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”!
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