Rating: 2 / 5
“Cash you like it? Everyone does, but this guy’s lust for mega-bucks verges on insanity. He cons more women than you can count on your toes and fingers. Quite a lady’s finger dish he.
Not quite actually. Maneesh Sharma’s Ladies vs Ricky Bahl keeps stressing that its Conman Casanova (Ranveer Singh) is handsome and sexy. Now, now, male beauty lies in the eyes of the director, but even if you suspend your sense of disbelief on that score, there’s another road block ahead.
Creaky Tricky Ricky is about as original as a xerox copy. With the usual desification, the content has been obviously ‘inspired’ by Hollywood’s John Tucker Must Die (2006). In that chickflick,vendetta was wreaked by a caboodle of cuties on a serial dater. And so ho-ho-hum excited by the cornball concept, the Yashraj factory adds yet another no-brainer adaptation to its godown. Frown.
Depite the glossy production design, location hops, blingy costumes and some crackling dialogue by Habib Faisal, the outcome is mediocre. Also the Band Baaja Baaratis Ranveer Singh and Anushka Sharma give you a serious case of the heebie jeebies.”
“So hyper-self-conscious that they’re a hit pair, they just don’t have that fresh and vulnerable quality about them any more. Or chemistry.Anushka has a smug, ear-to-ear smile pasted on her face, while Ranveer Singh is off-putting with his I’m-so-cool-and-if-need-be-uncool mannerisms. Sorry dude, not happening.
Next: Just three of the eponymous ladies – a Delhi chatterbox (Parineeti Chopra, easily the best thing about the movie), a Lucknowi Barbie (Aditi Sharma) and a Mumbai kinda-hotty (Dipannita Sharma) – get together to teach the duplicitous Ricky (Ranveer Singh) the lesson of his life. How all the ladies fell for him, hook, line and sinker, or why none of them reported the conman to the police remains a mystery. Read: sloppy script flaw.
Much more: The trio recruit a peppy salesgal (Anushka Sharma) to pose as an insanely rich heiress, hook the handsome (oof) Casanova, and then tan tana tan, get their money back. Never undestimate anyone’s charm though. Peppyji also starts falling in love with the bloke. Croak.
Throughout, the unscrupulous, greed-driven con man is made to be heroic and angelic. Come on, do director Sharma and producer Aditya Chopra need a crash course in moral values? A crook cuter than a bunny rabbit is just one of the many lapses of this project which certainly needed more incubation.
The script situations are predictable, the Salim-Sulaiman music score below the mark, and the cinematography-editing don’t opt for a distinctive style. In fact, whether it is Maneesh Sharma or X Y Z director from the Yashraj factory, they lack a distinct signature. Those directors who could create their own profiles, like Shaad Ali (Saawariya, Bunty aur Babli) and Shimit Amin (Chak de India!), have been idle for far too long.
Of the cast, as afore-groused neither Ranveer Singh nor Anushka Sharma are much to sing or dance about. Truly The Ladies vs Rich Bahl strives to pack in so much lime, chutney and what-spice-you into its paper thin storyline that it could well have been titled Ricky Bhel Puri.”
