Abhishek Das

It's review time. Film - Stree. Cast - Rajkumar Rao, Shraddha Kapoor, Pankaj Tripathi Director - Amar Kaushik Thumbs up - Great comedy and innovative story line, thrilling yet funny Thumbs down - Shraddha Kapoor 's acting chops, predictable first half 3.5/5 'Stree' , based on a ridiculous phenomenon about the dead soul of a woman killing men to satisfy her need for unrequited love haunting a town, Chanderi, is by far one of the best horror comedies ever made. 'Golmaal' or 'Go goa gone' isn't even close to what this laughathon offers. As you might have guessed, it's the story of Rajkumar, (Vicky) a tailor by profession who along with his friends fall into the trap of this ghost and redeem themselves by 'cleaning' the town of it's curse. Rajkumar is brilliant to say the least with an amazing comic timing supported aptly by his friends and the fantastic Pankaj Tripathi who plays the know-all spiritual guru of the town owning a library. Rajkumar calls himself 'Chanderi ka Manish Malhotra' and is a rather laid back lad who hopes for falling in 'love at first eyesight'. Interestingly he is bestowed with the duty of purging the town of this ghost 'Stree' and freeing all those men who had been taken away by this evil soul. Shraddha Kapoor plays his love interest whose only goal in life is to defeat this ghastly ghost. The screenplay is interesting and the background score takes the cake. With an amazing edit and a great cinematography that creates an aura of eerie pandemonium, the film captures horror and comedy in such a stupendous rhythm that you are in awe of its flawless and fun writing by Raj and DK. The music is pretty enjoyable and the film restricts itself to just two playback songs that keep the pace tight and well knit. The dialogues are clearly the winner of this horror ride that lends to it a typical natural flavour and captures the middle class youth in their prime. Pankaj Tripathi, who is on a roll with his choices off late, deserves special mention for his act as the guru evoking laughter in the most serious situations. Overall 'stree' is one of the most enjoyable films in recent times that will make you laugh, fear and stare in wonder at what a film with a good script can achieve. It packs horror and punch in equal aplomb with a charismatic climax! Go watch this and let your hair down! I mean, err, heart beats race up!