The Stranger Things connection is hard to shake off as its Indian counterpart Snakes and Ladders begins. The Tamil show has four teenagers navigating a series of misadventures on rattly cycles (the made-up, moody town Rettamugadu stands in for Hawkins).
But this is also where the similarities end. What if Stranger Things took a darker, more morbid turn (imagine real-life demons and not demogorgons)? Creators Kamala Alchemis and Dhivakar Kamal are more interested in making an intricate noir centered around teens.
School friends Gilly, Bala, Irai and Sandy (Samrith, Surya Ragaveshwar, Surya Kumar and Tarun) are a weird bunch. They appear to be easy targets – one lives with his aging grandparents, another resents his absent father, while there is also a nerdy rank-holder, and a witty class clown in the mix. But the teens often punch above their weight, literally so.
Apart from strutting off into the night past curfew, their routine includes bullying the school bully Vinay. The fact that their circle has two cops (Nandha plays Chezhian, Irai’s father, and Sreejith Ravi plays his superior) doesn’t stop them from mischief. But things get sticky for this motley gang when their girl bestie Raagi’s house gets robbed. One inadvertent body count and several unfortunate events later, the gang gets together to become actual partners in crime.
Filmmakers Ashok Veerappan, Bharath Muralidharan and Alchemis take turns to direct the nine-episode series, and find themselves with a big task at hand. How do you make children acting like adults (often lawbreaking adults) seem only sparingly awkward?
The series takes some time to find any real tension because it starts off with kids prancing around in big-boy shoes. The stakes seem low and forced, and we are thrown dodgily into their story. But it doesn’t take Snakes and Ladders much time to recover. The show asks us to accept teenage impulsiveness with patience, promising a thoroughly amusing dark comedy.
Once you get past the unwieldy teenagers-breaking-bad part, the show becomes quite enjoyable. The boys often get away with saying the most inappropriate things. This is a gang that makes the act of gravedigging an exercise in absurdist comedy. Like most adolescents at that age, the Rettamugudu bunch cares more about friends than the adults in their life.
The grown-ups are often amusing too. They include one “Pimp Paneer”. CCTV manager Leo (Naveen Chandra) has his eye on an artifact. There’s the dog-loving gangster Rico (Muthu Kumar) and a father (Manoj Bharathiraja) who is hilariously frightened by his son’s capabilities. But it’s the kids who make a mark. Irai and Raagi, in particular, are lovely as sweet adolescents who are forced to bring out their claws.
At one point, Chezhian wonders out loud: “How are you guys everywhere?” This is a thought that follows us through every winding episode of Snakes and Ladders. But the smart writing often has an answer readily waiting at every turn.
