Movie Review – Ladies vs Ricky Bahl

Kya karoon ho ladies…

And that’s the winning shot. With that I finish the last movie of the year and complete my resolution of sharing one review per day since lockdown. It was a great feeling to watch the movie like waiting to hit the winning run after you know that you’re assured of a win. I was carefully selecting for the right movie to watch which should either be a great movie or a movie which would make me happy. ‘Ladies vs Ricky Bahl’ was both, with the weight titled more towards the latter than the former.

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Even though ‘Ladies vs Ricky Bahl’ might not look like a movie one would take effort to watch, it’s actually worth it. It had a finesse like Hollywood studio movies where they know exactly what they are doing. Being a Yash Raj film with both Anushka and Ranveer having a contract with them, they had planned a fool proof movie and made it work too. It deserves as much appreciation like an off-beat film. Even though it’s a mainstream movie, it’s a mainstream movie done to perfection. May be if I had watched it back in 2011 when the movie got released, I would’ve sidelined it for being a normal movie. But now when I’m in a spree, any movie which makes me happy in the midst of all this clutter holds a special place in heart. Also, this being the winning shot movie I’ll remember it like how I’d always remember ‘Kapoor and Sons’ for being my 500^th review.

The story is supposedly inspired by Jeffrey Archer’s novel ‘Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less’ but from what I remember there is nothing common in between. The story of the movie is simple. Ricky Bahl (Ranveer Singh) is a con man who selects rich women as target and takes money from them. Apart from that he’s no Casanova because all he does is woo and take the money but he has no interest in women. That’s actually a wonderful and unnoticed thing in the film. Though the film appears sexy, we don’t see him making out with any woman. Thus, making it a film for everyone. Another masterstroke from studio.

It’s Anushka Sharma and Ranveer Singh’s second outing together. Even though the magic of ‘Band Baaja Baaraat’ is missing, they still make a terrific pair. Here Ranveer outscores Anushka, who comes only in the second half of the movie. She looks ravishing though. The makers rightly select Goa for con job so that they can experiment with their costumes. Another masterstroke. All these are masterstrokes not because its an unthinkable idea but because how well they’ve worked within their boundaries. Commercial films have their own set of rules and limitations, to work effectively within that needs appreciation.

The film could have been very well named as ‘Kya karoon ho ladies…’ or even ‘Mein hoon aadat se majboor’ but the title ‘Ladies vs Ricky Bahl’ has some character. Very rarely does a name have character. Vicky Bahl was one such name. Dev D, Johnny Gaddar, Arjun Reddy etc. are some of the titular names that I could think of which had character. Ending the film in such a sweet straightforward way also needs to be appreciated. Even though I was wanting for Ricky to escape with all the money in the last shot so that it’ll be punchy, it was nice to see a straightforward happy ending where all are satisfied.

Generally, in a movie like this, other than the lead pair, the other ladies too need to act well, to make it a complete film. Here all the three do a decent job. Parineeti Chopra as Dimple Chaddha was terrific, Dipannita Sharma as Raina Parulekar was decent and Aditi Sharma as Saira Rashid was calm and beautiful. It was a good way to open up with a story and then put on the title cards along with the song. Another well done trick within the boundary. Together the three stories make for a decent first half. The second half isn’t as interesting as the first one but still manageable enough, thanks to Parineeti. But with a nice happy ending, it makes you forget whatever blemishes it has. Personally, for me nothing came to my mind and I have no complaints at all.