Stree 2 Review: A Monstrous Blockbuster

★★★★★

Stree 2 Review : Amar Kaushik is back with a bang! He was lost for a while with Bhediya, but now I can say that HE IS BACK in capital letters. Stree 2 lives up to the hype—not the box office, but the content. Stree 2 delivers that. You enter the cinema hall as a fan of Stree, and you get to see what you have come to see. This is perfect fan service by Amar Kaushik, as he served every fandom with delicious massy treats, be it Rajkummar Rao, Shraddha Kapoor, Pankaj Tripathi, Varun Dhawan, or the surprising package, Akshay Kumar.

Stree 2 is set in Chanderi village and I really liked this idea of sticking to the roots. Bhediya went wrong because it brought an urban character into the forest, mismatching the scenario. Vicky (Rajkummar Rao) and the villagers are happy that Stree is gone and is protecting them, but there is a new ghost and a smart swipe of gender. In Stree, there was a female ghost who kidnapped males, and here, you have a male ghost, a headless one, who is kidnapping girls. The first girl I saw, and I was like, "Chanderi is such a modern town? I mean, that girl didn't look like a Chanderi girl, but a girl from Lokhandwala Complex." However, writer Niren Bhatt gave an apt answer later. The girls that are being kidnapped are the modern Gen-Z girls, and there is a small flashback story that I don't want to spoil for you. The horror genre is all about that past flashback sequence, I believe, so I'll keep it a secret. So, Vicky and his friends can't beat the Sarkata ghost, and then "she" (Shraddha Kapoor) arrives, and together they must find a way to stop this deadly ghost.

Bhatt's writing has brought Horror Universe back to top form, which I personally have been missing since Stree (2018). Stree 2 has some fantastic one-liners and PJs coming about Bits, Tittu, Disha Parani, Dil Se, Animal, IAS, and whatnot. Some are too deep, so you might need a moment or two to understand them, but when you realise the meaning of them, you'll blast into laughter. Alongside, you have those basic genuine laughs keeping you busy, and simultaneously, the horror elements are served and unfold mystical powers and secrets. The blend of comedy and horror has finally fit well in some movie and it has to be Stree 2 because the last time anything similar happened was Stree (2018). The climax is grand, and you'll get a feeling of watching "Avangers" as you see multiple heroes assembling against one super villain. Choti, a knife, and a sword are the weapons, and they all add a certain logic and meaning to what they have to do with the theme and the character.

Rajkummar Rao is the top performer here. Be it screen time, comedy, humour, or heroism—he gets most of all of them. He might have made a few mistakes in the recent past with his roles and movies, and that's why he didn't find success (deservingly), but Stree 2 is, in my opinion, a perfect comeback. This gives him a meaty role and will give him huge commercial success as well. Shraddha Kapoor is an attractive and unattainable beauty. For a surprise, she has a massy entry scene at the interval block and then plays a massive role in the climax and end credit scenes, along with a shocking twist. No one can be Stree (she) but her. Pankaj Tripathi is superb, as he provides some good laughs, and so does Abhishek Banerjee, who also has some fantastic comedy scenes. Aparshakti begins well, but the character remains unexplored and underwhelming later. Tamannaah Bhatia has two scenes and a song, and I couldn't take my eyes off the screen for those 5 minutes she was there. Akshay Kumar makes a surprising cameo, followed by a huge twist that will leave his fans impatient. Varun Dhawan gets enough massy moments to send joyous news to his fans, and the rest of the cast is pretty okay.

Coming to the technical points, I haven't seen a better use of camera work and sound design for any film in Bollywood in recent times. Thankfully, it came with a horror film, which needs it the most. Stree 2 will give jump scares with its background score, camera angles, and visual effects. This is how you create an atmospheric horror film. A textbook to every new film maker who wants to crack it, or else you have The Conjuring franchise too. Stree 2 is all about Amar Kaushik's vision, and it comes with many noticeable achievements. He kept the timeline of events the same but gave it a twist by swiping the gender, which automatically added a new humour to it, and then he added some blockbuster cameo roles that add more to this joyful event at a horror amusement park. A few hiccups here and there are ignorable, as Kaushik's fan fair is too grand and enjoyable to keep track of flaws. The underwhelming Bhediya is forgiven now because he has kept the goodwill of Stree intact with Stree 2. It will carry that goodwill into the next movies and help them achieve bigger numbers. Goodwill is bigger than stars. I repeat, goodwill is bigger than stars. Stree 2 will show how! All I have to say is, get ready for a monstrous blockbuster.