A Year in Books, 2024

 So much to read.. and so little time.. 

January - The Bullet That Missed, Richard Osman - As per tradition, started the year with a murder mystery, to fight the post holiday blues. Third in the Thursday Murder Club series, where the murders get more brutal, the septuagenarian main characters we love get bolder, the plots get more intricate, and yet the overall joy and impact gets weaker. After the deeply enjoyable first one, these next two have been a little meh, falling between neither being a page-turning crime thriller nor being a warm affectionate look at retired-but-super-active British sleuths.

April - Bad Luck and Trouble, Lee Child - The eleventh book in the super successful Jack Reacher series, ahead of watching Season 2 on prime video, based on this novel. What appeals is the raw avenging very old-school masculine character that wants to make his personal world right and make the bad guys pay. But this story misses the mark by a mile. With an intention to bring back characters and connection to his hitherto unexplored past life, to tell an action packed story in the present, the plot fails to deliver the intrigue, the action, the adrenaline and the pleasure of pop fiction that we expect from a Jack Reacher novel.

May - Modi and India, 2024 and the Battle for Bharat, Rahul Shivshankar, Siddhartha Talya - Appropriate timing, reading this during the elections in the largest democracy in the world, with a deliberate intent of an intellectual experiment to read a right-of-centre narrative (how right you ask!) to see the other side. The book makes a compelling case that by painting the right as only wrong, we miss the opportunity to have a more balanced perspective in Indian politics. But not as compelling as the final results we saw the Indian voter deliver, which only reinforced all our collective faith in the power and the relevance of democracy in an increasingly un-democratic world.

July - The Shining, Stephen King - Finally got around to reading this iconic thriller from the master story teller, and even after all the hype and high expectations, the book delivers and hits the spot, and how. King is a master at crafting characters with deep emotional complexity that manifests in the spooky events which unfold in the storyline. A child with psychic energy (aka ‘the shining’), a recovering alcoholic borderline-abusive father, a mother with a troubled childhood, all trapped in a haunted hotel with decades of sinister history. What more do you need to tell one of the best scary stories ever written.

August - The Book of Compassion, Pooja Pande - “What the world needs now is love, sweet love. It’s the only thing that there’s just too little of”, crooned Dionne Warwick. This book, as I proudly say written by my sister, is both timely, as a reminder to each one of us amidst a feeling of losing our way in the world; as well as timeless, in that the very foundation of humanity is the spirit of compassion. The genius of the book is in the simple definition of compassion being ‘empathy in action’ which is all we need to not only live our own lives in a fulfiling way but also to transform the world we live in. 

August - Before the Cofffee Gets Cold, Toshikazu Kawaguchi, translated Geoffrey Trousselot - A year in books is not complete without a Japanese novel. And this one hit the spot for that unique Japanese storytelling fix that we need from time to time. True to style, the characters are nuanced, the story telling is slow and immersive, and a lot more happens inside the minds and hearts of the characters than in the actual story. Only a Japanese author can tell the story of time travelling where you don’t even leave the chair you’re sitting on in a coffee shop! 

October - And Then There Were None, Agatha Christie, Audiobook/Audible - The book I listened to, to satisfy a craving for Agatha Christie. One of my all time favourites, and hadn’t read in a while, decided to listen to this one after all these years. While the narrator was not as impactful as he could’ve been, the story is so powerful, that once again it left me with awe at the brilliance of this writer, still the queen of crime novels. No one comes close. Ten unsuspecting strangers trapped on an island, being murdered one by one, till there are none. Masterpiece!

October - Mythos, Stephen Fry, Audiobook/Audible - Continuing the audiobook streak, having read this book 5 years ago, wanted to “re-read” this one. Narrated by the inimitable Fry himself, in his characteristic British style, listening to this one is a sheer delight. Telling the stories of the Greek Mythology from the very beginning, against a broad timeline, this book is the most authoritative and entertaining compendium to understand the very human Gods of this culture, that have had such a wide ranging impact on the stories and the imagination in the whole world.

November - The Road to Freedom: Economics and the Good Society, Joseph Stiglitiz - The book I’ve been waiting to be written finally showed itself in this highly relevant, deeply insightful and superbly provocative text by the Nobel Laureate. Clearly explaining why neo-liberalist capitalism, which has been the dominant economic theory and model across countries for the last 40 odd years, has not delivered and created a highly unequal, unsustainable society we live in today. Arguing that the role of economics is to create a good society, the book makes the case of what the author calls ‘progressive capitalism’ that balances the freedom of a few with the freedom of the many, with a greater and a more specific role for the Government and public institutions.

