Rating: Director: Amar Kaushik Cast: Rajkummar Rao, Shraddha Kapoor, Pankaj Tripathi, Aparshakti Khurrana, Abhishek Banerjee, Vijay Raaz Stree introduces itself as a film “based on a ridiculous phenomenon”. And so it is. The film, written by Raj & DK and directed by Amar Kaushik, is inspired by those folksy tales which have devoted themselves to reiterating and reinforcing one line from a 17th century play — “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned” — and have succeeded in turning it into some kind of fetishised sex-horror fantasy. Misogyny, of course, is the crux of these stories and scripts. In India, over the ages, these tales have engaged the services of nagins and ladies who acquire diabolic blood lust and dark superpowers after being coitus irritateus. They turn into bhootnis, chudails, pishachini who stalk a group, a family, a village, a town, a gender... seeking revenge. The angry, pyaasi aatma and her badla create heightened fear and tension, and engage us because they make us wonder and worry about who will win as morally, the scales are tilted in favour of the original victim. Stree takes this misogynistic genre, twists and twirls it and turns it upside-down, inside-out, while revising and correcting the regressive cacophony that has always surrounded it. Its director and writers — Raj & DK of Go Goa Gone fame and Happy Ending shame — bring disorder to the genre with humour and a wink, presenting it in a new avatar, and signing off with a long overdue apology. En route, Stree invokes many things that have a contemporary, contentious sting — bhakts and their andh bhakti, Aadhaar linking, New India... In Chanderi, Madhya Pradesh, lives Vicky (Rajkummar Rao), a ladies tailor who is the son of a ladies tailor. The film opens at that particular time of the year when the town is putting up festoons and string lights and women are urgently getting new clothes stitched for a very popular four-day-long puja. It’s also the time of the year when men are safest indoors, but only after a sign has been painted outside the main door of their homes — O Stree, kal aana (O Woman, come tomorrow). These words, in bright red paint that has been infused with some crushed chamgadar (bat) bones and the essence of a creature’s magical mootra (pee), are enough to ward off Stree (Woman) who spends all year working up a healthy appetite, and then strikes Chanderi annually, at the time of the puja. She takes only men, leaving behind a pile of clues to suggest, a) that they have been taken, and b) her horny intent. Vicky doesn’t believe in all this, and neither is he that keen on his Daddy’s blouse-petticoat business. This despite the fact that he is every Indian woman’s dream-come-true — Vicky can design and stitch a gorgeous lehenga in ikattis (31) minutes. And he has a superpower that makes women not just do a happy twirl for him, but blush while doing so. “Prabhu ki leela”, “Bhagwan ka tailor avtar” says his father as he watches Vicky at the sewing machine with twinkling, admiring eyes. So when a very pretty, light-eyed girl appears, with cloth tucked under her arms, and purrs, “Vickyji pleeeeejj”, because she needs a lehenga urgently, Vicky runs straight to his friends, grinning. He reports the encounter to his two besties — Bittu (Aparshakti Khurrana) and Jainab (Abhishek Banerjee) — and shows them the arm that’s been gently pressed. Bittu, who runs a store of readymade garments, isn’t impressed. But Jainab enjoys Vicky’s prem milan as only the bestest of best friends can. Even when she invites Vicky on a date, with the most vichitra shopping list, Jainab is very supportive, if a bit dim. Meanwhile, Stree is on a hunting spree. A boisterous boy’s party goes numb with fear when one of them gets taken and the leftovers try to figure why the “O Stree kal aana” message outside didn’t work. Bittu and Jainab seek the advice of Rudra (Pankaj Tripathi) who runs a book store. He knows the four-step upaya of how to dodge Stree’s chungal (vice-like grip). But before he can finish, he gets a call from Shama. Stree grabs another and then more... Rudra steps up, and takes them all to the man who knows stuff. It seems that there may be one person who can save the town from the aatank of the pissed off chudail — the son of a… Stree uses all the tropes of vengeful nagin-bhootni films to tell its story, while drawing out and laughing at their idiocy, flaws, ironies and regressive politics. Stree’s script, its characters, dialogue, direction and acting have that revisionist trait often found in college plays that are born out of ganja-induced, late-night bouts of hyper creativity. Mostly, those plays amount to little more than removing a spoke or two from a wheel but scream, “I have invented a new wheel”. This one, luckily, aced the morning-after test. Stree is smart, cool, funny, cuckoo and pulls off the ridiculousness of the genre quite brilliantly. The movie’s arc is conventional and has all the items required by commercial cinema to keep imbeciles awake and entertained — a pert bottom fills up the entire screen and wriggles in our face. Apart from that and Shraddha Kapoor, the film is great fun. The