Remember Stree. Forget it.
Remember the scare. Forget that too.
Remember the laughs. Forget it, almost.
And most of all, remember the point of view. Forget it completely!
I remember ending my review of Stree (https://books-booze-boxoffice.blogspot.com/2018/09/stree-2018-movie-review.html) saying can’t wait to see the next one from the makers (Maddock films). Well, three years later, we’ve seen it and forgotten it.
Any second film always runs the risk of comparison with the first and usually disappoints. But, Roohi disappoints as a standalone film too. In many ways, it has no story connection to the first, and in that, it had the potential of writing something completely new and exciting. While still sticking to the unique genre of horror-comedy, that it created with Stree.
The story is once again set in a small town, as a canvas for an unequal world for women. This time portrayed with an extreme situation of women being kidnapped and forced to marry a groom, based on the latter’s whim. In this assignment, protagonists Bhawra (Rajkumar Rao) and Kattanni (Varun Sharma) kidnap Roohi (Janhvi Kapoor), holding her captive till the forced wedding. Very soon the reality that innocent-eyed timid Roohi is possessed by a marriage-obsessed witch (a ‘mudiyapairi) takes the story towards a series of supposed-to-be funny scenes of the two abductors falling in love with the two different sides of her Jekyll-and-Hyde portrayal, and eventually leading towards a confusing climax between un-doing the possession and Roohi’s inner fight with her tormentor.
What worked with Stree was an entertaining horror-comedy film that had a feminist point of view. The problem with Roohi is it’s neither entertaining nor has a point of view, even though the scene is set perfectly with bride-abduction as a base to tell a feminist story. While the dialogues (that were also the highlight of Stree) are funny and keep their rustic appeal, they fail to save the movie from fumbling from one scene to another, without any direction. At some point, you feel the story is about not discriminating based on a stereotypical view of beauty when we see Kattani falling in love with a possessed and disfigured Roohi. But that passes. Then you feel the story is about a point of view on marriage and its exaggerated role in our society. That passes too. Then you feel that it’s about women’s independence and not needing a man to live a happy life. And then, you finally give up.
Both Rajkumar Rao and Varun Sharma do a great job of performing their characters, but the story disappoints them.
What is surprising is that director Hardik Mehta, writer of the acclaimed Pataalok series, is not able to pull through this story. Though he does a brilliant job of showcasing small-town India and its aspirations (clearly his strength area and perhaps the only reason to watch this film), he is not able to weave it as part of an engaging story. Maybe the story disappointed a gifted director too?
All in all, yet-another-OTT-Covid-time-release that disappoints. Thankfully, it’s a movie, that you can switch off after 2 hours, and not an endless barrage of seasons and episodes.
Now, that’s something to like about this film!
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