December - An Eye for an Eye, Jeffrey Archer - Perhaps reading Jeffrey Archer for the first time after college, when he was a rage. Revisitng him (and probably his ghost writers), I decided to revisit this author from our youth, who still seems to be going on. A thriller that spans contemporary politics and business deals, it’s an easy, time-pass, no-gain-no-loss reading that is perhaps a half-decent substitute for watching an in flight movie on a long distance flight. Indeed that’s what it served as, for me.

December - Almond, Sohn Won-Pyung, translated by Joosun Lee - Been meaning to read a Korean author, and this became my first. Growing up story of a boy named Yunjae, born with Alexithymia, that doesn’t allow him to feel any emotions like love, fear, anger. After losing his family to a violent crime, it’s the story of his coming of age, building relationships, and finding his way in a world full of emotions that he is unable to access. A poignant and warmly told story that contrasts the boy who cannot feel any emotion (and is yet so deeply human), with the rest of the world that can feel all the emotions, and is yet so deeply inhuman. An easy read, and a good cozy way to end the year.

While I missed my 12 books goal this year, here’s to another year of books and reading. 

Happy New Year 2025. 

Happy Reading.

Gladiator 2, 2024 - Film Review

As an ardent and a generous film viewer, I am well aware of the perils of comparing sequels of original masterpieces. But when you have the same brilliant movie-maker in second one as well, you can’t help but keep your expectations high.

Gladiator 2, coming 24 years after the original oscar-winning magnum opus, tells the story of Hanno (aka Lucius), a daring solider of Numidia, who after getting conquered and enslaved by a Roman slave owner Macrinus, rises the ladder to become a fierce and winning gladiator in the Colosseum games. Set fifteen years later after the events of Gladiator 1, when the brave solider-turned-gladiator Maximus (Russell Crowe) fought to restore the dream of Rome to be a true republic, the state is still in shambles, controlled by ineffective and corrupt emperor brothers, Geta and Caracalla, with the senate and its members either largely impotent or corrupt. As Lucilla (Marcus Aurelius’s daughter, Maximus’s lover) and her current husband, General Acacius try to rescue Rome from its politics, and Macrinus devises his own vile plan to rule Rome, the protagonist Lucius uses his rage to fight the gladiator battles, and the evil rulers, growing ever stronger, and eventually realising his destiny of being the rightful heir to the throne and setting Rome on its visioned path of a great, free, prosperous and just Republic.

Like i said, when you have Ridley Scott directing the sequel after his genius first one, one can’t help expecting an absolute cinematic treat. But, it saddens me to say, that the film disappoints, and on many counts, unfortunately.

Starting with the story. Even though the film starts 15 years later, with a seemingly new character, Hanno (later discovered to be Lucilla’s sent away son Lucius) fighting as ferociously as Maximus did (as we know from first movie to be his father), and a new plot of Rome conquering new lands, it very quickly falls into an exact replica of the first film. Lucius becomes a slave, then a gladiator, and then a leader of all the gladiators, and eventually winning against the bad guys. Sure, there are new and supposedly surprising elements, with the character of Macrinus (Denzel Washington, no less), a former slave and now slave-owner, plotting his own game. But in essence, there is no new story to tell. Classics, when re-told to a new generation, can be powerful, with new interpretations, borrowing from contemporary culture and a topical relevance of what’s happening around the world today. Imagine the potential of telling the story of a movie like Gladiator (the common man’s heroic quest to fight for a fair and just democracy in a world that has lost its way) in 2024, with everything going on around us. But it is not to be. The film ends up being more or less a nostalgic replay of the first story, minus the genius performances by the central actors. Alas!

