Ladies vs Ricky Bahl is a 2011 Indian romantic comedy film directed by Maneesh Sharma and produced by Aditya Chopra. The film stars Ranveer Singh opposite Anushka Sharma in lead roles, seen together once again, after their last hit together Band Baaja Baaraat, along with Dipannita Sharma, Aditi Sharma and debutant Parineeti Chopra in supporting roles. In the film, Ranveer Singh
plays a conman named Ricky Bahl who cons women until three of these
women unite to con him back. This story is inspired by the Hollywood
movie John Tucker Must Die. It was released on December 9, 2011 to mixed response from critics, and was declared an average grosser at the box office.
Plot
The story begins with Dimple Chaddha (Parineeti Chopra), a spoilt brat and the only daughter of Sandeep Chaddha, the creator of "Chaddha Industries", a huge finance company in Delhi, getting ready for a friend's wedding. Secretly, Dimple uses this occasion to meet her boyfriend, Sunny Singh (Ranveer Singh).
The two party all night, and eventually Dimple passes out. Sunny then
drops her home, and explains to Dimple's father that he's a "genuine"
guy who really loves her daughter. The next day he breaks into an old
bungalow nearby and starts throwing stones on windows, harassing the
residents, and then flees upon being chased by the residents. He
explains his actions to Dimple: The bungalow he vandalized moments ago
actually belongs to his father, who had died just recently, and it had
been illegally encroached upon by the tenants. The tenants then got an
interim order from the court for the right to remain, but he has to pay
thousands in taxes, lest he'd end up having to cede the ownership to the
tenants. Dimple then convinces her father to help Sunny gets his
ancestral property back, to which Sandeep agrees. Dimple's father tells
Sunny that Sunny's bungalow has become dilapidated and would require
extensive repairs, which would be a huge problem for Sunny, so he'll
take up the that responsibility and the selling of that bungalow upon
himself. Sandeep pays 20 Lakh INR cash as down-payment and the remaining
1.8 Crore INR upon selling of the bungalow. Unbeknownst to Sandeep, the
family living there had a stay order and had a family dispute in the
court for years, and there was no "Sunny Singh" involved in the dispute,
which directly meant that Sunny had conned Dimple and her father.
Dimple becomes heartbroken and tries tracing Sunny, who, in the
meanwhile, is boarding a flight leaving for Mumbai, with the Rs. 20 lakhs he receives by conning Dimple's father.
Flash forward to today: In Mumbai, Ricky is working as a janitor. There, he spies on Raina Parulekar (Dipannita Sharma), who is a headstrong go-getter businesswoman in a big PR firm called Symphony Services. She has been ordered by her boss to adore the central wall of their upcoming party with an M.F. Hussain
painting, one with a herd of horses, which is sold out everywhere.
Ricky attracts Raina's attention by a planned "chance" meeting, where
he, pretending to be an art aficionado named "Deven Shah", tells her
that he has been loaned that same painting for an art exhibition by a
reputed businessman (Mr. Suri). Raina, desperate to deliver on her
promise of having to deliver an M.F. Hussain painting within 72 hours,
fails to identify the fake painting and falls into the ingenious trap
laid by Deven. To buy the painting, she is made to deal with the owner
of the painting, Mr. Suri, over the phone, as he is not available to
meet at such short notice. Mr. Suri (who is actually Ricky, using a
voice encryption software), after much deliberation, agrees to sell the
painting for 90 Lakhs - 60 Lakhs in cash and 30 Lakhs in cheques, which
he tells Raina to handover to the "honest and innocent Deven". She hands
over Rs. 60 lakhs to Deven. At the grand party, the real "Mr. Suri"
contacts Raina's boss and reprimands him over the phone for using his
name in a transaction which never happened. Humiliated, Raina's boss
immediately fires Raina for her ignorant mistake, accusing her of trying
to con the company for Rs. 60 Lakhs. Humiliated, Raina reveals to the
media about Deven Shah, who has duped her for a fake Hussain painting.
Dimple, sitting in a beauty parlor in Delhi, sees the news on TV and
suspects that maybe Deven Shah could be "Sunny". She contacts Raina, who
instantly recognizes that Sunny Singh is indeed Deven Shah.
Simultaneously, Raina receives another call from Lucknow from a widow
named Saira Rashid (Aditi Sharma), who explains her story of having being conned, for an amount of 10 Lakhs, by the same person under the guise of Iqbal Khan.
Raina asks Dimple and Saira to come to Mumbai so that they can make a
plan to find and con their common conman, who they simply name "Bloody
Kameena (BK)" (Bloody Scoundrel). To trace BK, Raina uses the help of
one of her hacker friends, who sorts all prepaid numbers from around
India which also have the same unique "caller tune" (the famous dialogue
by Shahrukh Khan from "Baazigar"). They finally manage to identify his number and trace him to Goa, where he goes by the alias of "Diego Vaz". To set the plan in motion, Raina decides to hire an acquaintance. Enter Ishika (Anushka Sharma): a really smart, sweet-talking and cunning saleswoman, who'd act as the daughter of an NRI American business tycoon, who wishes to open a restaurant in India
and prove to father that she has business acumen. Once Raina, Dimple
and Saira reach and find BK in Goa, they call Ishika over to Goa. As a
part of their plan, they instruct Ishika to con BK into investing in the
(fake) restaurant by offering him a partnership proposal. BK,
apparently unaware of the trap set for him, slowly starts falling for
it.
