Movie Review | Stree V2: A Lighthearted Ghost Comedy with Rajkummar Rao Shining Amid Predictable Tropes

Starring: Rajkummar Rao, Shraddha Kapoor, Tamannaah Bhatia, Varun Dhawan, Pankaj Tripathi, Abhishek Banerjee, Aparshakti Khuran, Anya Singh, Sunita Rajwar, Arjun Panchal, Atul Srivastava

Direction: Amar Kaushik

Helmed by Amar Kaushik, V2 (‘Version 2’) of ‘Stree’ engages you with a few laughs, some fine performances, and takes you through the ghost-comic combo. However, it also asks of you to not only invest a disproportionate amount of time to the quality of the endeavour but also requires you to suspend your thinking process.

As a genre, films dealing with ghosts are either meant to strike fear or, in more recent times, to journey with benevolent ghosts, leading to smiles and laughter. There is also the increasing influence of technology to tell stories and anything supernatural introduces a third axis and may in the process invoke a tad more of curiosity than what mainstream Bollywood is managing in its contemporary Friday releases. Incidentally, the film could arguably be Akshay Kumar’s renewal with an accepting audience albeit in but a cameo.

To the familiar, the village of Chanderi was affected by a ghost a few years ago. The comedy of errors and frights succeeded at the box office. So, a sequel. This time around, Chanderi has a new visitor in the form of a head without a body (read poorly-decorated masks with matching poor graphics). This ghost is misogynistic and resultantly has been on the prowl of women victims. The village is badly looking for a saviour after Rudra (Pankaj Tripathi) and Bittu (Aparshakti Khurana) have suffered the disappearance of their respective fiancés, Shamma (Tamannah) and Chitti (Anya Singh) respectively. Stepping in to help is Vicky (Rajkummar Rao) who later engages Jana (Abhishek Banerjee). This time around since the victims are women to save them is the nameless ‘Stree’ (Shraddha Kapoor). Vicky continues to be smitten by the nameless lady and initially hopes that she would return, and they would lead a normal romantic life. The foursome, Vicky, Rudra, Jana and Bittu, now act on the expertise of the lady to capture the new bodyless mask that has been attacking the women of Chanderi and where a maha puja is expected. For a second time now, the techniques employed by the film-maker are suspect. The West has moved so far ahead, and the average Indian urban audience is overexposed to the western interpretations of the dark and the ghostly. Unfortunately, it is here that that the film falters. Follow the one-liners, like the one when Bittoo is called ‘Bits’ and Vicky tells him that he must thank God that he is not tamed ‘Tittoo,’ and the ghost has come to pay GST or that the height of the ghost is placing an Aamir over an Amitabh, surely invited tickled laughter.

Fortunately, and unpretentiously, the film does not concentrate on fear psychosis as the backbone or the structure. It is lighthearted, and that works. Abhishek Banerjee with his deadpan looks and Aparkshakti as the bereaved lover are picture perfect. It is indeed unfortunate that Aparshakti does not get what he deserves in our cinema. Shraddha is a tad less enthusiastic. Lack of novelty seems to have de-energised her. Most often, she is adequate. Pankaj Tripathi hardly meets the script. However, he has the art of sneaking in a fine performance even if he has a weak script, like he demonstrated in ‘Mai Hoon Atal’. Interesting but very small cameos from Varun Dhawan and Akshay Kumar add momentary interest to the story.

Lighthearted, unapologetic, unpretentious — the film stays away from the predictable ghost, screeching windy night narratives. We may miss great melodies that characterized Bollywood ghost stories hitherto, but this is more than made-up by the constant one-liners spread through the story. At one level, the film belongs to Rajkummar Rao. A talent never in question flourishes yet again with marvel that places him head over shoulders over the rest of the cast. The manner in which he manoeuvres fear, romance and hope and what have you makes him a one of a class types. In fact, he pulls the film up every time it threatens to go off hand.