Stree

Stree is said to be based on actual events. A small town supposedly in MP gets haunted by an entity during the four days of pooja dedicated to a local deity. Three friends -- Vicky (Rajkummar Rao), Jana (Abhishek Banerjee) and Bittu (Aparshakti Khurana) take it upon themselves to rid their town of this menace once and for all.

In a recent interview with the website filmstage.com, actor Ethan Hawke spoke about 'Trojan horse' movies. These are genre movies which turn out to be something else - like the Oscar-nominated Get Out, a terrifying horror film, which in fact is a blistering commentary on race relations in America. Stree is a Trojan horse. Director Amar Kaushik and writers Krishna D.K. and Raj Nidimoru create a horror-comedy, which turns out to be subversive commentary on the position and treatment of women in India. It's clever and very funny.

STREE is based on folklore and a myth that has found acceptance in several states across India. Set in the Madhya Pradesh town of Chanderi, it tells the story of a bride's wandering spirit who roams the streets for four days during an annual pooja. She calls out to young, unsuspecting men, and if they turn back, she takes it as their acceptance to be with her.

In the town of Chanderi in Madhya Pradesh, there is a popular myth about a female ghost known as Stree who haunts the community and abducts men, leaving nothing but their clothes behind. She is not as rigid as you might think though - if you write "Oh Stree kal aana (oh woman return tomorrow)" on the boundary wall of your home, she actually complies, and returns the next day, only to be confused once again by the persistent instruction.

Well-timed humour and a respectable list of credits are the real saviours of the men terrorised by a malevolent female presence in Amar Kaushik's lightweight debut feature. Filled with big and knowing winks at the preposterousness of the plot and numerous jump scares to balance out the giggles, Stree benefits from a top-notch cast, eminent technicians (Amalendu Chaudhary has shot the film; Hemanti Sarkar edits) and a crisp running time of 127 minutes.

Seldom can Bollywood pull off a successful blend of horror and comedy, the two utterly separate movie genres, but the makers of Stree have given their best possible shot. On one hand, you have the comedic charm of actors like Rajkummar Rao and Pankaj Tripathi, and on the other, a genuine ghostly spookiness that makes you want to hide under a blanket.

Horror comedy, which is a less trodden path in Bollywood is not an easy genre. As the genre requires a perfect blend of both comedy and spookiness, makers refrain from exploring it. However, debutant director Amar Kaushik has done an amazing job with Stree, a horror comedy. Written by Go Goa Gone fame duo Raj Nidimoru, Krishna D.K., Stree is packed with hilarious lines, smart performances along with spooky undertones.

Will the repressed ever return? If we were to take the Hindi film industry's word for it, they most probably will. Pari. Ghoul. And now Stree. All meditations on the horror film template. All examples of pop-culture telling us that we can expiate our past sins at the cost of a movie ticket. Or in the case of Ghoul specifically, at the cost of a Netflix subscription.

Stree: WINNER. This one springs a big, big surprise... The combo of horror and humour works incredibly well... Out of the box plot, gripping screenplay, terrific eerie moments, witty one-liners and superb performances...

Stree: For the uninitiated, it means woman in English. So, the movie 'based on a ridiculously true phenomenon', starts with camera panning through the narrow lanes of Chanderi. We have Chanderi ka Manish Malhotra Vicky (Rajkummar Rao), who's a magician in the disguise of a tailor. Stree, apparently, is a ghost who comes to village during the Puja and hunts down the males in the area.

Making a film that could make people laugh throughout is no easy task. Doing it through a setup and plot which honestly most people in today's time would not relate to, is even tougher. Still, Amar Kaushik's directorial debut Stree is incredibly funny. But the good part doesn't end here. Stree is extremely self-aware of how ridiculous and illogical it gets in various moments.

And they are back!!, Bollywood kick ass doctors of laughter's in scares Dinesh Vijan and Raj & D.K, the partners in that hilarious crime called GO GOA GONE, go beyond the known routes of the horror genre phir se... dil se in this marvelously entertaining combo of laughs and scares that marks a mighty impressive debut for helmer Amar Kaushik.

Set in Chanderi, Madhya Pradesh, the story is based on a ridiculous premise that the town experiences strange-goings on during the annual pooja nights. The belief is that a SHE-Ghost walks around the ruins of this quaint-town and adjoining forests stalking men, who stay out late. God forbid, if she(the ghost) calls out to a man and he turns back, he is GONE. Only his clothes are found...

Legend says the people of Chanderi are so naive, they believe that the moon - referred to in nursery rhymes as Chanda Mama - is their literal uncle. This preposterous idea is found in a book of village lore, a half-torn volume kept inside a copy of the Kamasutra in the local library. Most of its pages have been turned into paper-boats by deviant children, but the book matters because Chanderi is haunted by a malicious feminine spirit who terrorises the men in the town.

No two films could be as different as Amar Kaushik's debut feature Stree and Sanal Kumar Sasidharan's much celebrated S Durga. Yet the most singular aspect about this week's release is its undertone that inverts the premise of S Durga while trying to score similar feminist points in a fun and fluffy way. With a mock-ironic touch it makes men go through the physical and mental trauma that women face in day-to-day life.

The quaint town of Chanderi is haunted by a unique legend. The spirit of an angry woman stalks men during a festive period. During these four nights, the spirit, simply referred to as Stree, calls out to men when they're alone. If the men turn around, Stree whisks them away, leaving behind only their clothes.

A grown, desirous woman is a threat to mankind, emphasis on 'man'. For centuries, women have been pilloried and victimised on the basis of these putrid beliefs. Oh, the horror. Rein her in, tamp down her sexual desires, tie her up, burn her at the stake, put a knife through her scheming heart.

A zany supernatural parable that is both strongly feminist and uproariously funny, Stree, Amar Kaushik's self-assured first feature, delivers shocks and laughs in equal measure. Despite its repeated to-ing and fro-ing between conflicting tones, the horror comedy glides along a firm and steady arc almost all through its runtime of two hours and a bit.

In my opinion, horror-comedy has to be the toughest genre to crack because you have to make the viewer guffaw and send a shiver up his/her spine at the same time. This genre has hardly been explored in Bollywood, which is why Rajkummar Rao and Shraddha Kapoor starrer Stree had generated much curiosity.