Stree 2 Review: More than the long weekend, the much-awaited release of Stree 2 had kept me excited about the week. The Shraddha Kapoor and Rajkummar Rao film is a sequel to Stree, one of the most loved horror comedies in Hindi cinema (Ig, I speak for everyone). Pankaj Tripathi, Aparshakti Khurrana and Abhishek Banerjee also reprised their roles in the Amar Kaushik directorial. Stree 2 is backed by Maddock Films and Jio Studios. I certainly have my doubts about sequels(because most of them don’t work) but to my surprise, Stree 2 could also not change my mind on this. The 2-hour 15-minute long film was only an exaggerated, forced, stretched and almost funny product of the prequel. However, it has some good moments and effortless performances too. Here’s a review!
Plot
In the first part, Vicky, Chanderi’s famous ladies’ tailor (Rajkummar Rao) and his gang put up a great fight against Stree, however, the horrors do not end with her. In Stree 2, the Chanderi gang fights a new supernatural power Sarkata, and this one’s more powerful and dangerous than the previous (coz man). This entity targets women, well, the modern women as he wants to restore patriarchy in the town again. With the help of his Chanderi gang, of course, Vicky, also known as Chanderi Ka Rakshak, is trusted to take on the monster. Written by Niren Bhatt, the film follows a similar pattern of storytelling to Stree where the Vicky gang encounters the entity once, they run for their lives, start digging about his past, and use the information to fight him, except it was not all so convincing in the sequel!
The Negatives
Stree 2 goes overboard with horror and comedy, but neither of them works in its favour. I was sitting with a straight face throughout the first half of the film because the one-liners did not deliver at all. And to top it all, the cast trying to make it look funny with an overdose of expressions only made me want to go back and watch Stree again. I think they knew that the dialogues were just not working.
TBH, I could not take Sarkata Ka Aatank seriously. The loud and screechy noises he made before attacking someone only added to my annoyance. Unlike Stree, the entity created in the sequel did not add the element of fun, thrill and suspense. The big fight in the end was stretched and all over the place. The wait for Vicky to realise his inner strength to fight the demon was just too long and to get to that point, the
Not much was served with the characters as well. The quirks and simplicity of the characters were missing from this time, although in some moments, they still had the charm. Aparshakti Khurana’s character is suddenly out of the picture and his character hardly has anything to do post-interval. His screen presence was replaced with Abhishek Banerjee’s Jana. In the first part, Jana was only a possessed character towards the end but his character’s presence is still felt, it does not happen in Aparshakti’s case.
Also, remember how Nora Fatehi’s song ‘Kamariya’ was so organically placed in Stree? The believable setting of the song was enjoyable too, well, that does not happen with Aaj Ki Raat. How is Chaderi getting to have such lavish Jalsa is the question here, but the only justification that sounds apt is budget badh gaya tha!
Post-interval, the film is difficult to watch. When the Chanderi gang gets into action, they use the same old process to fight the monster. But their plan of action was not through well. Some silly jokes ruined the engaging moments during the climax sequence.
The Positives
The First Half
The first half of Stree 2 is much more interesting than the second half. It was funny, the punchline was good and I loved the cast’s camaraderie, and it was as always effortless. The basic premise of the film was set in the first half and the pace was also good. The movie does not waste much time telling us about the entity, his relationship with Stree and how the
Performances
Shraddha Kapoor got to do a fantastic entry in the film and I loved it. I thoroughly enjoyed her fighting scene with the Sarkata, the intense anger in her eyes while hitting the monster with her long braid was a scene that stood out for me.
Rajkummar Rao as Vicky was cute, adorable and charming as always. He perfectly captures the character of innocent and lovable Vicky yet again. The character’s nervousness during moments of self-doubt was also delivered with ease.
Pankaj Tripathi as Rudra got the most amount of laughs from the audience. Abhishek Banerjee as Jana was exceptional again!
Also Read: Internet Has Some Wild Theories About Stree 2: “Is Akshay Kumar Playing The Villain?”
The Closure
Vicky finally gets his closure in his love life. It’s sad but quite a heartwarming moment was created between Shraddha Kapoor and Rajkummar Rao’s characters in the end. The chemistry between the two worked for me!
Verdict: Occasionally Funny But Not Scary
Shraddha Kapoor, Rajkummar Rao and Pankaj Tripathi starrer Stree 2 was fun and laugh in the first half. Abhishek Banerjee was a delight to watch. It maintained a good pace. However, in the second half, the movie lost its plot. Overall, only a few one-liners got the desired laughs, and there were hardly any jump scares. The performance was effortless by the cast. The film’s album was disappointing. Decide for yourself if you wanna watch this film!