Stree Movie Review: A Quirky Entertainer

In my opinion, horror-comedy has to be the toughest genre to crack because you have to make the viewer guffaw and send a shiver up his/her spine at the same time. This genre has hardly been explored in Bollywood, which is why Rajkummar Rao and Shraddha Kapoor starrer Stree had generated much curiosity. But does the film live up to the hype? Let’s find out...

The town of Chanderi is haunted by ‘Stree’, a mysterious witch who lands up in the town on a particular time of the year and whisks away men spotted walking the streets at night after calling out to them in her seductive voice. When Vicky (Rajkummar Rao), the local tailor falls for a mysterious young woman (Shraddha Kapoor), who seems to have an eerie vibe, the situation starts getting complicated and it is now up to Vicky and his pals Rudra (Pankaj Tripathi) and Bittu (Aparshakti Khurrana) to save the town.

Rajkummar Rao is undoubtedly one of the finest actors to have graced Bollywood with his talent and the lad is in top form in Stree as the tailor with a childlike earnestness. What is delightful about his character Vicky is that he makes you laugh even when he is not trying to do or be funny, which is something only an actor of his calibre can pull off. If Rao was not enough, the film also stars Pankaj Tripathi as the local scholar Rudra and Aparshakti Khurrana as Vicky’s pal Bittu. These two actors are a total riot and one of the highlights of the film is their banter and one-liners. Before I forget, do you remember Abhishek Banerjee, who played the creepy baddie from Ajji? Well, that guy stars in this film too as Vicky’s pal and the man holds his own when pitted against stalwarts like Rao and Tripathi. Shraddha Kapoor is possibly the weakest link in the film, though in her defence, she has put in a decent effort.

Stree is a rare film in the sense that it evokes two strong emotions in you at the same time. Even as you chuckle at a character’s antics, a part of you is waiting with bated breath for something bad to happen to him and the experience is something unique. The film has been intelligently written and the makers deserve a pat on their backs for not only scaring you and making you laugh at the same time, but also for delivering a powerful message at the same time, which is not a mean feat.

However, on the flip side, the film’s climax gets too clever for its own good and will end up confusing the audience about what happened exactly.

Nevertheless, Stree is an entertaining fare with a message that you should not miss...