A light, feel good, mindless, entertainer is Ladies v/s Ricky Bahl. The Band Baaja Baaraat team reunites to recreate the magic and succeed to an extent.
Ricky Bahl (Ranveer Singh) is a conman who will trap rich and beautiful girls and cheat them for big amounts. He met with a tigress girl and manages to cheat her as well, but she was not a material who will let him go that easily. Three of the cheated girls out of 30 unite to make a plan to teach the big rascal a lesson. That is Ladies v/s Vikky Bahl.
The story is written for the sole purpose of light entertainment and the writers have taken a lot of cinematic liberty at it. The storyline is so thin with no major twists or turn. The screenplay writer with the director manages to create the feel good factor throughout the movie, which is the sole selling point of it. Maneesh Sharma, the director got guided by the success formula of BBB to make the road clear this time. That’s right you can watch the entire movie with a smile on your face. The first half was good in pace and when the interval arrives we feel, isn’t it too early?
The heroine’s entry was delayed too long and the happening of ’love’ was too fast and accidental kind. Despite these, the movie was well moving in the second half as well, then the climax fail to raise any enthusiasm with lack of imagination and spoiled an opportunity there. The writers failed to give a solid reason to the hero to make an emotional cord with the viewers. That doesn’t however take away the charm created by the energetic fun loving easy going, happy ride taken so far completely, but only reduced the intensity of it. BBB had the benefit of a solid script to support and the fun was created with a lot of believability in it. In Ladies v/s Ricky Bahl, it was more like a drama for the sake of fun and the logic took a happy nap behind. Maneesh Sharma doesn’t improve his act from BBB but just tries to match to the expectation and reach nearly there but short of.
Ranveer Singh looks cute, energetic and charming. The director tried to capitalise on his body muscles and when a girl whom he had cheated still gets attracted to his body we can only smile for her. At times it felt like the director wanted him to break the late Silk Smitha’s low belly record. (Lol!!) The feel the actor renders on screen is amazing. On the other hand, the movie proved that Ranveer cannot act. There were zero expressions in the hero’s face. Anushka Sharma’s entry was delayed too much. Then, the jovial and energetic Anushka tried her best to liven up the scenes and succeeds mostly. She tries to be hot as well in a two piece pool scene giving even Kangna a ride for her money. The best performance however comes from the second set of heroines in the movie. Parineeti Chopra as Dimple in the movie is truly funny and excellent at that. She is the basic source of better fun in the movie for her character was well developed and the actress just rocks the role in style. Dipannita Sharma as Raina as well got an important role and she does it brilliantly. Perfect! Aditi Sharma as Saira got a comparatively unimportant character out of the four but the actress did it in the best way possible. In one occasion, where the writer/director gave her a chance, she proved that she too can act like her colleagues. Overall, the performance side doesn’t live to the excellent tag, but good to very good.
Music of the film doesn’t live up to expectation. Pretty average numbers in the film are not good enough to liven up the screen for such a theme. They become a burden instead of an asset. Choreography gives a mixed feel. Some are good and some are not that good. Then, the best of work from the choreographers were for a non song to create the mood of love. Background Music on the other hand was quite good.
Cinematography is just ok, nothing to rave about. Some very good scenes were averaged the score with some lack of imaginative shots. Few camera angles were good enough to turn eye brows. Cost cutting for the sets shows. Editing gives an amateurish feel.
The movie is the kind one can go with family and enjoy it till the end. It will not give a headache or heartbreak as you don’t have to give a head or heart to any characters, still can enjoy some light and pure fun. Lately I have learned a trick to assess the audience reaction to a movie, especially to a family movie. If the families are sitting further when the final credits roll on with a song that means they like the movie and if they stand up from the seat the moment roll on starts means they don’t. For Ricky Bahl, they decide to sit till the end, means the movie is going to be accepted by the families.
A light hearted family entertainer which worth a watch and assures some entertainment! If you go with high expectations you may be disappointed a bit, otherwise it is a feel good movie which you wish it should have been made better, still enjoying every bit of it.
My rating: 3.25 stars