‘Stree’ takes a small town urban myth about a mysterious female ghoul to deliver a hor­ror comedy packaged with colorful characters, textured dialogues and good laughs that don’t let the movie down even when the material gets too trite and over the top.

Helmed by newcomer director Amar Kaushik, it is a comedy first and a horror film second. It may simmer a lot to find its footing in the first half, but when its narrative pad­dles finally kick in, it is successful in pulling off the rare feat of marrying horror with comedy.

Every year a weeklong festival is held in the village of Chanderi. For quite some time, this very festival has become the hunting ground for a strange creature that comes at night and abducts the village men. The village folks are so terrified with these mysterious disappear­ances that all houses feature a spell to ward off the evil spirit, who they have simply named Stree (‘The Lady’). Vicky (Rajkummar Rao), a local tailor, rubbishes them as mere superstition.

Even when his best buddies are spending their days speculating on the sightings of Stree, Vicky’s more concerned about the reappearance of an out-of-towner beauty (Shrad­dha Kapoor), who only visits Chan­deri during the festival.

Vicky is sure that this time he’ll muster up courage to express his real feelings for her when she approaches him to design a par­ticular dress for her. But Vicky’s romantic pursuits are cut short when one of his friends becomes the latest victim of Stree. He then seeks the help of Hindi pulp novel publisher Rudra (Pankaj Tripathi), a local expert on paranormal activi­ties, to find a way to permanently get rid of Stree.

For the most part, Stree relies on humor through comedic ban­ters. Rao and Tripathi, who shared a terrific chemistry in the dark comedy ‘Newton’, are in top form. Rao is lovable and easily switches back and forth between a gooey eyed lover boy and a terrified ghost buster. Tripathi is the arche­typical wise old guy who has all the answers.

His character has the expositional function of spelling out the finer narrative details about the ghost. A less capable actor may have made the character sound bland and information heavy, but not Trip­athi. He brings a spirited novelty with his conversational delivery that uses Hindi peppered with funnily pronounced English words, a line of tacky old Bollywood song on the ready for any odd situation. Equally effective is Shraddha Kapoor in her role that keeps you guessing about her character’s background and motives.

The film has so much to rave about but it also has many things not going for itself. The initial thirty to forty minutes are marred by pointless songs and lack of narra­tive direction. Some scenes where the tension could’ve been milked for greater comedic effects don’t land properly. But because the film doesn’t take itself too seriously and keeps the affair breezy and light hearted, it’s easy to follow. It right­fully finds rhythm as it goes along and delivers on the promise of the premise.

Stree is a broad comedy but doesn’t take its cinematic liberties for granted to display VFX mayhem to whisk cheap humor and ham-fisted horror thrills. It’s genuinely smart and effectively amiable horror comedy that will certainly inspire more movies in this genre.