While chanting India's National pledge in school, young boys would often mischievously chase the line, 'all Indian are my brothers and sisters', with, 'except the one who would be my girlfriend'. Director Ajay Pannalal recalls this narration in the trailer of his comic caper, 'Behen Hogi Teri', alluding to the premise on which this film has been created. The best thing about the film is its novel idea. Unfortunately, it hasn't been executed well. "Yeh normal pataka nahin, firebrand hai," says Lucknow resident Gattu (Rajkummar Rao) about his childhood crush and neighbour, Binny (Shruti Haasan). The banter between the two is easy, natural and fun.

Set in UP, Shiv aka Guttu (Rajkummar Rao) is besotted with his pretty neighbour Binni (Shruti Haasan), but like many other lads in the locality, he is scared that she will tie him rakhi and make him her brother. Binni, who is aware of his affections, toys with his feelings at first before finally accepting his love for her. However, the rest of the family members are totally oblivious of their burgeoning romance and treat him as her 'mooh-bola' brother. However, in a strange case of mistaken perception, Gattu's father (Darshan Jariwala) sees Binni with his best friend Bhure (Herry Tangri) and thinks they are having an affair.

'Din mein bhaiyaa, raat mein saiinyaa'. The premise of this film reminded me of a delicious near-forgotten jungle saying, which means, brother by day, lover by night. This phrase has deep meaning in a certain kind of North Indian ethos where the ' ladkiyon-ko-taadne-waley-mohalle-ke-lafangey' was kept in check with that awful threat of a thread on the wrist: if a girl made you her `rakhi brother', all dreams of becoming anything else were instantly dashed.

Lucknow's Shiv Nautiyal aka Gattu (Rajkummar Rao) and Binny Arora's (Shruti Haasan) house are right in front of each other. Gattu describes his childhood love Binny as his 'nikkar ke zamaane ki mohabbat' but the 'problem' is they are neighbours and the entire mohalla including Gattu's father firmly believe that 'mohalle ki ladkiyan maa behen hoti hai' and hence they consider Gattu as Binny's brother.

The title Behen Hogi Teri itself reeks of the immaturity of a 12-year-old boy with a new batch of hormones and the first burst of testosterone. The movie takes place in a world where grown men still operate by the rules of teenaged boys: they play gully cricket, hide from girls on Raksha Bandhan, put silly curses on each other and ask their parents for money. Gattu (Rao) is no different. He has loved Binny (Haasan) all his life, and wins her over after a series of Roadies-like tasks.

There is little to recommend in Behen Hogi Teri, which hits theatres on Friday, other than the performance of Rajkummar Rao. The movie tells the story of Gattu (Rajkummar) and his co-star, Shruti Haasan, who plays his neighbour Binni. The two live in Lucknow, where they are lovers burdened with the long tradition of 'mohalle ki ladkiyan behen hoti hain'. Gattu's fight (or the lack thereof) is what forms the film's narrative. Herry Tangri plays Gattu's friend Bhura, who is unwittingly caught in the chaos.

The one festival the young men of Lucknow fear is Raksha Bandhan. For some reason, the girls of the neighbourhood are considered equivalent to sisters - a concept abhorrent to the testosterone-fuelled boys. This entire idea becomes the bane of Gattu's life. The protagonist of Behen Hogi Teri, Gattu (Rajkummar Rao) is an average boy - below average at academics, a bit timid when it comes to standing up to his parents and with no future prospects to boast of. But the one thing he's sure of is his fondness for his neighbour Binny (Shruti Haasan).

The protagonist of Behen Hogi Teri is a laidback Lucknow lad so unremarkable that the whole world and its uncle get away with the assumption that he can only be a brother to the girl he secretly loves. Sounds a touch different? It's far-fetched too. This film does make a lot of noise around the unassuming hero's struggles to eliminate the hurdles in his path, some of them of his own making, but it says nothing that is significant enough to set it apart from a run-of-the-mill Bollywood rom-com.

Most males -- there could be exceptions, but only just -- must have faced what Rajkumar Rao's Gattu goes through in Behen Hogi Teri. This could have happened to you in your school, mohalla, or even college... The thought of seeing a girl, who you love so much, tie you a rakhi is dreadful indeed. And if the girl is so beautiful, so lovely, as Shruti Haasan's Binny is, then you are going to make desperate attempts to escape such a situation.