stree 2

The town of Chanderi is being haunted again. This time, women are mysteriously abducted by a terrifying headless entity. Once again, it is up to Vicky and his friends to save their town and loved ones.

Release date: August 15, 2024 (India)

Director: Amar Kaushik

Box office: est. ₹874.58 crore

Music by: Sachin–Jigar (songs); Justin Varghese (score)

Producers: Dinesh Vijan, Jyoti Deshpande

Distributed by: PVR Inox Pictures, Pen Studios

The way I heaved a long, loud sigh after Stree 2, you’d think you heard a ‘pishaachini’.

Amar Kaushik’s Stree 2: Sarkate Ka Aatank, written by Niren Bhatt, is rip-roaringly funny, with characters you cannot help but love: almost every joke, punchline, and gag lands, especially when Pankaj Tripathi as Rudra delivers them. I like how it connects the Maddock Supernatural Universe of Stree, Bhediya, and Munjya. Rajkummar Rao and Abhishek Banerjee’s naïve, small-town buffoon boys act has my heart.

And yet. And this is a big ‘AND YET’ that I cannot ignore. Stree 2 disappointed me, a woman.

Stree 2 builds on the premise and characters of the first film, where a female vengeance spirit known as Stree attacks only men in the village of Chanderi, until a kind young ladies tailor Vicky (Rajkummar Rao), with love in his eyes, gives her a haircut. The spirit’s power resides in her hair, and when Vicky chops off her braid, she disappears. But the metaphor lingers — Stree was avenging the wrong that was done to her by a man. And while she was out on the streets, the men hid under the sheets, while the women were free to live as they pleased.

Notice here how the women of Chanderi used this freedom. They wore what they wanted, got educated, worked jobs they aspired to, excelled in sports and other male-dominated fields, dated men they liked, and moved on to bigger cities to pursue their dreams. Imagine what men would do if they had that freedom. Oh, wait. We know.