Director: Ajay K Pannalal
Cast: Rajkummar Rao, Shruti Haasan
In the narrow lanes of Lucknow, lives Gattu Nautiyal (Rajkummar Rao), a young man who dotes on his childhood love, his neighbour, Binny Arora (Shruti Haasan). Gattu is a shy and timid man who takes the running time of the entire film to express his feelings to the one he loves and then stands up to his family, her family and two other families that get embroiled midway, and of course, to the entire ‘mohalla’. Binny, on the other hand, is a fire-cracker, the kind who believes that if a man actually loves a woman, he should have the strength and guts to commit and accept it.
The story basically traces Gattu’s feelings and his inadequacy to speak what’s on his mind. After a series of frivolous tasks, when Binny finally agrees, accepts his proposal and the two start their mushy tale, things soon go haywire with other matrimonial prospects entering the picture. And all this while, a silent and much-in-love Gattu sees Binny getting engaged to an NRI Rahul (Gautam Gulati) and unintentionally fans the rumours of an alleged affair between Binny and his best friend Bhurre (Herry Tangri). Much of the film’s first half is spent building the love story and the second in finding its way to the end amid the confusing family battles.
Rajkummar Rao as Gattu is the only factor that makes this otherwise stretched film watchable. That Rao is a fine actor needs no description but that he looks as endearing while pulling off a comic act as he does during an intense ‘Aligarh’ definitely comes as a surprise. The writers carve out some wonderful scenes of situational comedy wherein Rajkummar holds his ground strong. He maintains a certain innocent vibe till the very end and makes you less wary of his co-actor Shruti, who, honestly, does nothing much in the film, apart from yelling Gattu-Gattu and instilling the fear of Rakhis in the minds of young men. Not that Shruti does a fine job but much of her character’s weakness also lies in the hands of the director, who somehow didn’t etch her character to the fullest and the casting director, who decided to get her on board.
Even though Ajay K Pannalal’s directorial debut features adult men who still hide away on Rakshabandhan with a fear of being typecast as brothers and the ones who still play ‘mohalla cricket’ with kids from the locality, it’s far away from being unwatchable. In fact, despite the sad fact that the film doesn’t bring much newness to the table, it still manages to tickle your funny bone every now and then. The makers have taken into account various stereotypes of a certain locality, the general depiction of middleclass families, and turned it into a watchable tale. One’s urge to become a society President, gossipmongers eves dropping on others’ walls, the entire concept of ‘log kya kahege’, honour killing in the name of inter-caste marriages, obsession with ‘mata-ki-chowki’ , the sly patriarch dialogues – everything find its way in the plot as undertones to the big story. All of the film’s focus, however, lies in proving that it’s not necessary that every unmarried woman in one’s locality is one’s sister and to basically put an end or at least, a halt, to the concept of unrelated sisterhood that boasts “Mohalle ki saari ladkiyaan maa aur behen hoti hai" (every woman in the locality is either your mother or your sister).
To be fair, Behen Hogi Teri is a slightly fun watch only because of the actor that Rajkummar is and the laughable moments he shares with Tangri including the drunk moment, when the two friends imitate Shah Rukh Khan on a terrace and curse all Rahuls and Rajs for always stealing away the girl. Otherwise, it's quite a flawed ride with its own side effects on potential stalkers.
Rating: 2/5
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