Film Ladies vs Ricky Bahl Review

Star cast: Ranveer Singh, Anushka Sharma, Parineeti Chopra, Aditi Sharma;

Directed by: Maneesh Sharma;

The Band Baaja Baaraat was one of the most unanticipated of hits from last year, and made instant stars out of Anushka Sharma and Ranveer Singh. The movie was also a debut for director Maneesh Sharma, and turned out to be a critical and commercial triumph too. With everything going right for it, it's obvious that Yash Raj films is keen on sticking with a winning formula, which is what sets up its newest release, Ladies vs Ricky Bahl, with the same Anushka-Ranveer-Maneesh team behind it.

For one, though the team might be the same, Ladies vs Ricky Bahl does not meet the standards set by Band Baaja Baaraat. While the previous movie was a charming rom-com about middle class Delhi, Ladies vs Ricky Bahl could best be called a slick 'rom-con', with far more up-market aspirations. As an alternative of Maneesh himself, this time around, the story is penned by producer Aditya Chopra, who crafts an interesting enough plot, with a con-game at its centre, but doesn't quite find complete synergy with his players.

It is an engaging a smoothly-sculpted con caper about a suave charlatan who wins over 31….or is it 32?...women and then breaks their heart while running away with their bank balance.

We only see the con man, played with cunning suaveness by Ranveer Singh hoodwink four women. The first three episodes where Ricky Behl (yup, that's his name but we know it only at the end) cons first a bubbly loud Punjabi business family's fun-loving girl (played with appealing effervescence by Parineeta Chopra), then a uptight hoity-toity business executive (Dipannita Sharma, accomplished) and then simple widow from lucknow (Aditi Sharma, sweet) are cut wonderfully, like a well-tailored roomy band-gala sherwani.

Suresh Sharma's editing moves through Ranveer character's various escapades with a direct swiftness that leaves no room for loose moments. However, slackness creeps into the narration in the second-half when Ranveer meets his match (in more ways than one) in Goa. Here, the chemistry is more artificial than luminous.

Though Goa is captured with perfect picturesqueness, the Ranveer-Anushka relationship in the second-half falters due to a lack of inner passion. Though the writing is smooth textured and layered, the mellow momentum is forfeited once it's payback time for the con man.

Anushka Sharma's conventional bubbly-on-the-prowl act here often seems self-conscious and dull. Could we please see this bundle of energy do something else? And really, her introductory song is more a homage to Ram Gopal Varma's "Rangeela" than a panoramic look-see at Anushaka's character's heartland.

The songs and choreography are OK.

Ranveer Singh gets his act together with great care for minutiae. Each step of his con game is charted carefully with the right physique, body language clothes and accessories. Yup, this actor works hard on getting it right and succeeds. If the highlight in "Band Baajaa Baraat" was the sequence where Ranveer's character blurted out his love for Anushka, here too Ranveer gets the love-confession sequence just right.

The narrative is not consistent. The three actresses Parineeti Chopra, Aditi Sharma and Dipannati Sharma playing Ricky's three scorned women slip effortlessly into their roles.

As for Anushka she is a bold actress, not afraid to let her emotions overrule her makeup. At the end of the movie when she dresses up as Santa Claus to smooch Ranveer Singh in shopping mall, there isn't that same feeling of breathless excitement we felt when Ranveer and Anushka kissed in their previous movie together.

On the whole, "Ladies Vs Ricky Behl" is above an average film and worthy to watch once.