A zany supernatural parable that is both strongly feminist and uproariously funny, Stree, Amar Kaushik's self-assured first feature, delivers shocks and laughs in equal measure. Despite its repeated to-ing and fro-ing between conflicting tones, the horror comedy glides along a firm and steady arc almost all through its runtime of two hours and a bit.

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Stree is inspired by the urban legend of Nale Ba about a woman who knocks on the doors of houses at night and if you answer, you will never be seen again. In the town of Chanderi (MP, suddenly on the map after Padman), there lives a likely lad called Vicky (Rao), blessed by a keen eye and kind heart. That doesn’t stop him from preening, and falling for a mysterious girl’s (Kapoor) charms. When she says come, he follows, casting aside fears of the ‘stree’ who haunts the town, hunting lone men. There’s a ‘bhootni’ about, beware.Rao, whose character Bicky seems like an extension of his Bareilly Ki Barfi avatar, carries the film: as a ‘ladies tailor’ whose eye is enough to take the measure of the woman in front of him, he is terrific.

Rajkummar Rao is terrific. Whether he is flummoxed, frightened or simply going along with the flow, he delivers with minimum apparent effort. Shraddha Kapoor is suitably icy as the enigmatic woman who traipses into the protagonist's life and sets off the tremors. Aparshakti Khurrana, full of beans, steals many a scene. Abhishek Banerjee delivers a high-energy yet controlled performance as the friend who suffers the most at the hands of the eponymous ghost. Pankaj Tripathi is in cracking form, giving the narrative a booster-charge whenever he is on the screen. Atul Srivastava in the role of Vicky's father leaves an impression in the handful of scenes he has in the film.