Media Magick

Horror comedy is a fresh forte for Bollywood. There was a time when Ramsay Brothers were known for making dozens of horror films but those horror films never got the limelight they deserved mainly because of the kind of content and actors they used to have. Years later Vikram Bhatt came with horror flicks as well and audience seemed to like his take as well. Amar Kaushik’s directorial debut Stree is a horror comedy and features an ensemble cast of brilliant performers like Rajkummar Rao, Pankaj Tripathi, Aparshakti Khurrana, Shraddha Kapoor, Atul Shrivastava and Abhishek Bannerjee. Let’s see what Stree has to offer to its viewers.

Trailer Stree:

The story of Stree revolves around a town named Chanderi, where, on every religious festival an evil spirit visits and abducts young men leaving nothing behind but their clothes. How three youngsters Vicky (Rajkummar Rao) – the Manish Malhotra of Chanderi, Bittu (Aparshakti Khurana) – the miser owner of a readymade garments shop and Janna (Abhishek Banerjee) – the naïve friend of both fall under the trap of Stree. How Rudra Bhaiyya (Pankaj Tripathi), the man who knows everything about spirits and how to stay away from them, helps these young boys to stay away from Stree is what this film is all about.

Rajkummar Rao gives an impeccable performance as Vicky the tailor who is blessed with taking measurements of any “Bhabi” just by looking at them without using the measurement tape; he is the Prince of the town and the coolest guy. Rajkummar brilliantly gets in to the skin of the character. There are many scenes where he not only excels but leaves his audience in awe. Pankaj Tripathi is wonderful as Rudra – the know it all master. His expressions, dialect, sarcasm and scaring scenes are clap worthy. In first half he merely has only one scene but post interval audience loves his presence and he makes the most out of it. Shraddha Kapoor gives an intriguing performance and she performs decently.

Aparshakti Khurana gives his hundred percent to the character of Bittu and unlike his last venture Happy Phir Bhaag Jayegi, impresses his viewers in every scene. Abhishek Banerjee portrays a difficult character with multiple shades and the way he does that, it deserves appreciation. Vijay Raaz in a cameo character is as usual superb.

The script of Stree is ideal for a horror comedy; the film not only gives you smiles and bursts of laughter but also petrifies you with its music, direction and storytelling. How any person reacts in a tensed and horrified situation and turning it to something comical which not only frightens you but also makes you laugh is not an easy task and requires a lot of grip on the subject. Raj Nidimoru and Krishna D.K. (story/screenplay writers) deserve standing ovation for penning down the tiniest detail to make the film believable, engaging, entertaining and crisp.

Movie Review Stree

Direction wise Amar Kaushik is first-rate, better than many directors who have made a few films in the past; the reason of saying this is that horror-comedy is not an easy or usual genre to tackle and Amar does full justice with the film.

There are few scenes which stand out in the film and are totally fresh for the audience:

The way Atul Shrivastava shares his “gyan” about “Friendship” and talks about “Oorja ka Jwala Mukhi” with his son Vicky is smartly penned.

How Vicky tries to romance with the Stree and tries to add Shahrukh Khan’s style to his romance – flawless…

When Pankaj Tripathi agree to help Vicky and Bittu and visits purani Haveli, that’s superlative fun and fright!

When Rajkummar Rao knows about his reality…

The scene featuring Vijay Raaz and “emergency” is both hilarious and though provoking with high dose of performance.

Stree is a must watch and shouldn’t be missed as it’s a clean, family and smartly written movie with awesome performances and superlative direction.

PS: You’ll enjoy the movie if you have good grip on Hindi language; else you might be lost in the translation.