Spooky that makes you shudder, giggle
S
tree introduces itself as a film “based on a ridiculous phenomenon”. And so it is. The film, written by Raj & DK and directed by Amar Kaushik, is inspired by those folksy tales which have been repeatedly reiterating one line from a 17th century Restoration play — “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned”, turning it into some kind of fetishised sex-horror fantasy.
These stories and scripts are, at the crux, misogynistic. Director writers — Raj & DK of Go Goa Gone fame and Happy Ending shame — bring disorder to the genre with humour and a wink, presenting it in a new avatar, and signing off with a long overdue apology.
En route, Stree invokes many things that have a contemporary, contentious sting — bhakts and their andh bhakti, Aadhaar linking, New India...
In Chanderi, Madhya Pradesh, lives Vicky (Rajkummar Rao), a ladies tailor who is the son of a ladies tailor. The film opens at that particular time of the year when the town is putting up festoons and string lights and women are urgently getting new clothes stitched for a very popular four-day-long puja.
It’s also the time of the year when men are safest indoors, but only after a sign has been painted outside the main door of their homes — O Stree, kal aana (O Woman, come tomorrow). These words, in bright red paint that has been infused with some crushed chamgadar (bat) bones and the essence of a creature’s magical mootra (pee), are enough to ward off Stree (Woman) who spends all year working up a healthy appetite, and then strikes Chanderi annually, at the time of the puja.
She takes only men, leaving behind a pile of clues to suggest, a) that they have been taken, and b) her horny intent. Vicky doesn’t believe in all this. So when a very pretty, light-eyed girl appears, with cloth tucked under her arms, and purrs, “Vickyji pleeeeejj”, because she needs a lehenga urgently, Vicky runs straight to his friends, grinning.
He reports the encounter to his two besties — Bittu (Aparshakti Khurrana) and Jainab (Abhishek Banerjee) — and shows them the arm that’s been gently pressed.
Bittu, who runs a store of readymade garments, isn’t impressed. But Jainab enjoys Vicky’s prem milan as only the bestest of best friends can. Even when she invites Vicky on a date, with the most vichitra shopping list, Jainab is very supportive, if a bit dim.
Meanwhile, Stree is on a hunting spree again. A boisterous boy’s party goes numb with fear when one of them gets taken and the leftovers try to figure why the “O Stree kal aana” message outside didn’t work.
Bittu and Jainab seek the advice of Rudra (Pankaj Tripathi) who runs a book store. He knows the fourstep upaya of how to dodge Stree’s chungal (vice-like grip). But before he can finish, he gets a call from Shama.
Stree grabs another and then 20 of them together... Rudra steps up, and takes them all to the man who knows.
It seems that there may be one person who can save the town from the aatank of the pissed off chudail — the son of a…
Dialogue writer Sumit Arora deserves a standing ovation, not just for lines that will make you cackle long after you’ve left the theatre, but for complementing the screenplay in such a delightful way.
His brilliant lines are assigned to a very talented lot.