The Common Man Speaks

Stree 2 review: Niren Bhatt’s dialogues shine the most in this horror-comedy

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Filmmaker Amar Kaushik’s Stree was about the villagers of Chanderi fighting against a female evil spirit called Stree, who attacks and takes away the men residing in the village. After a lot of twists and turns, the men are freed in the end and Stree vanishes after her long braid is cut. But in the end, the viewers are given a hint that the mysterious girl with no name (Shraddha Kapoor) is a witch after she leaves the village.

The story of Stree 2 continues a few years later when Chanderi is a peaceful place. Vicky (Rajkummar Rao) and his best friend Bittu (Aparshakti Khurana) are leading a happy-go-lucky life, except that the former is still waiting for the girl with no name (Shraddha) as he loves her. Their buddy Jana (Abhishek Banerjee) is in Delhi studying to become an IAS officer.

However, the peaceful life of Chanderi gets disturbed after Bittu’s girlfriend Chitti (Anya Singh) goes missing, as opposed to men going missing in the first part. This time, a demon called Sarkata (a man without a head) is responsible for the mayhem. The villagers believe that Vicky will once again free them from the evil force. Vicky takes help from his usual friends Bittu and Rudra (Pankaj Tripathi). They call back Jana from Delhi.

The basic plot of Stree 2 is not only similar to Stree but also akin to a lot of stories about a monster creating havoc in people’s lives. Plus, what happens in the end is anybody’s guess. Hence, it is important in such films for the journey to the end to be funny and gripping. This happens in Stree 2 through its regular doses of humour.  

As far as the film’s making is concerned, the biggest star here is the writer Niren Bhatt. His dialogues are not only consistently hilarious but also worth remembering later. The meta references of the latest films and some happenings of the country are the icing on the cake. In fact, there is not much of a story development in the first half. But you will hardly notice that, thanks to Bhatt’s humour. Plus, director Amar Kaushik’s handling of the tale is also praiseworthy.

Stree 2 is technically more sound that the first film. Jishnu Bhattacharjee’s camerawork gets noticed regularly, especially in the horror sequences. Background scorer Justin Varghese doesn’t get carried away by the genre. Hemanti Sarkar’s sleek editing also falls in the positive. The VFX, a crucial part of such genre of films, is of a high standard.

The performances are also praiseworthy. Rajkummar Rao is in top form, especially during the comic sequences. The same can be said about Pankaj Tripathi, Aparshakti Khurana and Abhishek Banerjee. These four actors do complete justice to the dialogues during their conversations, which are aplenty. Shraddha Kapoor gets more scope later on and she plays her part well.

The surprise factor in the form of Akshay Kumar’s cameo works well. He is highly impactful. Varun Dhawan (from Bhediya) and Tamannaah Bhatia’s cameos fit in the narrative. But Atul Srivastava, Aakash Dabhade and Mushtaq Khan, who are carried forward from the first film, are hardly there.

Apart from the first half, the film also has a few more glitches. The horror sequences become repetitive as they are already done do death in a number of Hindi horror films. The film also needed to be shorter in duration considering its story material. This is also felt in the post-credit sequences, which are too lengthy.

Overall: Stree 2 is a worthy sequel and another positive addition to Maddock Films’ horror-comedy universe.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Director: Amar Kaushik

Producers: Maddock Films and Jio Studios

Writer: Niren Bhatt

Cast: Rajkummar Rao, Shraddha Kapoor, Pankaj Tripathi, Aparshakti Khurana, Abhishek Banerjee

Also read: Maharaj review: Karsandas Mulji’s story, unfortunately, is relevant even after 160 years

Bheed highlights a pandemic MORE dangerous than COVID-19

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Anubhav Sinha’s Bheed, which mainly stars Rajkummar Rao, Bhumi Pednekar, Pankaj Kapur and Ashutosh Rana, looks back at the period when the COVID-19 pandemic commenced in India and how the lockdown imposed to curb the same turned out to be a nightmare for the migrant workers.

Bheed recreates the horror faced by the people belonging to the lower strata of the society, while a large number of population was complaining despite being safely inside their homes.

But along with this core issue, the film also features another pandemic that has erupted in India in recent years – the pandemic of communalism.

A religious congregation called Tablighi Jamaat took place in early March 2020 and this turned out to be a super-spreader event as it gave rise to 4000 confirmed cases. The event was attended by 9000 people belonging to the Islamic religion. There is no doubt that this event increased the number of COVID-19 cases in India.

But unfortunately, a section of the media media and the general population latched onto this opportunity to paint the entire Muslim community responsible for spreading Coronavirus in India, just because 9000 of them attended an event. This has become a fad in recent years.  

Bheed

Some of my relatives also jumped at the opportunity to spread memes and posts blaming all Muslims for being super-spreaders. This didn’t come as a surprise though. However, I was taken aback when a couple of close friends and a lady who happens to be the wife of a highly respected actor also openly blamed Muslims for the fast spread of COVID-19 in India. Needless to say, this was enough for my respect to diminish for them.

Interestingly, the tables turned in around May 2021. When the country was reeling under the second COVID-19 wave with thousands of new cases being reported daily, a huge number of pilgrims actively took part in the Kumbh Mela for several days without giving a damn to COVID-19 norms. The videos showed scary visuals of thousands of people stuck together without masks and a care in the world.

This is not all. The election rallies for the Bengal election saw some of the country’s famous leaders take rallies with thousands of people without masks or even a hint of distancing. On top of that, one leader even expressed his happiness at seeing such a huge crowd.. at a time when COVID-19 cases were reaching the rooftop.

When 9000 people gathered for a religious event, their entire community was blamed for the spread of Coronavirus. But nobody, including my near ones, said a word when people from another community gathered in even bigger numbers for the Kumbh Mela and election rallies at a time when the cases were many times more than when the Tablighi Jamaat members did.

COVID-19 is now under control after the invention of vaccines by a number of selfless souls. However, there is no vaccine in the world to curb the pandemic much dangerous than Coronavirus.

But I am glad to see a film like Bheed attempting to portray this harsh reality. The film achieves this the most in the scene were one character refuses to have food provided by a group of Muslims.