Stree 2 review: Rajkummar Rao, Shraddha Kapoor's film expands its universe, Abhishek Banerjee shines

The horror universe has just got bigger. What started as a story of a small town called Chanderi, which was haunted by a veiled ghost in Stree in 2018, has expanded with multiple film franchises (Bhediya, Munjya) and multiple characters who crossover ever so often to further storytelling. In Amar Kaushik's Stree 2, Chanderi is back in focus, and so are Vicky (Rajkummar Rao) and his friends Jana (Abhishek Banerjee), Bittu (Aparshakti Khurana) and Rudra (Pankaj Tripathi), who now have a new monster to deal with. They obviously have the unnamed witch (Shraddha Kapoor) as their ally who returns to the sleepy town after years, but this time with a personal mission.

Stree 2 picks up from where Stree had ended. After being haunted for years by a veiled ghost who targeted men in dark, lonely streets, Vicky and the town of Chanderi were able to give Stree the respect that she had craved and set her free. From O Stree Phir Aana (O Stree, come later) Chanderi has now repainted its walls as O Stree, Raksha Karna (O Stree, Protect Us) and set her free with the help of rakshak Vicky. But with Stree's exit, a new trouble is in town - who abducts modern, liberated women. A giant who can separate his head from the body and is thus called Sarkata, only targets women. 

Vicky and the gang along with his object of desire, the unnamed witch, take charge of things, draw references from torn pages of Chanderi Puran which Rudra had received by mail anonymously and decide to take the Sarkata head-on, literally. 

Stree 2 writing


Writers Niren Bhatt and Amar Kaushik keep the spirit of Stree alive mostly and the world that Raj and DK had very effectively created in the first film. The first half is laden with puns, jokes, witty repartees, and references to pop culture, making the narrative fun and light. The jokes, the buffoonery of Vicky, Bittu, Rudra and Jana are still intact. While the group goes around hunting for the Sarkata, Vicky and the witch also indulge in some romance. The lovelorn Vicky is not ready to give up on his hope of being with his true love, even though his friends think he is mostly hallucinating. A scene where the four men hide inside a wooden elephant as they dodge the monster truly stands out and is very well executed. 

It's the second half that is choppy when the story meanders a bit too much and even the humour fails to uplift the story. Sure the cameos by Varun Dhawan, Akshay Kumar and Tamannaah Bhatia are the high points of the second half, but due to limited screen time, these actors and the characters they play aren't fully fleshed out. By the time of the climax, the film feels a bit of a drag. The VFX is unimpressive and at one point there is just a lot of screaming and screeching happening. The climax completely mars the film.

Stree 2: Great actors make the film worth your time

Rajkummar Rao and Shraddha Kapoor carry the film well. Rao's comic timing is well known and is well displayed here as well. Kapoor plays the mysterious, enchanting witch with absolute ease and even performs a few action sequences. The stars of Stree 2, however, are Abhishek Banerjee and Pankaj Tripathi, who play their characters to perfection and make the film such a fun watch. Banerjee's Jana is silly, cute and gullible who is taken for a ride ever so often by his friends. He gets the best moments and delivers to his part brilliantly. 

Tripathi, with his deadpan style of dialogue delivery, makes even the most generic lines funny, and it is a delight to watch Banerjee and Tripathi feed off each other with their lines. 

Aparshakti Khurana's performance is also credible as the street smart, lover who sings Soft Chitty, Warm Chitty' to his girlfriend and then eventually becomes the alpha male out under a spell, out to protect all the women.

A moment in Stree 2 has women breaking shackles to walk out in unison late into the night, even as the danger looms large. It's a poignant moment in the film and hits home at a time when thousands of people have taken to the streets of Kolkata to demand justice for a doctor's brutal rape and murder. Amar Kaushik, who has in the past deftly handled several societal issues in Stree and Bedhiya and Stree 2, also interestingly talks of women empowerment - even though it's sketchy and limited. 

I wish Stree 2 climax was not so screechy and the second half was not this stretched. I did enjoy watching the film but the second half marred the experience to quite an extent. It ends with a promise of Part 3 and the possibility of a Vampire film being added to the horror universe of Maddock.