Release Date: August 31, 2018
Cast: Rajkummar Rao, Shraddha Kapoor, Pankaj Tripathi, Aparshakti Khurana, Abhishek Banerjee, Vijay Raaz, Atul Srivastava, Aakash Dabhade
Director: Amar Kaushik
Genre: Horror-Comedy
Duration: 2 hours 10 minutes
The horror-comedy genre is gaining popularity in India and we have seen quite a few such movies in recent times such as Great Grand Masti, Golmaal Again, and Phillauri. And now we have Stree that seeks to leverage the growing popularity of this genre. A distinguishing aspect of Stree is that it attempts to highlight the hardships that women have to face in a male-dominated society. It sends the message to the audience by using the twin flavors of fear and laughter. The movie’s tagline, “Mard Ko Dard Hoga” (Men will feel the pain), clearly indicates what the movie is all about.
The story is set in a town named Chanderi, where people are haunted by the spirit of a dead woman. The local people have named the spirit simply as Stree (woman) and have plenty of extraordinary stories to share. The pervading belief is that the spirit comes to the village only during the festive season and takes away any man that crosses its path. Only the man’s clothes are left behind after they encounter the spirit. The town’s talented tailor Vicky (Rajkummar Rao) knows about the legend of Stree, but he does not take it seriously. During the festive season, he meets and falls in love with a girl (Shraddha Kapoor), who claims that she visits the town only during the festive season. When she mysteriously disappears after the festive days, Vicky’s friends start believing that the girl could have been the legendary spirit Stree.
Stree’s strong points include its funny one-liners, interesting dialogues and a seamless mix of horror and comedy. The movie’s characters are also quite impressive, especially Rudra (Pankaj Tripathi), who owns a bookshop and appears to know all the facts about the spirit and everything else in general. Rajkummar Rao is good as usual and the supporting cast including Aparshakti Khurrana and Abhishek Banerjee has also delivered good performances. Shraddha Kapoor’s character is not very clear in the movie, but still the actor has done well to make it look convincing.
The movie can be a good choice if you like the horror-comedy genre. Stree has a good dose of rib-tickling humor and plenty of eerie moments to keep you entertained all throughout.