Stree

In the town of Chanderi, men disappear during a four-day festival each year. The belief is that a spirit called Stree walks the streets at night, whispers a man's name behind him, and takes whoever turns to look. The town's defence is a sentence painted on every door: come tomorrow. Amar Kaushik took it from the Nale Ba legend that spread through Karnataka in the nineties and welded the horror to comedy. The neat part of the premise is that it is the men who are frightened; the women walk about freely throughout. Rajkummar Rao and Shraddha Kapoor lead. Made for around twenty-five crore, it passed a hundred and eighty and launched a horror comedy universe in Hindi cinema. Who it is for: viewers who like horror comedy and Indian films rooted in local legend. Who it is not for: anyone after real fear, since the laugh always comes first here.