Ladies vs Ricky Bahl

<p>Dimple Chaddha, a spoiled and wealthy girl, falls for her fitness trainer, Sunny Singh, who charms her and pretends to be interested in marriage. He tells her about a disputed inheritance involving a property occupied by tenants. Dimple persuades her father to use his influence to evict the tenants, and they even lend Sunny ₹20 lakh to help him claim the property. However, it is later revealed that the inheritance was fabricated and the tenants were legal occupants. Sunny vanishes with the money, leaving Dimple heartbroken and embarrassed. Meanwhile, in , successful businesswoman Raina Parulekar purchases an expensive painting from Deven Shah, who claims to run an . Shortly after the transaction, Deven disappears with ₹60 lakh, and Raina learns the painting is fake. She publicly shares her story, which draws the attention of Dimple. They connect and are soon joined by Saira Rashid, a shy and trusting woman from who was conned out of ₹10 lakh by a man named Iqbal Khan, whom she was romantically interested in. The three women realize that Sunny, Deven, and Iqbal are the same man operating under different . They nickname him “Bloody Kameena” (BK) and hatch a plan to con the conman. Raina, using her resources, finances the plan. They recruit Ishika Desai, a sharp-tongued and confident saleswoman from Mumbai, to pose as a wealthy NRI heiress and lure BK in. Tracking him down to Goa, they discover he is now operating under the name Vikram Thapar, posing as the owner of a beachside water sports business. Ishika approaches him, pretending to be the daughter of a hotel-chain magnate looking to invest in a restaurant. Vikram quickly takes the bait and begins to court her, unaware of the setup. To impress Ishika, Vikram offers to fund the restaurant’s launch. Meanwhile, the women feed him fake bills, cheap materials, and fake staff, slowly recouping the money he stole from them. As Vikram grows closer to Ishika, he genuinely starts falling for her. After a successful launch party, he and Ishika spend time together and share a kiss. The next morning, he discovers Ishika meeting with the other women and realizes he has been conned. Determined to retaliate, Vikram manipulates the situation and sells Ishika a worthless property for the restaurant. The women, believing Ishika has betrayed them, confront her and ask her to leave. Later, they find Vikram waiting at their hotel. He confesses to his past cons and expresses remorse, claiming he now understands how it feels to be deceived. He offers to return all the stolen money and insists he wants to turn over a new leaf. As the women prepare to leave, they notice Ishika is heartbroken over Ricky, and they decide to help reunite the couple. Ricky, now revealing his real name, proposes to Ishika and tells her he wants to learn how to live honestly, with her help. opened to strong occupancy in multiplexes, with many locations recording 90–100% attendance on its first day, particularly in the and regions. While multiplex-dominated urban areas saw good to decent turnout, single-screen cinemas reported comparatively lower footfalls. The film collected approximately ₹198.5 million on its opening day. On its second day, collections improved significantly, reaching ₹445 million, and continued to rise on Sunday, earning ₹767.5 million, bringing the three-day weekend total to approximately ₹805 million. The film held steady on Monday, collecting around ₹815 million nett in four days. By the end of its first week, the film grossed approximately ₹730 million nett, and continued to perform moderately well in the following weeks. Its lifetime theatrical earnings were around ₹840 million, and it was declared a box office hit. was released in India on 9 December 2011 to mixed-to-positive reviews. Critics praised the film’s performances—particularly , who made her acting debut—as well as its premise and styling, though many noted shortcomings in its screenplay and execution. Taran Adarsh of rated the film 3 out of 5 stars, writing: ” 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 2.5 star rating, but that extra 0.5 star is for Singh and Anushka, who steal your heart with truly striking performances.” Nikhat Kazmi of gave the film 2.5 stars out of 5, stating: “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.” gave the film 3.5 out of 5 stars, calling it “predictable” and noting a lack of strong chemistry between the leads, but still described it as enjoyable, particularly praising Singh’s performance. of described the film as “watchable”, but remarked that it “could’ve been so much more fun.” rated it 3 out of 5 stars, calling it “a good option to get entertained this weekend and reconnect with the jodi for some laughter and foot-stomping again.” The film’s music and soundtrack were composed by with lyrics penned by . The song “Jigar Da Tukda” won the most atrocious lyrics award at the in 2012. faced plagiarism allegations from multiple sources. Tamil film director accused the makers of lifting the core premise from his 2007 film and its , both of which revolve around a con artist who deceives several women by assuming different identities. Separately, British author alleged that the film borrowed elements from his 1976 novel , which also centers on a group of individuals conning a conman to recover their losses.</p>