Stree Movie Review - Horror-Comedy Done Right
Based on a ridiculous true story, Stree is about a ghost of a woman who preys on men during the night. She haunts the streets of Chanderi killing those who dare to walk alone in the darkness.
Cast - Rajkummar Rao, Shraddha Kapoor, Pankaj Tripathi, Aparshakti Khurrana, Abhishek Banerjee
Directed By - Amar Kaushik
Genre - Horror, Comedy, Romance
Vicky (Rajkummar Rao) is the Manish Malhotra in this strange town of Chanderi who with his skilful hands infuses life in the clothes with his sewing machine. During a four day annual festival, he meets with a mysterious woman (Shraddha Kapoor) and instantly falls in love with her or "Love at first eyesight" as one of his friend says. The naive and loving Vicky fulfils her every demand from sewing a cloth to shopping for items involving - beer, lizards tail and a hair from a white cat. His friends start suspecting foul play and have reasons to believe that she might actually be the town ghost who goes by the name "Stree".
There are precautions you can take to avoid being abducted by "Stree" - a) Write "Oh Stree Kal Aana" (O Woman, Come Tomorrow) on your wall or door, b) If "Stree" calls your name then don't look back, just keep walking without turning your head. But these rules do get bend as characters make mistakes and are abducted by the ghost. The opening sequence gives us a chilling look at the method adopted by "Stree" as she abducts a man who takes a piss in the bushes before shifting to a lighter tone by introducing the character of Rajkummar Rao. The film continually shifts its tone from horror to comedy without nullifying each other. Never does it feel that the movie starts weighing on one side more than the other. This is something I greatly admired about this film, and I commend Amar Kaushik, the director of this film, who handled it so well. Rohit Shetty should have taken a lesson or two from this film before making Golmaal Again.
The screenplay from the duo Raj and DK make sure that the things get twisty enough to keep you engaged and entertained. They always have something engaging up their sleeves, and in Stree too, they successfully manage to offer fun with ingredients of horror. With Stree, they make up for there last two forgettable films - Happy Ending and A Gentleman.
I love the new trend that the movies nowadays are following. The more you know about them, the more they shock you when you see them. If you are one of those people who had watched the trailers and read all about this film online, you are in for a great surprise. Trailers are made smartly and in such a way that it won't take away the surprise element from the film and would even tell you a brief idea about the movie. Russo brothers did it with Avengers: Infinity War, Ari Aster with Hereditary and now Stree too does follow the same trend.
What was more unexpected and pleasant to watch was that Stree not only turned out to be a horror-comedy film but it also had a social commentary regarding the women in our society. The portrayal of men as vulnerable and fearful entities who get abducted by "Stree" during the peak hours of the night leaving only there clothes behind reflect the state of women in modern times who get abducted and raped by the lustful men. The only difference here is that men do it without consent and "Stree" takes the consent of the man before abducting him (looking into her eyes means giving consent to her). Perhaps, she understands the concept of humanity more than the humans. "Stree" is new India's ghost who can read, has a low IQ and is very naive.
Rajkummar Rao strikes again after his last painful appearance in Fanney Khan. He displays love, fear and his excellent comic expressions with ease. Aparshakti Khurrana gets to show his acting skills after missing the mark in last week's disastrous Happy Phirr Bhag Jayegi, and he was excellent. Abhishek Banerjee is the surprise package who does a lot in the movie, he gets funny, scared and even acts as a serial killer and he does give his best here. The evergreen and charming Pankaj Tripathi sways you away with his comic timing and exceptional acting. Shraddha Kapoor comes as a mystery and exits as a mystery, with her hideous eyes and bubbly smile she did her job well.
The film has plenty of jump scares in it, and some of them did scare me. I generally don't like jump scares as they are cheap and unimaginative, but some filmmakers like James Wan use them effectively in their movies. In Stree, while some of them were shakingly good, the others were a false alarm like a hand from behind which did bother me. But again, you cannot expect psychological horror in a film like this which also has humour in it which keeps you away from horror for some time. Some scenes involving conversations between the characters were not well edited, and I thought maybe the use of wide angle shot could have been more effective there. There was a goof I spotted after the "Kamariya" song in the film which bugged me throughout the movie. I cannot discuss it without giving spoilers which I won't, but it is irritating.
Stree has plenty of surprises in it and will keep you engaged throughout its runtime. I went in with zero expectations and came out with a satisfying smile on my face. It is a good time at the theatres with this horror-comedy done right.