build up of tension and sudden scary moments are pulled off with such finesse that they make you jump and then break into a nervous laugh. The film seems to take lip-smacking relish not just in watching strapping, grown men quake and scream “Mummy”, but also when they take to wearing saris as a suraksha-kavach, and are told not to go out late, not to go alone, to stay indoors. Stree’s script adds little quirks to characters, at times to assist a twist, but also, sometimes, to tantalise us, aivain, for the fun of it. Take note of the earring dangling on Rudra’s study lamp. Dialogue writer Sumit Arora deserves a standing ovation, not just for lines that will make you cackle long after you’ve left the theatre, but for complementing the screenplay in such a delightful way. There are small set pieces of conversation in the film — Daddy explaining to beta what “friendship” between men and women is, how to channel the build-up of urja inside, innuendos, chatter of three friends — that are not just worth rewinding and playing over and over, but they breath life into characters. His brilliant lines are assigned to an ensemble of actors who are equally brilliant. Pankaj Tripathi is always very good. But here, more than him, it’s Aparshakti Khurrana and Abhishek Banerjee who keep us laughing with their banter. It’s as if they are in a buzzer round and each one must respond with a crackling response in record time. Both the boys are very good, and yet Khurrana stands out. Rajkummar Rao, we all know and agree, is an exceptional actor. And now he is not just good in high-brow, arty movies, but also as the lead in small, small-town, mainstream movies in a way that few actors in Mumbai have ever been. He is as pitch-perfect as Chanderi ka Manish Malhotra as he was in Bareilly Ki Barfi. Rao, along with Ayushmann Khurrana, Vicky Kaushal and others, may well be Bollywood game changers once it's done dancing around stars. They may make it commercially safe for the hero not to be bristling with toxic masculinity, but just be a normal, slightly looser type of guy. Oh what a relief! What joy! But just as I begin to imagine this bliss, Shraddha Kapoor raises her pretty head. She is the weakest, vaguest link in Stree. Ms Kapoor is just horrible. And here her meagre skills as an actor get highlighted because she is surrounded by excellent actors. The film does try its best to distract us — the screen often fills up with pretty shots of her face, and the camera stares at the nape of her neck as she ties her hair into a bun. Sexy, but, sadly, we are not stupid.<doc-sep>Stree Director: Amar Kaushik Cast: Shraddha Kapoor, Rajkummar Rao, Aparshakti Khurrana, Pankaj Tripathi Rating: 3/5 So naive are the people of Chanderi, they believe the moon — called Chanda Mama in fairytales — is literally their uncle. So says a book of village lore hidden inside a copy of the Kamasutra in the local library. Many of its pages have been folded into paper-boats, but the book matters because Chanderi is under attack from a female spirit. Sighted on the four nights of the annual puja, she abducts only the menfolk while leaving their clothes behind. Beware, boys who walk home alone at night. Stree, directed by Amar Kaushik, is a comedy about a lovelorn tailor who falls for a girl who may or may not be the ‘Stree’ the town fears. She visits the town annually on the days of the festival, never enters the temple, and, perhaps most damningly, doesn’t own a mobile phone. Could young Viki, a tailor so accurate he can measure women with his eyes, have found himself a potential girlfriend? Or is this girl who wants him to make her lehenga the kind of bhoot who likes her clothes bespoke? Rajkummar Rao and Aparshakti Khuranna in a still from Stree. Based loosely on an urban legend from Bangalore, this is a potentially hilarious setup. The cast is solid with Rajkummar Rao as Viki, flanked by Aparshakti Khurana and Abhishek Banerjee as his two buddies, but despite the gusto with which the actors play off each other, Stree never quite brings down the house. The dialogues don’t do justice to the absurd situations, and the lines are often underwritten — though this is less evident when greats like Pankaj Tripathi and Vijay Raaz show up. The laughs are inconsistent, and the plotting feels sloppy and rushed. The ideas are fine, but the writing needed work. Rao is likeable as ever, especially when rattling off types of blouses, though this is too eager a performance to be entirely convincing. Rao’s lovable lisping loser is a character we have seen before and there isn’t much novelty to be found here, though there are a few moments when the actor conjures up something striking — like when he urgently contorts his face in a desperate imitation of Shah Rukh Khan because he’s been asked, bizarrely enough, to look at a ghost with love. His body language around a sewing machine is also right on the money. It is Shraddha Kapoor, surprisingly enough, who brings a certain charm to her initially inscrutable character, but once the film gives her more to do, she struggles in comparison to the fine actors who surround her. Khurana is wonderful as a guy who sells