Stree 2 has given us hope

The unprecedented success of Stree 2 is the best news we have had in the recent times and with an unabashedly feminist agenda, has comprehensively out-performed Sandeep Reddy Vanga's toxic masculine star-studded Animal at the box office is (to me, at least) kind of the cinematic equivalent of Awadhesh Prasad winning Ayodhya-it redeems my faith in the inherent decency of Indians.

- ANUJA CHAUHAN

Stree 2 has also overtaken Sunny Deol's Gadar-2 and Shah Rukh Khan's Pathaan, and is now closing in on dislodging Jawan (another SRK starrer, with domestic collections of ₹583 crore) from the top spot of biggest films ever. All this, with no jingoism, no Pakistanis, no hyper-masculine heroes, no marital rape, and no toxic, animalistic lick-my-shoe type dialogues.

Some might say that the lessons one can learn from this stupendous performance is that marvellous things are possible if we just stick to the basics-quality writing, solid direction and acting, tight editing and well-done visual and sound effects. Seems simple enough on paper, but there are a million obstacles waiting to derail the most dogged and idealistic of filmmakers-egos, politics, logistics, trend-chasing, too-many-cooks, creative hubris and/or timidity, financial hubris and/or timidity, and the general fog-of-war that descends on the best of talents when they're too close to a project to see the larger picture.