You cannot help but feel that Maneesh Sharma’s “Ladies vs Ricky Bahl” is a mash-up of past Yash Raj films like “Badmaash Company”, “Bunty Aur Babli” and even “Bachna Ae Haseeno”. The story is one you’ve seen before a smart-talking con man takes off with suitcases of money after tricking three very gullible women.
When the women decide to exact revenge, they hire the equally smart-talking Ishika (played by Anushka Sharma), to trap Ricky, whose name they don’t even know. The trio find him in Goa and unleash Ishika on him posing as a rich heiress out to open a restaurant. Ishika lures Ricky with the promise of a 5 million dollar investment and he agrees to make an initial investment in her venture not knowing the money is actually going to the three girls he had conned.
The film has a nice, breezy pace and the first half, which chronicles how Ricky cons the three girls, is snappy and interesting. Parineeti Chopra, who plays the spoilt, outspoken Delhi girl Dimple sparkles throughout the film and has some of the best lines. Dipannita Sharma as the no-nonsense Reva and Aditi Sharma as the demure Lucknow girl are memorable and it is the scenes between these three, as they banter while planning revenge, which are the high points of the film.
Sharma manages to keep the tone light and the length isn’t too draining on your nerves but the film never rises beyond these two points. Ranveer’s character is just shown as a con man, with no back story and no reasoning about why he is the way he is. The ending of “Ladies vs Ricky Bahl”, without giving too much away, is too neatly tied up and very predictable.
I wish Sharma had been a bit more adventurous with this film, given he was riding on the success of his last film “Band Baaja Baaraat”. Ranveer Singh exudes some serious charm and shows off his chiselled body for the benefit of audiences. Anushka Sharma looks stunning, and her chemistry with Singh is intact. This isn’t a film that will stay with you once you’ve left the theatre, but as it stands, this is a good, fun, one-time watch.