readymade clothing and believes in only filling fifty bucks worth of petrol in his bike at a time, while much of the show is stolen by Banerjee, a gangly actor with a zany and unpredictable energy. Tripathi is a fine choice to play that horror-movie cliché — the wise man who knows all and guides the heroes to their destiny — simply because he can render any line irresistible, but it is disappointing to watch him spell out the basics of the local legend to young men who have grown up in that town and should know better. Also watch: Rajkummar Rao, Aparshakti Khurana & Abhishek Banerjee Then again, Stree is all about men who should know better. Kaushik’s film gives us not only a pleasant/terrified town, but a place that is both sexually repressed as well as sexually keen: old men have birds-and-bees conversations with their sons, grown men aren’t allowed to watch lovemaking scenes in the movies, and yet the word ‘friendship’ implies a relationship between young men and local prostitutes. The ideas, as I said, are there. I wish the first half of Stree made me laugh more often, and I wish the second half — which is outrageously quirky — was plotted more cleverly. The film hurtles toward a messy climax that feels like a cop-out, because of cheesy predictability but more because the red herrings used in the film may have led to more satisfactory outcomes. There is a character, for example, who seems to be speaking to a dead woman on the phone through the film… but nothing is made of this. Watch Stree trailer: In a bright gag, Vijay Raaz plays a writer who lives “inside The Emergency.” He’s in hiding, wondering if The Emergency has been lifted. People reassure him that we are in better times now, but he (wisely) does not believe. At one point, someone says blind faith is dangerous, and that one should “be anything but not a bhakt,” a follower. These are fine touches to a madcap comedy, but they jar with the film and feel like lip service. Still, it is heartening that the ghost does not assault her prey without consent. She is the feminine after all, and she wants respect. #StreeToo. Follow @htshowbiz for more ott:10<doc-sep>Stree Movie Review Movie Name: Stree movie Critics Rating: 3.5 / 5 Release Date: AUG 31, 2018 AUG 31, 2018 Director: Amar Kaushik Genre: Horror Comedy Horror comedy, a less trodden path in Bollywood, is not an easy genre as it requires a perfect blend of both comedy and spookiness, film-makers refrain from exploring it lest they get it wrong. However, debutant director Amar Kaushik has done an amazing job with Stree, a horror comedy. Written by Go Goa Gone fame duo Raj Nidimoru, Krishna DK, Stree is packed with hilarious lines, smart performances along with eerie undertones. Stree Movie Plot Inspired by a 'ridiculous' phenomenon, Stree is set in the historical town of Chanderi, Madhya Pradesh, where men disappear during the four days of puja. A widely-feared spirit named Stree takes away men leaving behind their clothes and the only deterrent is a message written on a wall. Vicky (Rajkummar Rao), Manish Malhotra of Chanderi as he calls himself falls for a mysterious girl (Shraddha Kapoor), who appears only during puja. His friend Bittu (Aparshakti Khurrana) convinces him that his ladylove is the one behind all the mayhem after Stree whisks away their friend Dana (Abhishek Banerjee). Stree Movie Review Stree Movie Review Stree plays well with both the genres being spooky and funny at the same time. However, ghostly moments are less but we don't have any complaints as the cast compensates it with their perfect comic timing. Pankaj Tripathi is an absolute delight to watch on screen and his entry in the movie is enough to evoke laughter. There is nothing this man can't do and with his third collaboration (After Bareilly Ki Barfi and Newton among prominent ones) with an equally talented leading man Rajkummar Rao, he assures to treat you in a surprisingly pleasant way. Pankaj, in the role of a shudh Hindi-speaking librarian, who is researching on Stree, has some of the best lines. He will leave you craving for more. Performances of other supporting actors are also top-notch, be it budding talents like Aparshakti Khurrana (Ayushman Khurana's younger brother) and Abhishek Banerjee or Atul Srivastava, who plays Vicky's father. Writers have let each character to flourish. In one of the scenes, where Vicky's father gives sex education to him will remind you of 2017 film Shubh Mangal Saavdhan.The indirect reference to sex by calling it 'friendship' and that too in pure Hindi will leave you ROFL. However, the beauty of the entire film is that the comedy never seems over-the-top and forced. Stree Movie Review Rajkummar Rao as a reluctant tailor, who thinks he is born to do something bigger plays the small town boy with the same charm and magic. Be it his innocent love or razor-sharp comic timing, Rao excels in every department. Shraddha Kapoor looks pretty and does well in adding to that eerie atmosphere. Stree Hindi Movie 2018 Review Stree is engaging and it never gets stretched and clumsy. The movie airily goes on treating you with witty one liners and hilarious dialogues. Sumit Arora has to