I saw the trailer, I saw the hook and got hooked with the idea. It was something different at least, a horror comedy which didn't seem as vulgar as Great grand Masti or as empty as a Golmaal Again, here was a ghost, the conventional Indian Chudail with some scary appearance and set up in a small town where people have ghost stories to tell. A few young guys who are playful about the whole thing and one of them falls in love with a girl who might be the actual ghost. Looked very interesting to me but eventually, Stree doesn't turn out to be as entertaining as it was expected.
The humour element is good mostly when there is Rajkumar Rao, Aparshakti Khurana and the third friend but other characters would bore you. The least you expect from an illogical comedy is the punches that would entertain but they aren't crisp or witty enough to meet your expectation and the plot is totally predictable scene-wise for the audiences, unlike the dull-witted characters who are still waiting for things to happen.
The first half almost takes you nowhere with just the love story between Shraddha and Rajkumar & revealing a fact to Rajkumar at the interval point... A character so stupid to take that long to understand who she is because he is in love!
The second half is where you feel things will get better but it doesn't as the story of the ghost and her problem is the very typical story of any village ghost with logic flaws, 'two lovers were killed by the villagers but only the female spirit is roaming to have her suhaag raat' (Why?)
What does Stree do after kidnapping the men and throwing their clothes is unrevealed, how does one guy (Rajkumar's third friend) come back is not known, why is he sometimes human and sometimes behaving like a zombie (The Go Goa Gone remains as Raj & DK are the producers), why do the villagers live with such a guy who seems possessed occasionally (Don't know), why does Stree choose Rajkumar Rao despite him being nothing special (no logics please, he is the hero maybe that's why), why is Stree so dumb to read 'Kal aana' and go away (A ghost who takes instructions, the characters call her with low IQ themselves in scene), why do they believe a crazy looking old Vijay Raaz and follow his detailing about Stree to be true based on his book on Chanderi (Because they never bothered to be so logical anywhere yet)...
So the movie goes out with being subtly humorous & a few scary scenes (actually just a Stree flying towards the screen with a background music) but wait, if you need something to add value to the lame storyline, lets put some patriarchy and women empowerment message... (Duh!) The topic was somewhat unique only if there was thorough detailing to the aspects which were touched upon & further left unattended. The climax gives you a twist which yet again isn't very appealing and could have been something more meaningful. It seems that the Writers and the Director are probably lazy to explore or research and just want to make a movie that mints some money.
The positives of the film would be a few performances, Rajkumar Rao yet again proving his talent, so does Aparshakti Khurana and Shraddha Kapoor doing it nicely. Shraddha even breaks her Girl-next-door feel and looks stunning playing her role gracefully. Pankaj Tripathi trying hard to be the noteworthy funny character but doesn't succeed fully (Writers to be blamed more in defining his character traits). You might also like one or two songs and can laugh at a few scenes if you watch it keeping the logic away.
Overall won't recommend this one, watch it for free when it releases online on Prime or Netflix or Hotstar or on its great World Television Premiere.
Ratings - 2** on 5
P.S. I probably missed the song video of 'Aao Kabhi haveli Pe' if it was in the beginning as I reached late owing to my bad habit or else it wasn't included which was yet again a negative. At least end credits mein gaana to tpwala daal dete!
