Rating – ****1/2 (4.5/5)
Seldom do sequels live up to their originals let alone surpass them. To say that Stree 2 is even better than Stree would be marginally unfair but not entirely incorrect – because in a few ways, it surely is. I will still give the original an edge purely for introducing the novelty and immersing us into the world of Stree.
But this isn’t about any comparison that which is better and why; this is about director Amar Kaushik, writer Niren Bhatt and the entire team of Stree 2 understanding the task in hand so incredibly well that they justified taking this seemingly long time of six years.
Stree 2 doesn’t hold back with its treatment and introduces every weapon in its arsenal to display an entertaining, funny, scary and absolute wild ride that just keeps getting better and better. Sarkate Ka Aatank is genuinely terrifying and Maddock Films in collaboration with Jio Studios are now pioneers with presenting some of the finest VFX we witness in Hindi films with fractions of the big budget extravaganzas we are accustomed to.
Maddock Films understands the pressure that is attached to delivering the beast they have created (see what I did there?) and fires from all fronts.
Stree 2 never falters with its humor, and that’s a tough but to crack, considering you’re catering to an audience that loves and remembers the first installment so much. Writer Niren Bhatt understands the assignment so well that he instills impeccable humor, supremely funny punchlines across the runtime. Stree 2 continues to adopt its wonderful tactic of sprinkling some really good jump scares while the laughs never take a backseat courtesy the dialogues. There are lines like ‘virgin tel healthy hota hai, male nahi,’ ‘jaha joggers park nahi hai, vaha Jurassic Park ka prani kaha se ayega,’ while being abundantly filled with the little nuances and hidden punchlines.
The world-building here is fascinating, and most importantly, there is finally a huge development with combining the worlds of Bhediya and Munjya and Stree. There are obviously spectacular two post-credit scenes that further the world in the best possible manner.
The entire cast haven’t lost a beat and once again Rajkummar Rao, Abhishek Banerjee, Pankaj Tripathi and Aparshakti Khurrana manage to form a hilariously fun quartet, where their chemistry is palpable and they make sure to deliver the good punchlines and make it land as well. Shraddha Kapoor gets a huge development in this second installment and finally gets meatier things to do here. The rest of the supporting cast is on guard as well, where Tamannaah Bhatia has a good cameo and there is another cameo which is surely to leave your jaw-dropped.
In the end, Stree 2 is a total knockout as it is scarier, funnier and just a hell lot of fun. There is no way you can miss it.