Stree 2 movie review: No mystery—you’ve missed Stree!

Stree 2 review

Film: Stree 2
Director: Amar Kaushik
Actors: Rajkummar Rao, Pankaj Tripathi
Rating: 3.5/5

Could there be a movie without an end? I don't mean an endless plot, of course. More like shorn of an extended climax, where the filmmakers often get ahead of themselves, while they've been straight and sorted, all along.

The original Stree, equally, had endgame issues. I recall this more from reading its review, than the movie itself. I guess that's why you write: to remember!

In this case, the film slips over into two nearly full-length songs, after an overlong conclusion, adding further to self-referential nods, cameos, franchise promises/possibilities, while the end credits had been rolling all along!

I suppose some of this sho-sha stuff comes via stars/studios, not necessarily from storytellers, per se.

That said, you judge a movie by the experience. And not why/when/how it ends. I guess, you also subconsciously judge that experience by how excited your fellow passengers felt, when stepping out of the theatre. As opposed to stepping in. All the more for a sequel.

Speaking of which, it's not a mystery that you've missed Stree. I know this from food counter guys at my local theatre - among the best box-office barometers - who'd been warning me about "house-full" shows, well before the picture opened.

And that's pretty much what I walked into, at a Bandra cinema, late into the night, for a paid-preview, before the movie's official release - packed with enthu-cutlets, willing to laugh, before a joke landed; dying to shriek, whether or not the visuals scared them. Fear is in the anticipation alone.

Stree: Sarkate Ka Aatank, as in Part II is, of course, ‘horror humour'. One man's horror is anyway another man's comedy. But that's not what we mean here.

In light of balancing the two, this film could have well been scripted on an Excel sheet. With the picture's timeline on X axis, and the genre, on Y.

Wherein, literally, a spooky sequence follows a funny scene, and so on and so forth. Only the length of time for each genre varies. But even those seemed somewhat equal to me!

I guess the ultimate feat in matching all that's going on into a Bollywood commercial/mainstream grid is a proper ‘item number', starring Tamannaah Bhatia.

It's rare to see how swiftly that gets retrofitted into the film - suitably taking the story forward still, while the sensuous nautch number, Aaj ki raat, could top playlists at dance-bars, wherever they are. None in Bombay.

Stree 2 has been neatly/smartly scripted by Niren Bhatt, credited in the past, notably, for Serious Men (2020), Bala (2019), and Bhediya (2022), which is now part of Stree producer Dinesh Vijan's funny-supernatural universe. Bhatt can happily place this pic on top of his CV.

What kinda comedy is it? Deadpan? No. I'd say Deadpool - same sorta franchise, continuing in the superhero space (check: Deadpool & Wolverine), that similarly subverts supposedly serious situations, with male, plus meta/inside jokes, on the movie industry, pop-culture references, with self-aware characters taking potshots at each other, for who they are.

You have to strain your ears sometimes to catch such lines. Say, when Pankaj Tripathi's character calls himself an old man, another goes, "Aap Atal ho," citing his Atal Bihari Vajpayee biopic.

You could find yourself googling who Sneha Kakkar is, when she appears in a dialogue. I guess they meant the singer Neha Kakkar, and she'd mind?

Otherwise, it's a series of puns: Virgin tel (oil), virgin male; Joggers' Park/Jurassic Park; Disha Batani; bits, tits, etc. The film in my theatre came with English titles. That's a welcomingly inclusive touch. Not that I saw how the jokes were getting translated.

Just wished, however, that I'd consumed some of what that lady behind me had - rolling over with laughter, at every frickin' line. Such energies are hugely communicable. That's why we go to the cinema, rather than sitting sullenly at home, watching movies on OTT, forever, no?

The actual comedy in Stree, though, completely emanates from the four lead actors, jamming with such infectious, familiar ease. You're already on first-name bases with these guys - originally conceived by filmmakers Raj&DK - as they step into the screen, one by one.

Adorable buffoons: Bicky (Rajkummar Rao), Rudra (Pankaj Tripathi), Bittu (Aparshakti Khurana), Jana (Abhishek Banerjee), or for that matter, Shraddha Kapoor's nameless part. You know their traits.

You're also aware of the subtle yet sturdy feminist undertones of the franchise. Wherein men can't step out of their homes in a hamlet called Chanderi in the first part. And independent-minded women, with strong agency, instead, must lock themselves up in the second.

The penny drops, as director Amar Kaushik puts it together, almost perfectly again, with that same lovable lot. He's since directed the man-wolf Bhediya as well. That was as much a big-screen, pop corny fun.

I first got to know Kaushik from his (short) film debut, Aaba (available on YouTube), about a terminally ill grandfather and child, set in Arunachal Pradesh. Nothing in that flick foretold his film career, clearly!

The spooky parts of this horror-comedy, of course, wholly belong to the director's eye/craft, sufficiently teasing the audience, with a headless monster.

Carrying you through the ride. Even when the film could be heading in many directions, sometimes. That's actually the reason you'll hear people say, "Bicky, pleej!" Yes, and once more; please.