That brings me to the second disappointment. Paul Mescal, as the protagonist, to be fair, does a decent job of holding his role together. But Gladiator cannot be made with just a decent performance. Gladiator requires a performance of sheer force, brutality, presence, dominance, and gravitas that Russel Crowe had with his performance (for which he deservedly won the oscar). A performance that blew us all away, both in its intensity and and in its subtlety. Mescal, despite his best efforts, misses this by a mile. At best, Mescal feels like a Gen Z-on-a-bad-day version of Maximus - all talk, no impact. The other actors have the same unimpressive performance. The bumbling-almost-queer emperor brothers as the evil power-hungry-but-incompetent-rulers are a far cry from Joaquin Phoenix’s brilliant and emotionally-nuanced portrayal of the evil Commodus. Lucilla, as the un-empowered princess, is a shadow of what the same actress played in the original story. And Denzel Washington, as the conniving Macrinus is an absolute damp squib. Only Pedro Pascal, as General Acacius, gives a solid performance that makes you want to root for him, but it’s not enough to save the overall film.

Finally, the other appeal and one of the reasons we enjoyed Gladiator 1, was the no-holds-barred adrenaline rush of watching human combat in its most raw, ugly and violent form. We’d all be lying to ourselves if we didn’t acknowledge this appeal of the film, despite our high brow pretences of rooting for an Oscar winner! Again, Gladiator 2 fails at creating this impact, despite having so many fight sequences, all set to large screen Dolby music effect. The attacks are there but we don’t feel it, the blood is there but it doesn’t make us squeamish, the rage is there but it doesn’t provoke us, the fight-choreography is there but it doesn’t move us, the arms and ammunition are there but it doesn’t deter us, the horrifying bad guys and their beasts are there, but it doesn’t scare us. As a result, we are left watching a series of what feels like inconsequential fights, leading to an inevitable ending, like we would a WWE match or like we watched Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson. Meh!

As we walk out of the theatre, we remember that actually this is not the first time that Ridley Scott has let us down. The memories of Prometheus and Alien: Covenant are still recent enough to know what this disappointment feels like. And in any case, we are getting used to our heroes and icons letting us down, so just one more on that list. No big deal. And not that it’s going to stop us from coming back and rooting for more, and continuing to believe in the power of good cinema. And in geniuses like Ridley Scott. Just like with everything else in the world, we will keep showing up again and again and again… Till the next time Mr. Scott.

Bhool Bhulaiya 3 - Film Review

After the box office successes of the first two Bhool Bhulaiya movies, first one in 2007, and last one in 2022, comes the third in the series, that capitalises on the current popular craze of horror-coms (aka Stree2), perfectly timed to capitalise on the long Diwali weekend.

The story revolves once again (like BB2) around the fraud ghostbuster Rooh Baba aka Ruhaan (Kartik Aaryan), who again finds himself in a haunted palace, with the responsibility of rescuing the place as well as its residents, from the evil spirit of Manjulika, trapped behind a door for 200 years. What ensues, is a series of hilarious adventures and mis-adventures with multiple characters entering the story, adding to the intrigue and twists (and jokes) in the story, keeping us guessing ‘who and where is Manjulika’ till the final climax with an unexpected twist in the tale and a happy ending.

When compared to its previous movies, BB3 has the opposite effect of Stree 2. Unlike Stree 2, which, by itself, was a well made, entertaining and engaging movie, yet felt disappointing compared to Stree 1, Bhool Bhulaiya 3, comes out winning compared to the highly annoying and a cropper BB2 (even though it did well on the box office). BB3 is a fun and funny family entertainer as a good weekend outing of a 2 hour plus laugh-a-thon, just what we would expect from one of the better Anees Bazmee movies. The jokes are slapstick, ridiculous, sometimes totally arbitrary, but all the while, genuinely funny. And if you’re willing to leave your minds behind for sometime, it is a full paisa-vasool break from the rest of our lives that we all take so seriously. 

The whole premise of the BB series is to not exert our minds too much. It’s a proven success formula that seems to work every time. All the familiar ingredients are there, that gives us the predictable assurance of what we’re in for. A haunted palace, a trapped evil ghost Manjulika, lots of jokes and laughs, the long and arduous path of trying to rid the world of the evil spirit, and an eventual twist in the tale ending. No suprises there, and that, in many ways, comes as a welcome relief. We know what we’re signing up for. And the film delivers to it. The additional sparkle of new characters, like Mandira (the still-gorgeous and can’t-get-enough-of Madhuri Dixit), Mallika (Vidya Balan, as an ode to BB1), Meera (Tripti Dimri), and old characters like the pandits add to the overall entertainment value of the film.

