The focus is so much on subverting the traditional family-first template with outlandish misconceptions and stereotypical characters that it becomes virtually impossible to engage with the leads, who’re actually the ones bang in the middle of the cluster. Or maybe that’s just my personal bugbear. It becomes the cinematic equivalent of awkwardly peeing in a public toilet with too many men waiting for their turn. After this, all hell breaks loose – painfully slowly, over two hours of interminable and contrived miscommunication. This timely demise helps him pursue (stalk) her in a more acceptable manner, until she finally gives in.
A romantic song plays over the proceedings of her grandmother’s funeral he gazes lovingly at her tears in slow motion, dreaming hopelessly in a grieving household, while being the dewy-eyed and sanskaari male helper around the dead body. And until they realize that the 127-minute long script is perhaps a result of an sms-level one liner. Much like life, this film is all smooth sailing when secret adolescent love blooms between long-time sibling-like neighbours Gattu and Binny – all fine and dandy until the adults get involved. I’m certain most of India unwittingly populated the messy comedy-of-errors confines of Behen Hogi Teri – a nosy Gujarati family (what else does Darshan Jariwala sound like?), some boyish Haryanvi accents (the impressive Yuvraj Singh doppelganger from MS Dhoni: The Untold Story, Herry Tangri), old-school Bollywood Thakur-type gundas (Ranjeet, Gulshan Grover – obviously), and a black-sheep hero ( Rajkummar Rao) and naïve heroine (Shruti Haasan) who could’ve epitomized the sweet corniness of any small-town romance if they weren’t restricted by genre. I suspect there’s more to the city than a bunch of characters that are not quite sure if they’re supposed to be serious or idiotic. Unfortunately, by the end of this movie, I didn’t care. I don’t know what a typically closeted Lucknow locality is supposed to be like. For instance, I don’t know a thing about Lucknow, where Behen Hogi Teri unravels.
But good cinema allows you to travel to these places despite the story, learn a bit about their culture and quirks, and invest in the faces even if you disagree with – or judge the hell out of – them. When city slickers like us watch a new film based in a particular region we’re unfamiliar with, chances are we most certainly won’t relate to these characters, their decisions, moods and motivations.
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