Stree (2018 film)

The plot is based on the Indian folk legend about a female spirit/witch who abducts men at night when they are alone and only leaves their clothes behind. The residents of a town named Chanderi believe in the spirit of an angry woman, referred to as "Stree", who stalks men and whisks them away during the four days of a religious festival every year, causing many disappearances. To protect the residents, "O Stree, come tomorrow" is written in Hindi with bat's blood on the entrances of all homes and men are advised to not roam alone after 10 pm during the festive season, and move in groups for safety - a parallel of instructions women are usually told to follow for their own safety.

Vicky (Rajkummar Rao), a ladies' tailor in Chanderi, mysteriously encounters an outlandish and charming woman (Shraddha Kapoor) who only comes to the town during the annual Durga pooja season and falls in love with her at first sight. She asks him to stitch her a lahenga. Her frequent disappearances, her shopping list including peculiar items such as a lizard's tail, white cat's furr, flowers of Datura, meat, brandy and suchlike presumed to be ingredients for black magic and the fact that she is not seen by anybody except Vicky, makes his friend Bittu (Aparshakti Khurana) suspicious, and he starts believing that she could be Stree. After one of his friends, Janna (Abhishek Banerjee), is kidnapped by Stree, Vicky grows suspicious of the woman as well. He confronts her on which she disappears yet again.

They decide to research the history of the town and the myth of Stree, to find a way to save their friend and ask the town's librarian Rudra Bhaiya (Pankaj Tripathi) for help, who is also a paranologist. They come across a partially torn book in his library which mentions Stree's story and an old fort. Vicky, Bittu and Rudra visit the old fort, which Stree is supposedly inhabiting, to find Janna. Stree drives away Bittu and Rudra and is about to attack Vicky but does not, as she senses the feeling of love and respect in his eyes. She is then driven away by the mysterious woman. The woman tells Vicky and his friends that she has been trying to defeat 'Stree' for the last three years after losing someone close to her, this been the reason of her coming during the festival season when Stree haunts the town. This clarifies that The Woman & Stree are two different persons. Stree releases Janna as requested by Vicky, but he starts having sporadic violent episodes. More men go missing after a possessed Janna, under Stree's control, erases the word "Tomorrow" from the protective phrases outside everyone's homes, leaving it as "O Stree, come"; an invitation.

Vicky, Bittu, Rudra and the woman meet the book's author Shankar Shastri (Vijay Raaz) to find a permanent solution to save the town, who informs them that Stree had once been an extremely beautiful courtesan that every man in town desired. At last she found a man who truly loved her and wanted to marry her, but on their wedding night, Stree and her husband were killed by the town's jealous men. Her spirit has ever since been searching for her true love and also seeks revenge on the town by aiming to abduct every last man in it. Shastri tells them of a prophecy pointing to a saviour and Vicky surprisingly appears to have all the characteristics describing the saviour which is also inclusive of the fact that his mother too was a courtesan who fell in love with his father and married, a story similar to Stree's, but with a fortunate end. Vicky struggles with taking on the truth, confronts his father but then feels grateful for his father's affection and efforts, and decides to save his town which accepted him and didn't denounce him. The friends and the woman make a trap to kill Stree but Vicky realizes that Stree only desires love and respect. Instead of killing her, the mysterious woman suggests Vicky simply cut her long braid - the source of her powers - so that she will be rendered powerless. He does so, and Stree vanishes. The mysterious woman leaves the city the next day and Vicky bids her farewell, forgetting to ask her name all this time. On the bus, the woman merges Stree's braid with her own hair and then vanishes from the bus, implying that she is a witch who wanted Stree's power through her braid.

Stree visits Chanderi again the following year and finds her own statue at the town entrance with a new phrase - "O Stree, protect us" - thus giving her respect, and she does not enter Chanderi.

• Shraddha Kapoor as the unknown/mysterious woman(written in the script as "Gayatri")
• Rajkummar Rao as Vicky, a ladies tailor
• Pankaj Tripathi as Rudra, a paranologist[10]
• Aparshakti Khurana as Bittu, Vicky's friend[11]
• Abhishek Banerjee as Jaana, Vicky's friend[12]
• Flora Saini as Stree[13]
• Vijay Raaz as Shastri[14]
• Aakash Dabhade as Narendra
• Atul Srivastava as Vicky's father
• Ramkrishna Dhakad as the tailor's assistant
• Nora Fatehi (special appearance in song "Kamariya")[15]
• Kriti Sanon (special appearance in the song "Aao Kabhi Haveli Pe")[16]

Stree
Soundtrack album by Sachin-Jigar
Released	22 August 2018 (2018-08-22)[37]
Recorded	2018
Genre	Feature film soundtrack
Length	12:00
Language	Hindi
Label	T-Series
Sachin-Jigar chronology
Gold (2018) Stree (2018) Arjun Patiala (2019)
External audio Official Audio Jukebox on YouTube

The music for the film has been composed by Sachin-Jigar.[38][39][40] The lyrics are written by Vayu except for one song which is written by Badshah and Jigar Saraiya. The score, which is composed by Ketan Sodha, who had previously worked on Talvar, also included an extract of the theme song of the 1996 film Mission: Impossible, with an Indian instrumentation in a comedic way.

Vipin Nair of The Hindu gave the soundtrack 2.5/5 stating that it is entertaining though familiar.[41][42] The Times of India based Debarati S Sen, in her review, said the album will "appeal to the masses."[43]

Following the film's release, an additional song, "Dil Ka Darzi", not included on the official jukebox, was released by Maddock Films as a separate song intended for Rao's character, a ladies tailor, and was played in the film in the title credits. Written by Vayu, it featured him as the vocalist along with Prakriti Kakar.

Stree had its trailer released on 26 July 2018.[44] It was released worldwide on 31 August 2018. Stree had collected ₹6.83 crore in India on the first day.[45] In its first weekend, the film crossed ₹32.27 crore in India, earning over its production budget of ₹23 crore.[45] It crossed ₹60.39 crore in its first week run.[45]In its second week movie grossed 35.14 crore nett. Movie held well in week 3 and grossed 17.14 crore net . It grossed 9.99 crore net in the fourth week. Its total lifetime India net was 129.90 crore. Worldwide the movie grossed 180.76 crore at end of its initial theatrical run .

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has rating of 78%, based on nine reviews, with an average rating of 6.3/10.[46] The film received positive reviews, with praise directed to the film's entertainment aspect, dialogues, frightening moments, and performances, despite receiving criticism for its long runtime.[47]

Anupama Chopra of Film Companion gave the film 3.5 stars out of five, stating that "With laughs and scares, Stree delivers an important message."[48] Rajeev Masand of CNN-News18 also gave 3.5 out of 5: "Stree is especially entertaining, packed with laugh-aloud moments and a cast that’s on top of their game. It’s one of the most original films this year, and I recommend that you make the time for it."[49] Rachit Gupta of The Times of India offered 3 out of 5, noting the superlative writing and dialogues, but felt the film was a little too long and had some 'ambiguous ideas.'[50] Raja Sen of the Hindustan Times gave it a 3 out of 5 and had a more moderate tone, commending the actor's energy and collaborative efforts but noting a rushed-feeling plot: "The laughs are inconsistent, and the plotting feels sloppy and rushed. The ideas are fine, but the writing needed work."[51]

In October 2018, director Amar Kaushik announced that he is planning a sequel to the film. According to Kaushik, the lead actors will return for the film, as well as writers Raj and DK.[60]In an interview, Dinesh Vijan said that Stree 2 will probably release in next 5 years.

• Stree on IMDb
• Stree at Bollywood Hungama