But, for those of us, who have seen Bhool Bhulaiya 1 (directed by Priyadarshan), we can’t help lament how removed from the original vision these last two BB movies have been. The shift from Priyadarshan to Anees Bazmee is of course what it is. While Priyadarshan (who gave us the genius Hera Pheri, among other acclaimed Hindi and Malayalam cinema) saw Bhool Bhulaiya as a metaphor for the maze of the mind, intertwining with the physical and the meta-physical reality of our world, Anees sees Bhool Bhulaiya as a physical space where a spooky-but-fun story is being told. Two different directors, two different visions. A bit like DC and Marvel, both about superheroes but two completely different worlds. In fact, BB1 to BB2 and BB3 is a bit like moving from Zack Snyder to Joss Whedon on Justice League, that made many of us fans protest at the Marvelisation of the DC universe.

Ofcourse, the other big criticism of BB3 (as it was for BB2) is the main actor, Kartik Aryan. One of the big reasons why BB2 didn’t work was because of him. Thankfully, BB3 works despite him. There is so much of the story and so many more characters to anchor the plot on, that Kartik’s non-performance can almost be ignored. But that also makes one wonder how much better the movie impact could have been if there was a better actor. Especially when the twist in the tale at the end has so much to do with his character and his acting, which of course, he messes up completely. Imagine if it was Akshay Kumar (from BB1), one of the best comic-timing actors we have, or even Ranveer or Rajkumar Rao from the new actors. Alas! May be there is hope for BB4.

Still overall, the film delivers a packed punch, with an out and out Bollywood fare that is not disappointing at all. A weekend filled with no-holds-barred laughter with the family, without reason or logic. What more could we ask for from a long weekend.  

Nobody Wants This - TV Series Review, Netflix

The revival of rom-com on the small screen seems to be continuing, at least on Netflix. After a successful run of One Day, a heartfelt Brit-rom-com, comes an American one, that ‘almost’ quite nicely hits the spot.

The story revolves around Joanne (Kristen Bell), an independent modern woman that’s only had bad relationships, and along with her sister Morgan (Justine Lupe), owns it and even monetises it through a wildly successful podcast on relationships and sex. Convinced of this destiny of hers, she unexpectedly and reluctantly falls in love with a young Jewish rabbi, Noah (Adam Brody). The odds are against them right from the start, because there couldn’t be two more different people in all of Los Angeles, and everyone does try to break them apart - Noah’s family, his heart-broken ex-fiancé, Joanne’s sister, and even the two of them themselves. And yet, none of the sabotage works, and as the season 1 ends setting base for season 2, they get together for what could be a happy ending.

In the main, the series is nicely done. Erin Foster’s first creation is a great promise of a new maker that is able to understand and express love and romance in its subtle and nuanced nature. An experience that is so personal and specific to the two people who are involved, that apart from the two, no one else could really understand or be a part of. This is what hits the spot. The everyday-ness of love, the banal moments of romantic conversations that simultaneously mean nothing and yet so much. The flutter of newness of a relationship yet daunted by the uncertainty of where it might be heading. Feeling like a teenager all over again, but rationalising it all like an adult. The complete disconnect of the head and the heart. The balancing act of being the same person with everyone in their lives so far, with, the entirely new persons they both are becoming as a result of their relationship. The struggle of losing their independence yet relishing the idea of their dependence on each other. Navigating the everyday question that, in fact is the Netflix byline for this series Will they? Won’t they? Should They?

If Erin Foster creates this story telling beautifully, the actors and the performances do complete justice to the vision. Adam Brody and Kristen Bell do a wonderful job of playing their conflicted-yet-passionate characters. We are fully engrossed in their emotions and can feel what they feel. All other characters also do a terrific job in bringing to life the two completely different worlds that the central characters come from, convincing us why they can never get together. Timothy Simons as Sasha, Noah’s hen-pecked brother is especially a fab discovery, reminiscent of Vince Vaughn’s hilarious characters.

But, as I liked a fresh love story on the small screen, and especially the fact that it was was a 10-episode season, each episode being less than 30 mins, I couldn’t put aside the slightly “icky” feeling (to quote an emotion that Joanne uses as a reason to get out of many relationships) I got due to the overwhelming ode to the Jewish community that the series gives, with an inherent celebration of the faith, the beliefs, the practices and the rituals of the Judaism religion, during this time in the world where against the heart-breaking reality of war and suffering of millions, we cannot have mainstream popular culture taking sides, heroing one faith over another. The love story would have worked even without this being the centre of the plot. There could have been many script alternatives to have as the reason for the perceived inevitability of them falling apart….

