With the horror-comedy rooted in Indian folklore and set in the heartland, establishing a strong audience connection, its sequel Stree 2 was one of the most awaited movies of 2024. (File Photo)
Minutes before Stree 2: Sarkate Ka Aatank’s interval, Shraddha Kapoor swings into action, determinedly twirling her long, power-packed braid, or as they call it in the movie, “chamatkari choti”, to save the dudes in distress. They are being attacked by Sarkata — a headless zombie-like demon — while Kapoor is back as the nameless, enigmatic spirit.
The terrifying clash between Kapoor and the sinister Sarkata is the kind of action-packed spectacle that, in Hindi cinema parlance, can be called “paisa vasool”. Such scenes up the entertainment quotient and ensure that the audience is drawn to theatres for the big-screen experience. Stree 2 has been successful in doing that with its worldwide collection in the first week of release crossing Rs 400 crore.
When Stree (2018) hit the theatres six years ago, it was applauded for its fresh narrative that took a stab at subverting the traditional mindset that women are the weaker sex. Moving away from a formulaic fare, it familiarised us with the world of Chanderi, where men were scared to step outside the home after dark. The movie packed sharp humour and several scary moments. Its awesome cast — featuring Rajkummar Rao, Pankaj Tripathi, Abhishek Banerjee and Aparshakti Khurana, apart from Kapoor — with their compelling performance saw to it that the audience had a rollicking time.
With the horror-comedy rooted in Indian folklore and set in the heartland, establishing a strong audience connection, its sequel Stree 2 was one of the most awaited movies of 2024. Good news: Stree 2 not only lives up to expectations but offers a much-needed salve to the Hindi film industry which has been smarting under attack for its poor box-office show and content. This year, the industry has been dealing with more misses — with some big-budget outings fronted by A-listers floundering at the box office — than hits, so far. An effusive Karan Johar in his long social media post, complimented the team for “the juggernaut mega blockbuster success of Stree 2”. The filmmaker called it a celebration of “Hindi cinema and Indian mainstream cinema”.
Going by Johar’s post, what has worked in Stree 2’s favour are “solid storytelling” and “rooted content”. Apart from the audience expectations, what aided Stree 2’s ticket sales was its release timing; it was released on August 15. The makers capitalised on a long weekend (thanks to Independence Day and Raksha Bandhan) and were rewarded with an opening that was denied to tent-pole movies such as Fighter and Bade Miyan Chote Miyan, earlier this year. The first-day collection of Stree 2 was reported to be Rs 40 crore while Fighter, featuring Hrithik Roshan and Deepika Padukone, earned Rs 24.60 crore and Bade Miyan Chote Miyan, which was banking on the heroics of Akshay Kumar and Tiger Shroff, recorded a Rs 15.65 crore opening in India.
On several occasions, Hindi film biggies, including Johar, have said that many are yet to figure out what works for the audience. While some filmmakers have latched on to a trend, others have banked on formulaic fare or remakes. Stree 2’s success goes on to establish the age-old fact that theatre-goers crave entertainment and a good story. They will lap up any story as long as it engages and entertains them. It also reiterates that thinking out of the box is rewarded as long as filmmakers are acing storytelling on the big screen. That’s what has worked in favour of filmmakers in Kerala.
Stree was designed to be a crowd-pleaser by blending elements of horror with numerous gags, romantic tracks, foot-tapping item songs and loveable small-town characters. Its real triumph, however, was layering the story with social messaging by harping on the fact that women wish to be respected and loved. In the sequel, as a series of nods to the earlier gags take up screen time, social messaging and satire get diluted. Since Stree 2 has evidently set the stage for another movie in the series, can we expect it not to be merely a laugh riot interspersed with spook?
alaka.sahani@expressindia.com
