STORY, DIRECTION and ACTING
..were few highlights of the immensely likable BBB. Bad news is they were all missing from LVRB. I kept my cool in the first half and ignored some large flaws in the story, but the 2nd half was even more so miserable when the hyped 'biggest con' turns out to be that Ricky Bahl conveniently has a change-of-heart.
The story starts with Ranveer scooping money from an innocent Delhi girl who is hopelessly smitten by him (Parineeti Chopra is brilliant as Dimple). And similar stories follow. Ricky's relatively primitive & 'unsmart' schemes make you raise your eyebrows and story starts to feel immature in many ways. Remember Hrithik's mind-blowing '13 dwarfs' scene in Dhoom 2?? It needed that kind of excitement!!
Then there is even more disappointing news in the 2nd half which I was personally looking forward to, as Anushka's much anticipated entry fails miserably when Deepanita Sharma takes control of the entire scheme from the beginning. The whole introduction scene where Ishika is introduced as the smart witty sales girl could be trashed as she didn't have to use her sales-girl brains anywhere in the movie and just had to be a hot-looking rich damsel who seduces Ricky Bahl by being all sweet and desirable. Even though Anushka manages well in the looks department as she undeniably looks her incredibly hottest best, the story gets wasted when the 2 leads suddenly start saying their rushed ILuvU's. The whole journey of falling in love is missing and everything feels superficial in the end. Thanks a ton to the physical chemistry between Ranveer & Anushka and to their memorable history in B3 that their attraction for each other looks believable to an extent, otherwise the script does nothing to make it so. One would question, why on earth would an extensively selfish and money-minded con artist like Ricky Bahl give up his old ways? And how could he be thick as concrete to not be able to see through a very obvious trap where his seemingly rich and cute girlfriend has no money whatsoever to even go shopping? The story contradicts itself when the built up image of Ricky Bahl becomes laughable and he fails to recognise a very simple revenge scheme by 4 stupid girls and has to eventually stoop to listen through walls to figure he is being conned.
The only saving grace of LVRB is Parineeti Chopra whose crisp 'in your face' humor triggers couple of laughs throughout the movie. Another plus is the undeniable chemistry between Ranveer and Anushka which will keep hopeless romance fanatics patiently waiting for the love story to materialize.
Some negatives:
Stale story: Nothing fresh. We have seen smarter thefts and frauds in previous Bollywood movies. There were no intricate details of the cons carried out by Ricky Bahl.
'The Ladies': The movie drags in 1st half as the 3 ladies get conned in a predictable fashion one by one. All this could have been shown in a short & sweet 10-mins flashback and then our main heroine could make her entry early and strong and they could spend more time on building the love story between the 2 leads. Or the director could adopt a 'Yuva' or 'Rockstar' approach where story starts with the present and flashbacks from the past are then intertwined and shown in parallel to keep the viewer hooked.
Repeats from B3: Few scenes felt like variations of scenes from B3 to me (honestly!)which obviously didn't belong in this movie. Take the morning scene after the kiss in nightclub. These characters shouldn't have been confused about the kiss at all as they already knew what was coming. Weren't they flirting with each other all this time? I felt the director tried to repeat the magic of B3 as the morning after scene in B3 was praised for its sensitivity and originality. Also, cupid-hit Ricky's love-struck facial expressions and tone suddenly reminded of Bittu Sharma in 2nd half. Where did overconfident Ricky Bahl and his resolve disappear? I have heard love changes you, but that much?
Ishika's role: The biggest negative for me was Anushka's insignificant role. Her delayed entry could be justified if her role lived upto the hype created during the first half and equaled Ranveer's on some level. I wish she played a professional who worked as a con artist and she plotted an extraordinarily clever scheme to get revenge but ended up falling in love with her victim instead. Who knew, one of the 'conned' Raina gets to be the hero and plots the whole revenge and our anticipated main heroine turns out to be just a pretty face who plays the part for a small fee.
Anushka's disappointing acting: Anushka is a talented actress and needed a completely new avatar to play so she could prove her variation. But unfortunately her acting reminds very much of her earlier roles. She did look extremely good in her western outfits, but a complete contrast in her dialogue delivery and role was required to prove why she was chosen to bring Ricky Bahl down from his throne. Deepanita Sharma's 'Miss brains' role actually undermined Anushka's presence in the movie. Plus Anushka's acting as rich NRI wasn't convincing either. Not denying Anushka's acting talent, it's the director's fault that he approved of her characteristic Hindi dialogue delivery in scenes where she needed to sound comfortable as a rich U.S. returned millionaire's daughter spoiled to bits. She noticeably talked a lot like her mediocre self Mumbai sales girl. It was uncomfortable to watch her stretched 'thankyous'.