All in all, despite the fault in its ‘stars’, it’s great to see romantic stories making a come back, even as the big cinema has thrown it away. And perhaps rightly so, reminding us that a love story is not a big public social event, but an everyday personal lived reality that we feel when we tuck into our beds and sofas at night, with our loved ones, for our daily dose of Netflix.

One Day - TV Series Review, Netflix

After a while, and amidst the world’s continued obsession with crime and murder and war and historical epics, comes a breath of fresh air in a very watchable rom-not-quite-com limited edition series, based on David Nichol’s successful novel of the same name.

The series is a fourteen-under 30 min- episodes story told over two decades of the growing relationship between Dexter (played by Leo Woodall ) and Emma (Ambika Mod). Meeting in 1988 at their university graduation party in Edinburgh, when they almost get together, their lives go separate ways meandering through relationships, careers, jobs, and everything in-between that happens in the lives of young Brits during the roaring 90s. And all this while, staying connected to each other mostly only as friends, even though there is clear chemistry between them that they both deny and even fight against. Eventually as they get together, life seems to have other plans, because Emma and Dexter are destined to be forever together and forever apart at the same time.

The beauty of this series is in the ordinariness of the story. A little reminiscent of When Harry Met Sally, in the idea of love spanning a long timeline, but minus the drama or the sparkle or even the romance. One Day, as the name suggests, is not larger than life, or a big love story. It’s an almost banal tale of two very British youngsters and their adulting years. It’s like a story of your friend or your friend’s friend that someone is narrating to you. And that actually is what works for the series. No hype, no jazz, no over-promise, no commitment of a happy ending or even an ending. The series is not trying to say something, or prove something, or make a point about love and relationships or people or society. One Day, just is, and we watch it like a picture book of Emma and Dexter’s lives.

Leo Woodall and Ambika Mod, the central characters, as qunitessential opposites, deliver a very convincing performance. Some moments of vulnerability when they are with each other, and when they are with other characters are beautifully done. There is also a no-fuss story-telling that’s easy to watch like a warm cup of English tea that you go back to every day before bed time. Which makes it a good reason to watch.

However, the one big issue with the series is that episode-after-episode, it leaves you with a feeling of dissatisfaction. It’s like the series doesn’t want you to feel anything fully and is deliberately trying to leave you with incomplete and unresolved feelings. Be it Dex’s broken marriage, or his pain on not being able to see his child grow, or seeing his mom die,  or Emma’s breakup with a boyfriend that really loved him, or her relationship with her best friend’s baby, or her reluctant yearning for a baby herself… many more such feelings, just left of the table, for us to leave behind in every episode.  One way to look at this is that it’s genius because this feeling of incompletion we are left with is exactly what Emma and Dexter are going through in the entire story, in their relationships, in their jobs, in their families, and even when they finally get together. And for us to be left with the same feeling, is brilliant.  

But the other way to look at it is that as a piece of content, we want to feel like we’ve got good return for the time we’ve spent investing across many days. And at the end of all the episodes, we are left with so many unresolved emotions that we feel a bit exhausted and unfulfilled. Well, perhaps a little bit like life… is that the point?

All in all, a good easy watch if you’re in the mood for romance and a little light non-drama. But keep your expectations low on waiting for things to happen.. 

Music That Changed Our Lives, Music That Made Us #2, Can’t Feel My Face, The Weeknd, Beauty Behind the Madness, 2015

For the second edition of this blog (The Music That Changed Our Lives, The Music That Made Us,), I travel more than 40 years ahead to the year 2015, that gave us a rockingly familiar yet entirely disruptive music experience, the sensational Canadian singer-songwriter, Abel Makkonen Tesfaye, aka The Weeknd.

I think there were not too many who were immune to this phenomenon that took us by storm. Boy or girl, man or woman or anyone else, there was no one that wasn't instantly smitten by this utterly delicious and desperately seductive track, that had us all enamoured enraptured and engaged. The music had this unique quality that stirred something inside us, that was nothing short of excitement. The rush that we felt every time we played the track, was so addictive that we wanted to go back again and again to. Not very different from the central topic of the song itself, addiction. “I can’t feel my face when I’m with you, but I love it”. 

