Set in the mofussil town of Chanderi (Madhya Pradesh), this one delves into an urban legend featuring a female spirit, unimaginatively called as 'Stree', who visits the town during certain holy days of the year to prey on the town's men. Her modus operandi is sneaking up from behind and calling out to her victims by their name. If and when they turn, they're never seen again, except that their clothes are found at the very spot where they encountered this presence. To evade this evil spirit, the town's folk have a rather simple fix - painting a message on the exterior wall of their homes - "O Stree, Kal Aana."
The writing for this genre-bender is very good, especially in the dialogues department. Horror comedies nowadays are a rare offering in Hindi cinema and in that respect, Stree serves up a lot of thrills and spills. The small-town setting and the many jibes at horror film legends are hilarious. The funniest character in the film is Pankaj Tripathi's Rudra Bhaiya, a bookshop owner and Mr. Know-it-all, who guides Vicky and his friends on how to cope with Stree and her haunting act. Pankaj Tripathi's comic timing is top notch and one of the veritable highlights of the film. Rajkummar's performance is just brilliant. He handles the many shades of comedy, horror and romance (in a brilliant throwback scene to Shah Rukh Khan) with great ease. Aparshakti Khurrana and Abhishek Banerjee as the friends offer good comedic punches too. Shraddha Kapoor's character is a bit of an enigma. Even though the role is problematic, the actress does a fine job of maintaining an air of mystery.
Stree is ambitious as it also attempts taking a stab at patriarchy and tucks in subliminal messages about the unfair treatment meted out to women in general. But a horror-comedy about a chudail who is a case of unrequited love may not be the ideal platform to endorse this high moral ground.
Stree is still an entertaining film. This is an experimental comedy, that creates an eerie atmosphere and it manages to be funny and scary at the same time. Writers Raj and DK (who have directed films like Go Goa Gone, 99 and Shor In The City) bring in their trademark humour.
The writing for this genre-bender is very good, especially in the dialogues department. Horror comedies nowadays are a rare offering in Hindi cinema and in that respect, Stree serves up a lot of thrills and spills. The small-town setting and the many jibes at horror film legends are hilarious. The funniest character in the film is Pankaj Tripathi's Rudra Bhaiya, a bookshop owner and Mr. Know-it-all, who guides Vicky and his friends on how to cope with Stree and her haunting act. Pankaj Tripathi's comic timing is top notch and one of the veritable highlights of the film. Rajkummar's performance is just brilliant. He handles the many shades of comedy, horror and romance (in a brilliant throwback scene to Shah Rukh Khan) with great ease. Aparshakti Khurrana and Abhishek Banerjee as the friends offer good comedic punches too. Shraddha Kapoor's character is a bit of an enigma. Even though the role is problematic, the actress does a fine job of maintaining an air of mystery.
Stree is ambitious as it also attempts taking a stab at patriarchy and tucks in subliminal messages about the unfair treatment meted out to women in general. But a horror-comedy about a chudail who is a case of unrequited love may not be the ideal platform to endorse this high moral ground.
Stree is still an entertaining film. This is an experimental comedy, that creates an eerie atmosphere and it manages to be funny and scary at the same time. Writers Raj and DK (who have directed films like Go Goa Gone, 99 and Shor In The City) bring in their trademark humour.