Stree Review

This is a movie I went to see on a whim… I like the writers of this film who have previous made Go goa gone and A Gentleman (among others). So I decided to just give this VERY mediocre looking film a chance.

The plot revolves around A Spirit which supposedly kidnaps men and leaves only their clothes behind. The film’s hero Vicky is modern and doesn’t believe this at all… from here on starts the film.

Direction & Plot:

Horror comedy is a VERY difficult genre… how can someone make people scared shitless and then bring out copious amounts of laughter from them in the next scene or maybe in the very same scene. There are very few movie in Hollywood or Bollywood which can successfully do horror comedy. I am very happy to say, Stree succeeds in almost every aspect. It’s one of the best horror comedies of this decade if not the entire span of indian cinema.

Hollywood has very recently figured out how to do horror just about right. From the conjuring, insidious to IT, they are making pretty good horror films. But what if a film can be as scary as IT but also make you laugh madly in the very next moment ? Stree as mentioned before totally does that. All the credit goes to the film makers. The writing is sheer brilliance, the editing is sharp and the scares got some genuine shouts of terror from the audience. But then comes the funny dialogs, the great acting and comedic timing of the entire cast without going overboard or losing the thread of the narrative.

I cannot stress enough how hard this is to pull off. However, not only do they pull it off, the filmmakers have made an instant classic. This is a film that is not just good and entertaining, but REALLY re-watchable. Not just due to the comedy, but due to its plot as well. I cannot explain this further without going into spoilers.

Writing:

The writers (Raj and Krishna in this case) are the king of cinema. Few know this, especially in Bollywood, where a writer is a distant afterthought behind the items songs and the star power. But this film has first and foremost amazing writing. Not just in the comedy dialogs, but in the way the hero and his friend’s comradery gets established with very few lines.

The plot would seem sort of lackluster or insufficient, but somehow it works rather well. A film based on just a thin premise usually leads to a dragging second half, but this film is just as sharp post interval as it is in the first half.

There is a scene of a human possession by a ghost, which is normally shown as scary and terrifying, but here the writers treat is as a comedy scene, which shouldn’t work, how can a comedy scene establish how serious the ghost is? But somehow it not just works, but had the audience rolling with laughter even as the possessed person goes full zombie on his family!

Acting :

Shraddha Kapoor, Rajkummar Rao, Pankaj Tripathi, Aparshakti Khurana and Abhishek Banerjee are the main cast members. Miss Kapoor being the weakest link in the acting chain. Rajkummar is ridiculously good in his character. He is an everyman hero who is nervous around pretty girls. But is a prince among his friends, flawed, scared and unwittingly hilarious at times. He does wonders with an already well-written material.

The rest of the above-mentioned cast are a natural fit into the film. They seem like small town people, with interesting characters, but nothing so overboard as to make it seem unbelievable. Some from such a village or town would be able to identify with them, but they are also main stream enough for the city audience to find them interesting and funny. Again, this is something most films struggle with a lot.

Overall the acting is pretty damn good by everyone on screen. Miss Kapoor weak as she is in acting, still manages to do her role properly and convincingly.

Overall :

This film is highly recommended for people who like horror and comedy. It’s smart, it’s very middle India, but somehow still relevant and funny.

(NO SPOILERS)

The film ending is slightly ambiguous, maybe to setup a sequel OR to give credence to two different theories about the Stree (Ghost) in this film. It does not take anything away from the film, but the writers have purposely written it in a way that there can be two possible explanations of the ending of the film. Another thing, which is extremely hard to do… convince the audience that they have seen something that they really haven’t… or have they?

Rating :

For one of India’s (if not the only) best horror comedies. I rate this quite high. 8.5 / 10. A MUST watch for all audiences who enjoy a good film with some scares and a lot of laughter.

p.s :

Maybe the producers didn’t have much confidence on this film as I saw hardly any marketing of this film and the trailer of the film is just about ok. I wish this excellent film gets a lot more recognition for how awesome it is…