It’s one of those unique soundtracks that makes us feel exactly what the song is about. Some say the song is about the experience of being addicted to drugs, and some say it’s about being addicted to a toxic love(r). And I say, potay-to potaa-to, one and the same thing. “And I know she’ll be the death of me, at least we’ll both be numb”. The heart thumping feeling that we get right from the opening of the song feels like a warning for something that’s about to explode in our face, and yet we are so hypnotised by the intensity of the performance that we can’t help giving in and following this untrodden path, of a song that somehow has total control over us. Just like a drug or just like a sadistic lover. 

Few more seconds in the song, and we are hooked, immersed in the “Beauty Behind the Madness” not able to let go, not wanting to let go, caught by a desire for more, to listen more, to feel more, with the words consuming us “And she’ll always get the best of me, the worst is yet to come”. We are waiting for the worst, because that’s what’s sounding the best. We are listening from our ears, but somehow our bodies are moving almost involuntarily to the beats, slow at first and speeding up with the rhythm of the song as it moves further. As this new kid on the block croons “She told me don’t worry about it, she told me don’t worry no more”, we snap out of our reverie and have a moment of awe with what’s happening. Who is this dude? What kind of music is he creating? How is he doing this? How can this music be soooo goood. How can this be so intense? How is he is surpassing my brain and getting directly into my bloodstream? Just like a drug… wait, what?!.. and before we know it, the song has taken over again “We both know we can’t go without it, she told me you’ll never be alone… I can’t feel my face when I’m with you, and I love it”. And we do LOVE it, he is right. We love it, every bit of it. Every note, every word, every falsetto.

The magic of Can’t Feel My Face, and indeed a lot of the songs from the Weeknd, is this unique combination of a familiar kind of pop-rock music, that is reminiscent of the genius of Michael Jackson (waiting to write that one), including the moves, the spin, the body language, and the oomph. And yet a completely new sound experience that feels contemporary and highly modern. It’s almost like if MJ had a dark side and he had let that take over, and added a huge layer of an almost-uncontrolled hormonal sexuality, coupled with shades of masochistic pain, topped with an unhealthy dose of adrenaline, it would be the music of The Weeknd. 

The moment before the song ends, when it slows down for a bit almost building to a climax, with softer background vocals, till the tempo picks up again with an MJ-style “oooooooh”, seen in the video when he is set on fire by the audience that is both enjoying his music as well as his suffering, becomes the perfect ending, crescendoing into our loud cry of pain as a form of collective catharsis “All the misery was necessary when we’re deep in love, this i know”

And finally when the song finishes, and let’s go of us, we snap out of it, feeling breathless, sensing our heartbeats going back to normal, with a smile on our face, a satisfaction of the pleasure we’ve just experienced, straightening our hair and our clothes, getting back to our everyday lives, pretending like nothing happened, left with this secret yearning of hitting the play button again.. real soon. That’s when we know, we’re addicted to The Weeknd, for life. Mission accomplished Tesfaye

That’s why Can’t Feel My Face is special and featured in this blog, because this song is what started the journey of this entirely new sound of music that didn’t exist before, and one that has made The Weeknd the deserving rock star he is today.

Thank you Weeknd for coming into our lives. For the music you make and for the addiction you have given us. Our lives wouldn’t be the same without you. “At least we’ll both be beautiful, and stay forever young, this i know, uh, this i know”…

Stree 2 - 2024 - Film Review

From the makers of the first successful and fabulous Stree in 2018, comes its much-needed sequel Stree 2, with a power-packed non-stop two-and-a-half hour entertainment filled with the expected funny dialogues, comic scares, silly buffoonery, and some loose underlying messaging. 

The story is set again in the village of Chanderi, many years after where the first film ended. The original tormentor of the village, the ghost Stree, who was redeemed and pacified in part 1, becomes a venerated local deity with tales around her becoming folklore with the people. But having left the village now, without her presence, there is a rising new demon, the headless giant monster, aka Sarkata, the ghost of the same feudal lord that had murdered Stree all those years ago, and who Stree had revenged against by beheading him. And just like Stree’s MO was a feminist one, abducting men who leer at women, Sarkata’s MO is a chauvinist one, abducting women, who are more "modern" than others. As Sarkata’s havoc rages on, once again it is up to the village’s protector Vicky (Rajkumar Rao) to save the day, supported by his friends Bittu (Aparshakti Khurana), Jana (Abhishek Banerjee) and Rudra (Pankaj Tripathi), the returning witch-love interest Shraddha Kapoor and multiple supporting casts. And save, they do, with a good dose of comedy, scares, and plot twists and turns.