get the credit. From Aadhaar link to peahen reproducing from tears (the most mocked statement of 2017), dialogue writer has done a phenomenal job. Besides the setting of a small town with those blue painted wooden windows, narrow lanes and clustered houses have been well captured by cinematographer, Amalendu Chaudhary. His camera gives you the essence of a small town in a refreshing way. Sachin-Jigar's music is enjoyable. Thankfully, neither the songs have been placed abruptly nor do they slacken the pace. Background score by Ketan Sodha does a pretty good job in scaring its audience. Stree also takes a jibe at misogyny and chauvinism throughout but it makes you uncomfortable as it also has Nora Fatehi grooving on Kamariya. No, the problem is not with the dance or the feet-tapping track but with the camera that zooms in all over Fatehi. If you keep that and the predictable plot aside, the whole journey is quite well executed. Stree is well-written and despite its absurdities, it triggers good laughter. Amar Kaushik definitely needs an applause for helming such an entertaining watch. It is a 'paisa-vasool'. WATCH STREE TRAILER WATCH THE MAKING OF STREE SONG- Aao Kabhi Haveli Pe<doc-sep>
Director: Amar Kaushik Cast: Shraddha Kapoor, Rajkummar Rao, Pankaj Tripathi Making a film that could make people laugh throughout is no easy task. Doing it through a setup and plot which honestly most people in today’s time would not relate to, is even tougher. Still, Amar Kaushik’s directorial debut Stree is incredibly funny. But the good part doesn't end here. Stree is extremely self-aware of how ridiculous and illogical it gets in various moments. Vicky (Rajkummar Rao) is Chanderi’s Manish Malhotra, who can stitch an entire lehenga in just 31 minutes. He doesn’t need a tape measure to take women’s body measurements. He just needs to see them once for accurate fit when making their clothing pattern. His father (Atul Srivastava) believes Vicky is god-gifted. Soon young, talented Vicky gets distracted from work as he falls head over heels for a mysterious girl (Shraddha Kapoor), who appears only during the four-day puja in the village, and later disappears. Vicky’s love story was picking up the pace but suddenly a man gets abducted in his town. Elsewhere, Rudra (Pankaj Tripathi) narrates Vicky’s friends Bittu and Dana (Aparshakti Khurana and Abhishek Banerjee) a tale of a spirit named Stree who has been there for several years. She visits the town every year for four days, pretty much what Shraddha’s character tells Vicky when she meets him the first time. All of this just adds to the intensified atmosphere of the film, which unfortunately, only lasts for the first half of the movie. Stree is one of those films that has something for everyone, except horror fans: it’s a comic movie, a revenge drama, and even strangely romantic. It definitely raises expectations in a couple of scenes and combines the right mix of tension (still, no horror) with perfectly timed laughs, but all become repetitive and meandering after a point. The scenes are way too stretched in the second half as the film gets relentlessly silly. For instance, Vicky and his gang joke about the fact that Stree is an obedient and understanding spirit that stays away from men whose homes have the words "O Stree, kal aana" (Oh lady, come tomorrow) written outside their walls. At the same time, they call her a fool because she keeps coming back, and disappears soon after reading the same message (Oh lady, come tomorrow) over and over again. In another scene, when Vicky and Stree’s spirit comes face to face, he literally shuts her up, saying, “Ek minute chup yaar, ye kya bhain bhain laga rakhi hai.”However, for a first time filmmaker, Amar has done a fairly decent job. In fact, it’s his smart direction that saves Stree from falling flat. Able to use a limited area and a handful of characters—to maximum effect, Amar has delivered a fairly watchable movie. If you are scared of watching regular Hindi horror shows, then Raj & DK’s screenplay might actually stand a chance to scare you. The rest of the movie-going population will find it a straight-up comedy. But yes, let’s give credit where it’s due. Every single cast member has been given enough space in the story to explore their character. And, all of them are naturally, unashamedly funny. Sumit Arora gives us the witty piece of dialogue when Pankaj Tripathi’s Rudra says, “Stree hai, purush nahi, zabardasti nahi uthati!” Rajkummar is too good at physical comedy and acting like a simpleton. His character manages to succeed in evoking a chuckle every time he comes on screen. As Vicky, Rajkummar is effortlessly insouciant, funny and intensely romantic. There is also plenty of comic relief from Pankaj Tripathi’s Rudra, who moves at such an unstoppable pace that you won’t be able to control your reaction. Aparshakti and Abhishek, too, play a great support and do grab your attention with their comic timing. Shraddha holds same expression throughout, but it’s also because she is not allowed to reveal who she is. Stree is a movie anyone can enjoy, but only if they can compromise on the horror part. Rating: 2.5