Rating - 3.5/5
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Cast - Rajkummar Rao, Shraddha Kapoor, Pankaj Tripathi, Aparshakti Khurrana, Abhishek Banerjee
Directed By - Amar Kaushik
Genre - Horror, Comedy, Romance
Vicky (Rajkummar Rao) is the Manish Malhotra in this strange town of Chanderi who with his skilful hands infuses life in the clothes with his sewing machine. During a four day annual festival, he meets with a mysterious woman (Shraddha Kapoor) and instantly falls in love with her or "Love at first eyesight" as one of his friend says. The naive and loving Vicky fulfils her every demand from sewing a cloth to shopping for items involving - beer, lizards tail and a hair from a white cat. His friends start suspecting foul play and have reasons to believe that she might actually be the town ghost who goes by the name "Stree".
There are precautions you can take to avoid being abducted by "Stree" - a) Write "Oh Stree Kal Aana" (O Woman, Come Tomorrow) on your wall or door, b) If "Stree" calls your name then don't look back, just keep walking without turning your head. But these rules do get bend as characters make mistakes and are abducted by the ghost. The opening sequence gives us a chilling look at the method adopted by "Stree" as she abducts a man who takes a piss in the bushes before shifting to a lighter tone by introducing the character of Rajkummar Rao. The film continually shifts its tone from horror to comedy without nullifying each other. Never does it feel that the movie starts weighing on one side more than the other. This is something I greatly admired about this film, and I commend Amar Kaushik, the director of this film, who handled it so well. Rohit Shetty should have taken a lesson or two from this film before making Golmaal Again.
The screenplay from the duo Raj and DK make sure that the things get twisty enough to keep you engaged and entertained. They always have something engaging up their sleeves, and in Stree too, they successfully manage to offer fun with ingredients of horror. With Stree, they make up for there last two forgettable films - Happy Ending and A Gentleman.
I love the new trend that the movies nowadays are following. The more you know about them, the more they shock you when you see them. If you are one of those people who had watched the trailers and read all about this film online, you are in for a great surprise. Trailers are made smartly and in such a way that it won't take away the surprise element from the film and would even tell you a brief idea about the movie. Russo brothers did it with Avengers: Infinity War, Ari Aster with Hereditary and now Stree too does follow the same trend.
What was more unexpected and pleasant to watch was that Stree not only turned out to be a horror-comedy film but it also had a social commentary regarding the women in our society. The portrayal of men as vulnerable and fearful entities who get abducted by "Stree" during the peak hours of the night leaving only there clothes behind reflect the state of women in modern times who get abducted and raped by the lustful men. The only difference here is that men do it without consent and "Stree" takes the consent of the man before abducting him (looking into her eyes means giving consent to her). Perhaps, she understands the concept of humanity more than the humans. "Stree" is new India's ghost who can read, has a low IQ and is very naive.
Rajkummar Rao strikes again after his last painful appearance in Fanney Khan. He displays love, fear and his excellent comic expressions with ease. Aparshakti Khurrana gets to show his acting skills after missing the mark in last week's disastrous Happy Phirr Bhag Jayegi, and he was excellent. Abhishek Banerjee is the surprise package who does a lot in the movie, he gets funny, scared and even acts as a serial killer and he does give his best here. The evergreen and charming Pankaj Tripathi sways you away with his comic timing and exceptional acting. Shraddha Kapoor comes as a mystery and exits as a mystery, with her hideous eyes and bubbly smile she did her job well.
The film has plenty of jump scares in it, and some of them did scare me. I generally don't like jump scares as they are cheap and unimaginative, but some filmmakers like James Wan use them effectively in their movies. In Stree, while some of them were shakingly good, the others were a false alarm like a hand from behind which did bother me. But again, you cannot expect psychological horror in a film like this which also has humour in it which keeps you away from horror for some time. Some scenes involving conversations between the characters were not well edited, and I thought maybe the use of wide angle shot could have been more effective there. There was a goof I spotted after the "Kamariya" song in the film which bugged me throughout the movie. I cannot discuss it without giving spoilers which I won't, but it is irritating.
Stree has plenty of surprises in it and will keep you engaged throughout its runtime. I went in with zero expectations and came out with a satisfying smile on my face. It is a good time at the theatres with this horror-comedy done right.
Rating - 3.5/5
Follow Me On:
Twitter - https://twitter.com/vikas_yadav98
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/vikasy199/
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/vimovies123/
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