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An
invite to view wedding photos graduated to a sleep over and culminated with a
late night movie. That is how I ended up watching Stree with a crazy bunch of
girls.
When
I had first watched the teasers of this film, I was eagerly awaiting its
release, but somehow the trailers didn’t look impressive enough. But the plan
had been made and we all proceeded to Rex Theatre.
Those from Karnataka, may be well aware of the
urban legend that had people scrawling “Naale Ba (come tomorrow)” on the
walls of their homes. The writing on the walls apparently warded off the evil
spirit who turned back on seeing the instruction to return the next day and
then the next and the next...... . This movie as stated in its poster is “based
on this ridiculously true phenomenon”.
PLOT:
A small village in India is haunted by an angry spirit (Stree) who returns
every year during the time of a festival to abduct the men at night, leaving
their clothes behind. To protect themselves from her, the villagers have “O
Stree, kal aana (Oh woman, come tomorrow)” written on their walls.
Vicky
(Rajkummar Rao), a non believer of this myth is the local tailor who falls in
love with a mysterious woman (Shraddha Kapoor) who comes to the village once a
year during the period of The Festival. The woman requests Vicky to stitch a
special lehenga for her and in the process, also requests him to collect
a random selection of items like the hair from a white cat, eyeball of a
lizard, nail from a rooster’s claw etc. (I may have gotten some of these items
wrong). Strange things begin to happen after Vicky meets this woman, whose name
he doesn’t even know. Vicky’s friends suspect this woman to be Stree. Vicky’s
friend gets abducted and Vicky too has begun to have his suspicions on this elusive
woman.
Vicky,
with the help of his friends, takes it upon himself to find his missing friend
and to protect his village from Stree.
Is
this mysterious woman, Stree herself? Why does Stree haunt this village and
abduct only the men? Will Vicky be able to save his village from Stree? Will
the villagers have to continue writing on their walls?
Archie,
there you go. I haven’t divulged too many details in the plot else it would end
up with spoilers.
The
genre of this movie is Horror-Comedy. We forced T to watch this movie with
us saying it would be comical and not scary. The film is scary (not for
the faint hearted) but these scenes are almost always followed by a comical
scene that slows down your fast beating heart.
Rajkummar
is his usual brilliant self and is supported by a wonderful cast of actors. The
dialogues are hilarious (though I would presume, at times a bit difficult for
the non-Hindi speaking folks to follow). If not jumping from our seats in
fright, the scenes have us rolling in laughter. Probably the first in this
genre of Bollywood films that combined Horror with Comedy and I applaud the
Director (Amar Kaushik) for not reducing the film to a mere slapstick comedy in
an attempt to appeal to the masses. (Know any other Bollywood films that fall
in this genre? Please mention them in the comments section below). Speaking of
which, Archie felt the presence of the “Item Number” unnecessary but Shugu and
I thought otherwise.
The
film is also a satire on the Indian society and its treatment of women and
manages to convey a social message without coming across as preachy.
The
ending was a bit disappointing as I felt the movie ended on a cliff-hanger.
Aali and I wracked our brains and came up with an alternate ending that would
have been perfect but I now read that a sequel is in the making. If that is the
case, the ending makes sense.
Do
watch this film even if you don’t like watching Horror films!
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