The film delivers on its promise of a good family entertainer on a long weekend, especially for those who chose not to get stuck on roads or flights, heading out of town. All the things we loved about Stree 1 are there - the jokes, the feminist commentary, the spooks, the modernizing Bharat and its conflicts, the performances by Rajkumar and Pankaj. No wonder then that the film is having a great start at the box office. 

We also cheer the story of the protagonist, Vicky, as a pure-hearted soul against a fast corrupting and consumption-based society, who is destined to save the day, simply because of the way he is, contrasted to everyone else. An important reminder of the need to hold on to simple notions of love and humanity as possibly the only way of salvation for all of us. 

Also, the possibility that the film leaves with us, of creating a comic-horror universe by Maddock films, bringing in Bhediya (Varun Dhawan) as a special appearance sounds like fun and exciting if they get it right. Look forward to that.

But, unlike Stree 1 (the fate of every sequel is to get compared to the first one, so can’t go easy on that!), the film stops just short of being altogether brilliant. To be fair, Stree 1 was great because it was refreshingly new. The whole genre of horror-comedy, and using that to tell a feminist story in 2018 (see my review here https://books-booze-boxoffice.blogspot.com/2018/09/stree-2018-movie-review.html) was sheer genius and hit the spot. With this already set in the first one, Stree 2 had a tall ask of delivering something new yet being consistent with the overall theme. And so the only new it delivers is a new story of a new demon and a new story of vanquishing him. If you want to be kind to the makers, you could say, well that’s enough and what more would one want. Delivering a watchable sequel is a lot more than many sequels have been able to do across Bollywood and Hollywood. But if you want to be more asking of content makers (as I am prone to do), then you could say that the film doesn’t move the needle as much as it potentially could. Six years after the first film, there are still so many opportunities to tell new and fresh feminist stories and push the envelope and the conversation even further. But after setting a high standard in Stree 1, this film satisfies itself by making a feeble attempt at the perspective that our inherently patriarchal society is still intolerant of women modernizing and stepping out of the home. Now, it’s right that our society still has many regressive realities including an underlying misogyny towards the modern woman, so it’s not totally irrelevant, but the film ends up paying lip service to it, almost as an after-thought, rather than being integrated into the central storyline (which in Stree 1, it was). In fact, this is clearly evident in the tagline that the makers have used. In Stree1, the tagline was “Mard Ko Dard Hoga”, clearly signaling the feminist point of view that was at the core of the film. In Stree 2, the tagline is “Sarkate ka Aatank”, clearly signaling that the entertainment value of the film is at the core of the film, not a deeper point of view. 

The only other fault I would lay on the film is the lack of new imagination on some of the key storytelling elements of the film. Sarkate’s dark underworld where he holds the women he abducts captive reminds us a lot of Vecna’s world in the Upside Down in Stranger Things 4. Even Jana’s possessed floating with his retina whitening reminds us of this wow last season 4. The other significant moment in the film where the Sarkata hypnotizes all the men in the village to regress back to patriarchy locking their women in the home, is again reminiscent of Barbie World’s takeover of Ken and his mates after he learns about patriarchy. Sigh! 

As a passionate lover of Indian content and filmmaking, I do expect more and want more from our movies. Because I know it’s there. We’ve all seen it. Stree 1 is a testimony to this original imagination. We’ve also seen sequels being as brilliant as the first one. Remember Lage Raho Munnabhai, Badri Ki Dulhaniya, Sarkar Raj, Drishyam 2, Tanu Weds Manu Returns, to name a few.  

 

Having said that, overall, we still enjoy and cheer for the movie, not just as an entertainer, but for building the franchise that champions (at least in intent) a mainstream feminist narrative that continues to be highly needed in our society, as horrifically reminded once again with the shocking news from Kolkatta, the same weekend as the release of Stree2. And we cheer the movie, for reminding us that for every box office success that is an Animal, there is a box office success that is Stree. A reminder, of the beauty of the diversity that is India, where every truth in culture has a counter truth. And that it’s this dynamism of perspectives that is the real democracy and gift of being an Indian. 

More power to you, Stree. 

“Oh Stree Raksha Karna”!