Kakuda (2024) Review!!

Synopsis – This horror-comedy film follows a town trapped in time by a curse and 3 of its inhabitants face a ghost that makes them question superstition, tradition and love.

My Take – Mere weeks after the stupendous success of Munjya (2024), this latest ZEE5 release sees director Aditya Sarpotdar once again dive into Indian folktales for inspiration for a new feature to join the growing line of horror comedies. Albeit this one has been in cans since 2022.

But though this one follows the same template of a rural setting, hilarious situations and a supernatural creature terrorizing its residents, surprisingly it fails to leave the same impact. While it has a promising premise and a talented cast, the indecisive tone and reliance on formulaic tropes undermines its potential.

Sure, writers Avinash Dwivedi and Chirag Garg do a credible job in presenting another myth waiting to break free, but in an attempt to carve out its own identity, it struggles amidst the shadows of its predecessors. More weirdly, the film is rarely laugh-out-loud funny and is never quite scary.

Running for 116 minutes, the film indeed adopts a tightly woven narrative, yet it required to rise above its formulaic and unmemorable approach to campy horror and comedy. Particularly in the final act which could have reached new high and had ample scope to do so, but instead ends on a whimper. Making this one a lost opportunity.

The story is set in a small cursed village of Ratodi, where houses have a peculiar architectural feature: A small door next to the main entrance. And if the male resident of a household does not open that small door by 7.15 pm on every Tuesday, a curse is laid upon by the visiting vengeful spirit called Kakuda on the individual, causing to the development of a hump, and death 13 days later.

Having become a tradition of sorts, the residents themselves have become quite blasé about this. Such fate also falls upon Sunny (Saqib Saleem) who a night before eloped with his lady love Indira (Sonakshi Sinha) against the wishes of her parents, only for their joy to be short-lived as he was delayed on his way home, and invited the curse.

Though being rational herself, Indira tries what no other villager did before, take Sunny to a city doctor, but it doesn’t help.

In a last-ditch effort to save her husband, she decides to take the help of Victor (Riteish Deshmukh), an eccentric ghost hunter, who enjoys interacting with ghosts and ghouls. While Sunny sulks and waits for inevitable death, Indira, Victor and Sunny’s best friend Kilvish (Aasif Khan) join forces to figure out the root of Kakuda’s rage.

The plot setting feels familiar but still has an engaging quality to it, particularly with Victor’s entry and when the protagonists investigate the mystery. The scene where Indira’s uncle and aunt try to convince a cursed Sunny to let his wife marry someone healthy is quite funny. So are the comical exchanges among Indu, Sunny, Kilvish and Victor.

But when the focus shifts to the ghost’s backstory it becomes disappointingly simplistic and basic. The trouble comes when the film doesn’t know whether it wants to be a spoof comedy or a horror-comedy. For a spoof comedy, it takes itself a little too seriously, and for a horror-comedy, it doesn’t take things seriously enough. The film just places itself in a weird, confused zone in between.

A prime example of this is how the film treats the mortality of the ghost’s victims. With death hanging over the heads of the cursed victims, they are treated with amusement both by the film and the characters within it. But when it wants to take the impending doom of a major character gravely, it is hard to do so when we know things are going to end well. Some of the humor even takes playful digs at previous horror comedies, and then the film goes on to stick to the same tropes that the other films worked on.

The ghost itself is hardly a standout character, a CGI-created entity that doesn’t feel spooky once the proper reveal is shown. Its backstory and the unique characteristic of its curse are mildly fascinating but not engaging enough to draw you in.

The third act is especially a letdown, more so because it adheres closely to now-formulaic third-act horror tropes of female characters being possessed, a last-minute twist and a lazy cliffhanger ending teasing a potential sequel, which we know will never happen.

If there’s anything that holds everything together despite the bumps in the writing, it’s the top-notch performances and the actors seem to be having a good time. Riteish Deshmukh continues to deliver as the very versatile performer that he is. Sonakshi Sinha, has an endearing screen presence and pulls out a very believable turn, even though it’s not exactly career defining.

Saqib Saleem is extremely likeable as the underdog husband and yet again proves that he deserves much more. Aasif Khan does his part in sustaining the film’s laughter quotient. On the whole, ‘Kakuda’ is a low-stakes horror comedy that is not particularly scary or funny.