Ladies vs Ricky Bahl Movie Review - Con Banega Crorepati

Ladies vs Ricky Bahl carried plenty of goodwill along with it, thanks to the wonderful dark horse of a movie Band Baaja Baarat (2010) made by the same team. Though BBB had an all-pervading wedding background that was sure to appeal to a huge section of audience along with ‘dhansu’ music, the promos of Ladies vs Ricky Bahl looked more like Bunty aur Babli, which means the script needed more grip to involve the audience. Sadly, that isn’t the case.

Story of Ladies vs Ricky Bahl – Three girls, loud mouthed Delhi girl Dimple (Parineeti Chopra), a successful corporate woman Raina(Dippanita Sharma) and a hardworking rich widow Saira (Aditi Sharma) find that they are swindled off their lakhs by Ranveer Singh who comes in various get-ups and different identities to con these three women. For Dimple, Ranveer poses as Sunny, the fitness trainer. For Raina, he becomes an art dealer who makes her walk into a trap that makes her an embarrassment in front of her own company. For Saira, he becomes a shy Iqbal whom she almost gives her heart to, while her father gives him  lakhs of money to start a business.

The three ladies connect through phone and meet up in Mumbai to teach Ricky Bahl (Ranveer) a lesson. They need a girl whom this guy has never seen before, who could con him back and get back their money. Enter a smooth-talking Ishika (Anushka Sharma) a 30K earner, who agrees to do the job for them. She manages to do a neat job but somewhere down the line Ranveer sees through her plan. He does fall in love with her and so does she, but at the same time, she has to be faithful to the trio who want revenge. Will she get the better of Ricky Bahl or give the trio the slip?

Plus points of Ladies vs Ricky Bahl
The starting portion of the film is quite entertaining and even the sequences to the end are convincing. The performances are brilliant; the lead actors look very good and are quite comfortable in their roles. Parineeti Chopra steals the show.

Minus points of Ladies vs Ricky Bahl
The movie takes references from many films including John Tucker Must Die. The Hollywood movie had the same plot about three girls hiring one girl to get back to a guy who had done them wrong. The pacing of the movie becomes quite lethargic in the second half, the inclusion of the ‘love factor’ slows down the proceedings and we do not really get to see the ‘smarter side’ of Anushka Sharma. The dialogue is strictly okay and could have done with cooler lines. Direction by Maneesh Sharma is predictable and not as imaginative as we would expect from a smart con film.

Performances of Ladies vs Ricky Bahl
Parineeti Chopra who has debuted in Ladies vs Ricky Bahl is a revelation. She stands out in an uninhibited performance which many would have had reservations about. In fact, she gets the best lines and applause.
Anushka Sharma looks hot in a bikini. Plus, she had an incredible screen presence, her smile lights up the screen and she acts effortlessly. Ranveer Singh has acted brilliantly showing that his neat act in Band Baaja Baarat was no fluke, he is  perfect for the role, looking very much like the cool dude he is supposed to essay.

Conclusion – Ladies Vs Ricky Bahl is strictly average fare, you can compare it to Anushka’s other average performer - Badmaash Company and frankly BC was better. To be fair to Ladies vs Ricky Bahl, we still have not made a top class con movie that would make the viewers go wow! Still waiting to be conned…