Stree

(U/A) (2018)

Stree Story

Stree is a 2018 Bollywood horror-drama, which has been directed by Amar Kaushik. The movie stars Shraddha Kapoor and Rajkumar Rao in the lead roles.

The movie depicts the story of a young man, who falls in love with a girl with a mysterious background. Stree chronicles the difficulties faced by him in unveiling her mystery.

Story In Detail:

Based on a 'ridiculously' true phenomenon, Stree's hero is Vicky (Rajkummar Rao), a gifted tailor who believes that his life is not just restricted to sews and stitches. Labelled as the 'Manish Malhotra' of Chanderi, our man doesn't need measuring tapes to size up his client's vital statistics.

Meanwhile, the urban legend of Stree grips the town. Folklore has it that she's a witch who lures men at night during a four-day Hindu annual festival and whisks them away, leaving behind only clothes. The only way for men to save themselves from the widely feared spirit is by scribbling the message, 'O Stree Kal Aana' on the walls of their houses. But then, god forbid, if they ever come across her, they shouldn't turn behind when she calls from behind or else, they are doomed!

To add more to it, it's love at first 'eyesight' for Vicky when he comes across a mysterious girl (Shraddha Kapoor). As events unfold, Vicky's best mates (Aparshakti Khurrana and Abhishek Banerjee) are convinced that Stree is none other than Vicky's mystery girl who visits Chanderi every year only during those four days of terror. But is there more to it than meets the eye?

Stree is produced by Dinesh Vijan. The movie has its script penned by Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK.

Rajkummar Rao is a brilliant and talented tailor living in a small town that has a local ghost story. During the annual festival, all the townspeople put “Stree [woman] come tomorrow” on their walls to keep her away. Legend goes that she wants men, she takes them and leaves only their clothes behind. Rajkummar doesn’t believe this but his friends Aparshakti Khurrana and Abhishek Banerjee believe it. Rajkummar is distracted by a pretty woman, Shraddha Kapoor, who shows up when he is alone and asks for his help. First to sew a dress for her, then at their next meeting, she asks him for a list of strange items. In between he and his friends go to a party where one of the guests is taken by the ghost after Rajkummar pees on the warning sign outside as a joke. Rajkummar tracks all the things down for her while his friends make fun of him and delivers them and they go off alone again. His friends try to find him, afraid that she is the ghost in disguise since she asks for strange things and is never seen by anyone else. They can’t find him, but the search keeps them out late, and Stree abducts Abhishek Banarjee. Aparshakti confronts Rajkummar, telling him that his girlfriend is the ghost and he must confront her and get their friend back.

In the second half, Rajkummar confronts Shraddha and gently tries to figure out if she is the ghost or not, but she doesn’t seem to react to his questions and then disappears. Rajkummar and Aparshakti go to Pankaj Tripathi, the local bookseller who has printed up pamphlets about how to avoid the ghost. He pulls out an old guidebook that tells the legend, she was a beautiful prostitute and all the men wanted her. She fell in love with a man who saw her soul not just her body but the townsmen were jealous. They killed the couple, and now she haunts the town looking for men to take her revenge. Rajkummar remembers an old mansion in the woods where Shraddha took him and the friends go to investigate there. Rajkummar is almost captured by the ghost, but is saved Shraddha. Abhishek Banarjee comes out and is freed thanks to Shraddha’s magic spell on the ghost that weakens her powers. They take him home and Shraddha explains that she isn’t the ghost, she is a ghost hunter, someone she cared about was taken by the ghost and so she comes back every year hunting for Stree. Abhishek is still possessed, they tie him up and go looking for the author of the book for more information. Vijay Raaz is the eccentric author of the book on Stree’s stories and he explains that there is a specific legend, someone with love in his eyes, the soul of an artist, an only son who lives like a prince, born by an oak tree, and the bachelor son of a courtesan is who will save the city. Rajkummar’s friends realize this is he, and break the news to him that his mother was a courtesan. Abhishek meanwhile has escaped and scrubbed the warning signs off the houses, allowing Stree to take the men of the neighbourhood. In this extreme circumstance, they decide to invite the ghost in to Rajkummar’s house, use him as bait as a bridegroom, and then Rajkummar will kill her. The plan works more or less, but Rajkummar can’t bring himself to kill her, seeing it as just another injustice done to her. Instead Shraddha suggests he cut off her braid, her source of strength. The ghost vanishes and the missing men return, Rajkummar and his friends are hailed as heroes and Shraddha leaves town. Rajkummar says good-bye to her, still not knowing her name. Shraddha gets on the bus and pulls the Stree’s braid from her bag, merges it with her own hair, and vanishes. The next year, the ghost returns to the town gates to find a statue in her honour and the message “Stree, please protect us”. Rajkummar arranged for her to finally get the respect she deserved and never got in life.

Synopsis

Despite all its flaws and ambiguous ideas, Stree is still an entertaining film. This is an experimental comedy, that creates an eerie atmosphere and it manages to be funny and scary at the same time.