Overall I just hope this crew realize their mistakes, understand their potential and move on to make better movies in future. I could take 10 more of B3 like movies!
The story starts with Ranveer scooping money from an innocent Delhi girl who is hopelessly smitten by him (Parineeti Chopra is brilliant as Dimple). And similar stories follow. Ricky's relatively primitive & 'unsmart' schemes make you raise your eyebrows and story starts to feel immature in many ways. Remember Hrithik's mind-blowing '13 dwarfs' scene in Dhoom 2?? It needed that kind of excitement!!
Then there is even more disappointing news in the 2nd half which I was personally looking forward to, as Anushka's much anticipated entry fails miserably when Deepanita Sharma takes control of the entire scheme from the beginning. The whole introduction scene where Ishika is introduced as the smart witty sales girl could be trashed as she didn't have to use her sales-girl brains anywhere in the movie and just had to be a hot-looking rich damsel who seduces Ricky Bahl by being all sweet and desirable. Even though Anushka manages well in the looks department as she undeniably looks her incredibly hottest best, the story gets wasted when the 2 leads suddenly start saying their rushed ILuvU's. The whole journey of falling in love is missing and everything feels superficial in the end. Thanks a ton to the physical chemistry between Ranveer & Anushka and to their memorable history in B3 that their attraction for each other looks believable to an extent, otherwise the script does nothing to make it so. One would question, why on earth would an extensively selfish and money-minded con artist like Ricky Bahl give up his old ways? And how could he be thick as concrete to not be able to see through a very obvious trap where his seemingly rich and cute girlfriend has no money whatsoever to even go shopping? The story contradicts itself when the built up image of Ricky Bahl becomes laughable and he fails to recognise a very simple revenge scheme by 4 stupid girls and has to eventually stoop to listen through walls to figure he is being conned.
The only saving grace of LVRB is Parineeti Chopra whose crisp 'in your face' humor triggers couple of laughs throughout the movie. Another plus is the undeniable chemistry between Ranveer and Anushka which will keep hopeless romance fanatics patiently waiting for the love story to materialize.
Some negatives:
Stale story: Nothing fresh. We have seen smarter thefts and frauds in previous Bollywood movies. There were no intricate details of the cons carried out by Ricky Bahl.
'The Ladies': The movie drags in 1st half as the 3 ladies get conned in a predictable fashion one by one. All this could have been shown in a short & sweet 10-mins flashback and then our main heroine could make her entry early and strong and they could spend more time on building the love story between the 2 leads. Or the director could adopt a 'Yuva' or 'Rockstar' approach where story starts with the present and flashbacks from the past are then intertwined and shown in parallel to keep the viewer hooked.
Repeats from B3: Few scenes felt like variations of scenes from B3 to me (honestly!)which obviously didn't belong in this movie. Take the morning scene after the kiss in nightclub. These characters shouldn't have been confused about the kiss at all as they already knew what was coming. Weren't they flirting with each other all this time? I felt the director tried to repeat the magic of B3 as the morning after scene in B3 was praised for its sensitivity and originality. Also, cupid-hit Ricky's love-struck facial expressions and tone suddenly reminded of Bittu Sharma in 2nd half. Where did overconfident Ricky Bahl and his resolve disappear? I have heard love changes you, but that much?
Ishika's role: The biggest negative for me was Anushka's insignificant role. Her delayed entry could be justified if her role lived upto the hype created during the first half and equaled Ranveer's on some level. I wish she played a professional who worked as a con artist and she plotted an extraordinarily clever scheme to get revenge but ended up falling in love with her victim instead. Who knew, one of the 'conned' Raina gets to be the hero and plots the whole revenge and our anticipated main heroine turns out to be just a pretty face who plays the part for a small fee.
Anushka's disappointing acting: Anushka is a talented actress and needed a completely new avatar to play so she could prove her variation. But unfortunately her acting reminds very much of her earlier roles. She did look extremely good in her western outfits, but a complete contrast in her dialogue delivery and role was required to prove why she was chosen to bring Ricky Bahl down from his throne. Deepanita Sharma's 'Miss brains' role actually undermined Anushka's presence in the movie. Plus Anushka's acting as rich NRI wasn't convincing either. Not denying Anushka's acting talent, it's the director's fault that he approved of her characteristic Hindi dialogue delivery in scenes where she needed to sound comfortable as a rich U.S. returned millionaire's daughter spoiled to bits. She noticeably talked a lot like her mediocre self Mumbai sales girl. It was uncomfortable to watch her stretched 'thankyous'.
Overall I just hope this crew realize their mistakes, understand their potential and move on to make better movies in future. I could take 10 more of B3 like movies!