense of pride.
A box with a locket pendant containing a painting surrounded by gangsters – there is an array of them – is worn. The stolen item is lost with the person it is supposed to be in possession of. Add to that the search for the jewels and loot stolen from the schoolmaster’s house – and the attempt to hide it – all become more desperate and complicated.
This is not the end of the story and the Retamugadu boys are not out of the woods. Another season is in the works. The largest of them is the snake – we don’t see his face but know who he might be – in the final shot of Snakes and Ladders.
It’s a middle ground. The follow-up has to pack a big punch.