When i first heard of Ladies vs Ricky Bahl, i assumed it was a Bollywood remake of John Tucker Must Die- a moderately funny romantic comedy in which three ex-girlfriends of a serial cheater set up their common former lover to fall for the new girl in town. The Chopras vehemently denied so, but today they are a far cry from their originality filled 70s and 80s productions, and this one takes complete inspiration from the aforementioned English movie, adding the "con" angle for some Bollywoodish twist.
Ranveer Singh plays Ricky Bahl, who uses his wit, charm and looks to con women. And to be fair, the way he struts his stuff and plays his part gives credence to his self admitted 30 women count. The first half of the movie sets high standards. Quickly the background stories of the three conned women are done away with, setting the stage for Anushka Sharma's Ishika to enter as the table-turner on Ricky. And in the background stories, they profile some stereotypes- whether it be the obnoxious Delhi businessman (note how the Delhi property dealer knowingly loots his prospective son-in-law, and apparent wealth makes Ricky a "good" boy) or simple, honourable small town guy (In Lucknow, we have a trusty clothes merchant handing over money to Ricky just to see their daughter happy).
Ranveer and Anushka try to pick up from where they left off in Band Baaja Baraat and therein lies the problem- people who have watched that movie will find that Ranveer and Anushka try to do nothing different here, and the films meanders along to a very predictable end. Ranveer looks good in the energetic dance sequences and light hearted sequences but looks like a fish out of water in the emotion filled scenes, something goes wrong peculiarly in his dialogue delivery when asked to emote. Anushka is a wispy beauty, has lost oodles of weight and looks great, but there is only so much she can achieve with her smile, her eyes remain impassive throughout. I personally liked the songs when they played on radio, but in the movie, they all seem to be like the Bangladeshi bowling attack, ie. no variety.
The real stars of the movie were in fact the three conned women- Dimple played by Parineeti Chopra (debut), Raina played Dipannita Sharma and Saira, played Aditi Sharma. These three women work wonders to get under the skin of their characters. Dimple is the star as the naive, petulant and brash Delhi-wali who gets the best dialogues, puts up the best expressions and plays her part with a lot of spunk- watch out for her. Dipannita Sharma plays the modern day smart, savy and resourceful businesswoman to the hilt while Aditi Sharma is the demure Muslim from Lucknow, yet she displays a sound head more often than the others.
Maneesh Sharma is probably one of the most promising new bloods in the Yash Raj camp, but the audience connect he generated in BBB is just not here. In BBB, he made us believe in the ordinariness of the main protagonists, and the feeling of success and love that they achieve. This one remains flimsy throughout, you actually don't believe in the journey of falling in love for Ricky and Ishika. And if Maneesh Sharma is proud of his cons and considers them elaborate, he should just check out BBC's Hustle- a series devoted to cons of the highest order. Any episode of Hustle probably provides more entertaining scams than this flick.
Having said that I found this movie to be better time pass than most of the crap Bollywood has been churning out lately, such as Desi Boyz. Best enjoyed with popcorn in hand, and low expectations in general.
