Roohi is an Indian Hindi comedy horror film directed by Hardik Mehta. It stars Rajkummar Rao, Janhvi Kapoor, and Varun Sharma and is now available on Netflix and JioCinema to stream from 8th April 2021.
The story starts in Bagadpur where bride kidnapping is very normal. There is Bhawra (Rajkummar Rao) and Kattanni (Varun Sharma) who are pro in this game and works for a boss and local kidnapping-gang leader Guniya Bhai (Manav Vij). As a contract, the boss asks them to kidnap Roohi (Janhvi Kapoor) as there is a boy who wants to marry her. They kidnap her, but now someone has passed away in the groom's family and hence the wedding is canceled. Bhawra and Kattanni have to hid Roohi in an abandoned workshop deep in the woods so that the marriage could happen after one week. But Roohi is not alone, Bhawra soon encounters the vicious entity living inside Roohi. Seeing Roohi's innocence, Bhawra falls for her and settles on a decision to help Roohi. However, Kattanni falls for the spirit who tells him that her name is Afza. Now, what will happen to this weird horror love triangle? What does Afza want?
Mrighdeep Singh Lamba and Gautam Mehra have written the film and is the second film in the Stree universe. Stree being the first installment, Roohi fails every time to match to the level of Stree. The small town set up Chanderi also played a crucial role in the 2018 film, the narrow dark lanes and the chantings "O Stree Kal Aana" adds another level to the film and hence the film is considered as an unforgettable piece of art. But Roohi has forgotten or missed to add anything memorable or something that the viewer might talk about after it overs.
The main buildup is like Evil Dead, a cabin in the middle of nowhere, a kidnapped girl who is possessed by a devil and both the male leads are in love with Roohi, well, one with Roohi and one with Afza the devil. The film is horror-comedy and sadly the film never makes you laugh. Hilarious moments are missing even though there was an ample amount of space to create genuinely comic moments. The film keeps trying hard to evoke laughs but it rather becomes cringey and "meh".
Talking about the performances, none of the actors leaves any mark. Rajkummar Rao is trying hard but there is no meat on his character instead of appearing naive who speaks broken English and has a speaking problem too, pronouncing ट instead of त. Varun Sharma also struggles but he seems to be the only good thing, who brings a smile to your face by the way looks at Afza. Whereas Janhvi Kapoor is just there, the film is named on her character's name and she has almost nothing to do much in the film. Whatever she has done at least she's earnest in that. Sarita Joshi as Budhiya, and Alexx O'Nell as Tim are good.
The cinematography by Amalendu Chaudhary is very average and not effective like Stree. The production design by Ayushi Agarwal and Abhijeet Shreshth is good and the music by Sachin-Jigar is impressive. The editing could have been tighter.
Overall, Roohi didn't impress me at all. I watched the film yesterday and not in theaters and it made me wonder after reading all the reviews, is Roohi really that bad? And the answer is, it is not that bad but there is nothing new or to like here. Everything is plain and the comedy will make you cringe. Nothing like that you'll take with you after the film ends. And polar was the case with Stree. But it will be interesting to see what the makers have in their minds for Stree and Roohi in the future. Let's hope all will be good with Bhediya, another movie in the universe starring Varun and Kriti that will release next year.
Rating:- 2/5
Now streaming on Netflix and JioCinemas.
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