Other pluses are a clever title, good production design and costumes, some finely edited scenes and yet another earnest performance by Rajkummar Rao. They also capture many subtleties of non-metro India and the preoccupations of local communities. What the writers (dialogue by Sanchit Gupta) and the director do get right is the idea of how ‘rakhi’ and the concept of sisterhood is a terrible manipulation for young people unrelated to one another. Where Rao, Ranjeet and Ninad Kamat (as Binny’s older brother) are steady, Jariwala, Gulshan Grover, and Harry Tangri (as Gattu’s bestie) are loud and jarring. In fact the pitching of the performances is the second issue with the narrative (besides the wandering script).
Had Rao had a more skilled co-star, the chemistry might have been more believable rather than appearing ‘staged’. There are a couple of charming scenes like the one outside Binny’s college when Gattu gets rejected, and later when he gets drunk and blames all the Shah Rukh Khan heroes named Rahul for always winning the girl.
Rajkummar Rao, as always, is hugely watchable and extremely endearing as Gattu. Initially there is enough nuance and situational comedy to carry the film. If they stand on one side of the war lines, Darshan Jariwala, who plays Gattu’s father, stands on the other side, desperate to assert his authority in this neighbourhood. Ranjeet and Gulshan Grover appear as local thugs who respond to inter-caste romances with honour killings. Post-interval, much of the action becomes about this latter plot. He just stands by and silently observes Binny’s engagement to NRI Rahul (Gautam Gulati) and allows a huge misunderstanding about her alleged affair with his best friend (Harry Tangri) to snowball. Mostly it's about Gattu needing to find the courage to stand up to Binny’s family - and his own - and declare his true feelings, which takes painfully long to happen. There’s very little to this story written by Vinit Vyas and directed by Ajay Pannalal.
Rajkummar Rao and Shruti Haasan in a still from Behen Hogi Teri
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