Stree 2 Review | A Consistently Hilarious Sequel With a Brilliant Rajkummar Rao

 Stree was a breath of fresh air in horror comedies at the time of its release. The characters and story created by Raj and DK were successful in achieving multiple things, like how it spoofed the stereotypes in horror films and also how they managed to incorporate a layer of gender politics into the story. The sequel, written by Niren Bhatt and directed by Amar Kaushik, is pretty impressive in terms of how it retains the essence of the original. Instead of relying solely on the cameos in the second half,  Stree 2 ensures a consistently enjoyable experience for viewers throughout the film.

So after the events in Stree, Chanderi is now a safe place for men, and Vicky is a local hero. The safe environment for women in Chanderi made Stree leave that place, and at that point, the ghost of the person who killed Stree in the first place decides to enter the village, targeting those women with a progressive outlook toward life. How this new demon gives sleepless nights to the people of Chanderi and how Vicky and the gang manage to solve the problem is what we see in Stree 2: Sarkate Ka Aatank.

There was this smart satiric political layer to the first part where the scenario was that men couldn’t go out of their houses at night. When it comes to Stree 2, I don’t know whether it is because this political layer is already established, the gender play in the script feels a bit too obvious at certain points. But the humor that flows effortlessly with the rib-tickling jokes coming from all the characters just makes the experience thoroughly hilarious. There is a narratable flow to the placement of scenes in the screenplay, and even the overtly comical broad strokes are not much of a problem, as the movie establishes the spoof nature in a very subtle way.

Rajkummar Rao is outstanding in delivering humor. Amar Kaushik has recreated some of the iconic moments from the first movie in a different setup, and it never felt like a cheap trick to cash in on the established success, and that was primarily because of the performance of Rajkummar Rao, who got the pitch of the comedy perfectly. Pankaj Tripathi is yet again top-notch with his comedy timing and affluent Hindi. Shraddha Kapoor reprises her role from the first part, and it feels like her biggest challenge in the movie was perhaps controlling the laughter while Rajkummar Rao is performing in front of her. Aparshakti Khurana has some really good scenes in the first half. Abhishek Banerjee as Jana was also top-notch in making the conversations among the gang hilarious. Tamannaah Bhatia has an extended cameo-like role, and even that song was placed smartly with some relevance to the plot.

Contrasting scenarios that mock the real world and humorous treatment largely through dialogues were what made Stree so catchy when it was released, and in the sequel, Niren Bhatt is trying to push those thoughts in a different direction. As you can see in the trailer, this time, the girls are getting kidnapped, and the story tries to place misogynistic patriarchal men on the antagonist’s side. Even the physical form of the demon has a metaphoric layer. The banter among the gang is hilarious, and there are some of these movie references, like how Vicky quotes Rockstar’s final dialogue or the scene where when Rudra Bhai says I am an old man, Vicky responds with Nahi Aap Atal Hoon. All of these humorous bits blend well with the events happening on screen. The climax, which has a fairly long duration, is a little bit exhausting. But again, the humorous tweaks are helping it. The movie had some of the most effective jump scares in recent times, thanks to the visual effects and the editing.

There are a couple of cameos in the film. While the most obvious one had a purpose in the story, the “bigger” one felt like a slightly forced inclusion to make it look starry. Apart from that very last song featuring Varun Dhawan and Shraddha Kapoor, pretty much everything else in  Stree 2 has a purpose, and it has ample moments to literally make you laugh out loud.