Director: Maneesh Sharma
Rating: **
Sometimes a director's own film works against him. Maneesh Sharma's debut Band Baajaa Baaraat was such a delightful little surprise packet that expectations were bound to be high. But then Ladies Vs Ricky Bahl proves that it is difficult to match the standards of a fun riot like BBB, even by its own director.
Ricky Bahl (Ranveer Singh) is a con man who specialises in conning gullible young women. He has one simple modus operandi.
He sweet-talks, flirts, earns their trust and then disappears with their money, breaking their hearts in the process.
Amongst many victims are three, Dimple, Raina and Saira, who get together to con the 'bloody kameena' cheater and get their money back. They hire the help of a smart salesperson Ishika Desai (Anushka Sharma).
Their plot is fool proof, except that they didn't anticipate a development, which cost them
The script should have been as clever as it is trying to portray its lead man to be. For Ricky, cheating comes naturally, but disappointingly, it seems like he doesn't even have to exercise his brain cells to cheat any of them.
Ricky gets so lucky every time that things easily fall into place or his victims are so foolishly gullible that they are more than willing to fall into his trap, again and again.
Also, the track where he becomes an art dealer, Deven Shah and cheats Raina (Dipannita Sharma) seems highly improbable.
However, the movie manages to keep you engaged, more so when the ladies are busy plotting and working furiously to carry out their sinister ideas against their common enemy.
Maneesh Sharma's forte is capturing the life in Delhi (as he did so brilliantly in BBB) and one track which involves Sunny cheating the pampered daughter of a building contractor, Dimple (don't miss the wicked names) in Delhi is excellent.Ranveer and Anushka's chemistry is intact. Ranveer is subdued and pretty impressive but knowing his potential, could have been far better.
But guess he needed the support of a sharper script for that. Anushka is good too, but it is Parineeti Chopra who stands out with her performance. She is a natural and almost manages to outshine everyone else.
And then there are few unnecessary typical Bollywood cliches that spoil the flow of the film.
Why does Bollywood continue to think that every smart girl also needs to be bubbly enough to be dancing in the middle of the street or playing cricket with kids? And why this compulsory need to introduce her with a song where she is moronically jumping up and down?
Overall, a decent entertainer but also a bit of a disappointment. So much could have been done with this plot, but sadly wasn't attempted.
