Let’s get the big question out of the way. Is Stree 2 worth the hype? Absolutely, with a resounding Y-E-S! Is the sequel bigger than the first film? Without a doubt... from story to spectacle, theme to treatment, acting to action, nuance to nemesis. Is it better than Stree? In many ways it is, though some can rightly feel that in its attempt (and, of course, ‘universal’ compulsion) to include and build on what is now a humongous horror-comedy franchise that the first film spawned six years ago, the follow-up does come off a tad stretched and sometimes loses its bite.

But to be honest, that would be nitpicking in a film that delivers the goods in almost every department. Living up to the much-anticipated wait of half-a-dozen years, its massive pre-release buzz that has blown the competition out of the water and the advance-booking numbers that it has notched up which is guaranteed to take it well within reach, if not past the coveted Rs 100-crore club in the first weekend itself, Stree 2 is undoubtedly the ‘event film’ of the year.

Director Amar Kaushik returns to the helm with his original cast — all of whom get their chance to shine individually and as a team — to churn out a potent mix of horror and comedy. Stree 2 is the kind of film that will keep you entertained and engaged throughout its 149-minute runtime, scarcely giving the viewer a chance to think of anything else. That is high praise for any kind of content in today’s times, competing as it is with everything from minute-long Instagram Reels to hour-long podcasts.

In Stree 2, which hits the ground running with a winning mix of horror and comedy, the chills are big and so are the chuckles. Stree’s allegorical activism hit home with a powerful blend of meaning, mirth and the macabre, conjuring a wish-fulfilment and highly utopian scenario in which the menfolk of the town of Chanderi were under threat from a female spirit named Stree who abducted them, leaving just their clothes behind. This subversion — women moving around freely while men cowered in terror and at, one point, even contemplated stepping out in saris — made Stree a delightful social satire.

The sequel is also a satire but functions more as a commentary of the times that we live in. Here, like it is in the real world, women are the targets of a grisly supernatural entity called ‘Sarkata’, a giant headless spirit that gleefully brandishes its head like a trophy and sends it out into the world as a weapon of mass destruction. Sarkata, as we learn through the course of the film, was the one who had wronged Stree and now it is back to wreak havoc on the women of Chanderi.

In a telling scene towards the end of the film, as Sarkata is brought under control, we see the women of the town breaking open the locks that kept them indoors and ‘reclaiming the night’ as their own in a grand gesture that hits home more painfully given the circumstances we have seen unfold over the last week.

While its chilling moments are mounted with both humour and heebie-jeebies, especially in that delightful pre-interval scene in which Vicky (Rajkummar Rao) and his gang, comprising Rudra ji (Pankaj Tripathi), Bittu (Aparshakti Khurana) and Jana (Abhishek Banerjee) come face to face (pun intended) with Sarkata, it is the comic scenes that will keep you more invested in Stree 2.

The script may lack the quirky, original sharpness that Raj & DK’s pen brought to Stree, but writer Niren Bhatt drums out some laugh-out-loud punches that hit home. Like when a lovelorn Vicky — still lamenting the absence of Shraddha Kapoor’s unnamed character who vanished from her bus seat at the end of the first film — is told by his father: “Virgin tel healthy hota hain, male nahin.” Or when the all-knowing Rudra describes Sarkata in today’s language as: “Sarkata influencer hain... apne followers badha raha hain.”

The funniest moments in Stree 2 are courtesy this quartet, with Rajkummar walking away with the film. Vicky has become “Chanderi ka Devdas” from “Chanderi ka Manish Malhotra” but still remains “Chanderi ka rakshak”, and Raj sinks his teeth into a character that he is familiar with but also has enough new material to shape into his own. He, along with Abhishek Banerjee’s Jana — who forms the common link in the horror-comedy universe — are a delight, and carry Stree 2 on their able shoulders.

In contrast, Shraddha has lesser screen time, but her character makes an appearance at crucial points in the film and her final reveal, though not altogether surprising, is both powerful and poignant. Do we know her name yet? Well....

Stree 2 stretches its post-credits moments, packing in as many as two songs. But we aren’t complaining... if Avengers can do it, so can Stree. A delightful cameo by a superstar (who also had another film releasing on the same day) at the beginning of Half Two sets up the scenario for a new antagonist in ‘Stree 3’ as does the potential for a love triangle between a human, a spirit and an animal. Who is what? Well, we are not telling! But what we can tell you is that go watch Stree 2. Stat!