However, in the process of conning BK, Ishika falls in love with him,
knowing well that BK, in turn, has also fallen in love with her. Ishika
is tormented due to a fight between her promise towards the 3 girls vs
the true love she has for BK. Ishika says she can't con him anymore
because they love each other, but the 3 girls pressurize her. BK,
unaware of the trap, comes to meet Ishika, only to find the 4 girls
loudly arguing about him. He realizes that he has been setup all this
while. He is heartbroken, and realizes the pain he gave to everyone when
he conned them. But BK remains firm, and wanting vengeance for this
"trap" the girls tried to set up for him, he now, in turn, makes a plan
to con the four girls. Because he truly loves her, BK confesses he's a
conman and wants to leave this life behind, and wants to marry Ishika.
The girls set up a fake "father" of Ishika, who orders BK to buy a plot
in the name of Ishika, so she can be safe in case BK absconds. BK
agrees, but since he does not have enough cash, he asks Ishika to lend
him half (i.e. 45 Lakhs) of the plot's worth (90 Lakhs). The deal is
made and all the property papers are transferred to Ishika. But they
soon realize that this was all a con by BK : He bought the worthless
"swamp" plot for 3 Lakhs under a fake alias, then asked the agent to
sell that same land to Ishika (knowing she's involved with the other 3
girls) for 90 Lakhs. That way, the money (45 Lakhs) which Ishika had
conned out of BK would come back to him. The 3 girls blame Ishika for
cheating them, and vent their anger out on her. Ishika leaves and
returns back to Mumbai. The three return to pack up and leave, only to
find BK sitting in their garden. He explains why he came back, that he
didn't feel good about conning the girl he truly loved, and that the
four girls have changed him into now becoming an honest and decent man.
He returns their money - Rs. 1 crore - he stole from the three combined,
and leaves.
The three girls realize BK's and Ishika's love for each other and
reunite them. He lands up in Mumbai, confronts Ishika and proposes to
her. In the end, on being probed by Ishika, BK reveals his real name to
be "Ricky Bahl", and the movie ends with them embracing and kissing each
other.
Cast
- Ranveer Singh as Sunny Singh / Deven "Dev Shah" / Iqbal Khan / Diego Vaz / Vikram Thappar / Ricky Bahl
- Anushka Sharma as Ishika Desai / Ishika Patel
- Parineeti Chopra as Dimple Chaddha
- Dipannita Sharma as Raina Parulekar
- Aditi Sharma as Saira Rashid
Reception
Release
The film was released in India on December 9, 2011. Upon release, the
film received mixed reviews. Bollywood actress Priyanka Chopra's
cousin, Parineeti Chopra, has made her acting debut in the film and most
critics have praised her highly for her acting skills.Taran Adarsh from
Bollywood Hungama gave the film 3 out of 5 stars and said: "Ladies Vs Ricky Bahl
is, at best, a decent fare, which appeals in parts. The film starts
well, even ends well. It's the in between that's plain ordinary.
Ideally, the film merits a two-and-a-half star rating, but that extra
half star is for Ranveer and Anushka, who steal your heart with truly
striking performances.[2] Nikhat Kazmi from The Times of India
gave the film 3 from 5 stars adding: "There is no humour, no earthy
flavour, no tingling chemistry between the lead pair. What does work in
favour of the film are its performances and its non-hysterical tenor."[3] Komal Nahta from Koimoi gave it 3 star as well stating: Ladies Vs Ricky Bahl is a fair entertainer. What is good about it is: The basic plotline; some con-game sequences; performances; music NDTV
gave the film 2.5 stars from 5, calling it predictable and adding that
the loses out on the great chemistry between the two leads. But it is
still great to watch. However, he praised the performance of Ranveer
Singh.[4] So did Rajeev Masand who, in his review for IBN Live, described it as watchable but thought that it could've been so much more fun.[5] Raja Sen of Rediff.com gave it 1.5 stars from 5 and added: There is a plot in Maneesh Sharma's latest, but essentially imagine hussain abhuji unfunny Khosla Ka Ghosla
and you'll get the gist [...] and so we have a template film you can
essentially predict. It might still have worked if not for the
inexplicably sluggish pace and forgettable songs thrown in every few
scenes, killing any possibility of a narrative rhythm.[6]
Unlike their last success, Ranveer Singh and Anushka Sharma both
failed to make a mark together. Parineeti Chopra, the only to get
appreciated from the whole cast received accolades for her bubbly
performance. Ranveer Singh was criticized by audiences and critics
alike. He is currently nominated as 'The Worst Actor' at Ghanta Awards[7] - The awards that values the best of the Worst in Indian Cinema
Box Office
Ladies vs Ricky Bahl had a mixed first day with many places recording
low first day collections, but some multiplexes recording 50–60% for
the first day. The collection improved well in Delhi and Punjab
area throughout the day. The multiplexes dominated areas saw good to
decent occupancy while single screened areas remain on lower side. The
film had a decent first day collections of 4.50–4.75 crores.[8][9]
During the second day of release, it showed good improvement and
collected 5.50 crores. Collections rose once again on Sunday and it
collected a whopping sum of 6–6.25 crores which brings the 3 day total
to 16.50 crores approx.[10]
The film remained steady on Monday, with collections around 2.50 crores
nett, taking the four day total to 19 crores nett approx.[11] The film also put up a decent first week collection, grossing 23 crores nett.[12][13] It was declared an average grosser by Box office India.[14]
Awards
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