Readers Write In #721: Sarkate ka aatank – ‘ O Sarkataa ,phir kabhi maat aana ,O stree hamari raksha karna’

By AJ Sathyanand

Stree2 – sar kate ka aatank is the sequel to the 2018 super hit Stree and the latest addition to the maddock horror comedy universe which has other movies including Bhediya,Munjiyaand Roohi.

Stree 2 begins exactly where Stree ended.In a small town called Chanderi ,the spirit of a lady used to haunt males .This problem was solved by an unexpected hero ,Vicky ( Rajkumar Rao) his bumbling group of friends Bittu ( Aparshakti khurana) , Jana ( Abhishek Banerjee ) ,Rudra Bhaiyya (Pankaj Tripathi) with the help of a mysterious lady ( Shraddha kapoor).Several years after this incident, there is a new sinister entity  – Sarkataa – The headless man who is abducting females and has the whole village under the grip of his fear.As the whole village starts chanting ,’O stree hamari raksha karna ,’our protagonist and his friends who do not want to be associated with anything remotely connected to this ,get sucked into this mess. Who is sarkata and how Vicky and his friends take care of this menace,and how is this related to the stree incident forms the rest of the plot.

What works 

1)The entertainment factor

Horror films in hindi have always been a tricky genre ,with limited success.The Ramsay brothers and Ram Gopal Varma are the few masters of this genre who have also tasted box office success.Stree in 2018 was preceeded by the succesful Golmaal again(2017 ) and was a surprise blockbuster owing to its thrills, comedy gags,great performances  with some chartbuster songs.Also there was the duo of Raj and DK as writers.It was also favoured significantly by the small town films phase of bollywood. Now with a different set of writers, lead actors who are not exactly major box office draws ,post covid scenario where only big budget action films are doing well and with a not so great soundtrack and the mediocre performance of Bhediya and Roohi ,Stree 2 had quite a few odds against it but the surprise success of Munjiya and a great trailer brought it back into the reckoning.So ,the only thing that Stree 2 had to get right was the comedy and that is exactly where Amar kaushik, his writer Niren Bhatt and the lead actors unleash their full potential.There is not even a single dull moment in the film .Even when the proceedings ,get a bit serious ,there is some humor ,and that too happens organically and doesnt seem forced. The cameos too happen as a part of the story and are very well placed.The makers very well understood the assignment that the audience here are looking for entertainment and not anything else and that too for fast paced ,fun one liners .The one liners consist mostly of fun banter between the leads n references to each others films and  other actors’ films .So ,this is fun for both the general audience as well as the cinephiles

2) The length and pacing 

The film is around 2.30 half hours long and does not waste time in establishing the characters or the story as that was taken care of in the first part.Even the backstory of the ‘ sarkata’ is only told by one of the characters as a part of the the ‘ chanderi puraan’ which was referred to in the prequel too. So ,most of the running time is used for gags and the proceedings are wrapped up at the right time and also before they run out of steam.

3) The performances 

Rajkumar rao , Aparshakti khurana and Pankaj tripathi portray their characters well.Shraddha kapoor plays the mysterious stree well but she is not the central character here.The film truly belongs to Abhishek Banerjee.He plays the dumb Janardhan very naturally and sincerely,and most of the jokes after he enters the film are centred around him and work very well.The best scenes of the film are one that happens in a fort where our characters are finally introduced to sarkataa and one involving a star cameo which will not be revealed here.

4) The cameos

There are two cameos and both are well placed.One works better than the other one though

5) The Message of the film

Last but not the least and quite like its prequel , Stree 2 too has a very important and extremely relevant message beautifully wrapped and well conveyed in the garb of horror comedy.The timing of the release too is coincidentally apt.

What doesnt 

1) The horror, Sarkataa and his story 

In a horror comedy ,it is ideal if both the horror and comedy work equally well.Though here the comedy works better than the horror,this doesnt take away anything from the entertainment the movie provides.

The introduction sequence of sarkataa and another one involving the abduction of a character’s girlfriend are chilling.This gave me a feeling that this film would probably trump the prequel in terms of horror but the progressive scenes did not live up the first two scenes. Sarkataa reminds you of the horror shows of 90s cable tv era especially zee horror show .Had the comedy not been so good ,this would probably have been  criticised ,but since the movie works as a whole , it does not matter.Also since not much of emphasis is laid on the back story of sarkataa or his motives ,the desired impact is not created

2) The music 

Stree had great music but here ,the music is pretty average and none of the songs will have a long shelf life ,though they might serve the purpose of being used in reels.The background music for sarkata is chilling though.

In conclusion ,Stree 2 is a great entertainer ,where the comedy works better than horror ,and is best enjoyed with a group of friends.