Kapkapiii (2025) Review!!

Synopsis – A clique of friends, seeking for a thrill, use an ouija board to connect a ghost for fun. But they soon realized that their house has become haunted by an advent of a female spirit.

My Take – Joining the growing plethora of horror comedies is this latest Shreyas Talpade – Tusshar Kapoor team up which proposes a novel concept of throwing a bunch of good for nothing young men into a haunted house scenario. Unfortunately, while the camaraderie among the core group of friends feels authentic, with their banter and bond evoking genuine warmth and humor, the script ends up feeling more like a stitched-together series of comedy sketches rather than a cohesive film.

Though it aims to be a quirky horror-comedy it ends up being neither spooky nor funny. A remake of Jithu Madhavan‘s 2023 Malayalam hit Romancham, the director who later gained wider recognition with the excellent Fahadh Faasil starrer Aavesham (2024), the film, helmed by late director Sangeeth Sivan (Kya Kool Hain Hum, Apna Sapna Money Money), falters mainly in its narrative structure.

With so many characters and so much chaos, the film often feels cluttered and lacks the necessary fluidity. While the humor works momentarily, the horror simply never does. As it leans too heavily on tired tropes, underdeveloped subplots, and a scattered narrative to leave an impact.

Forcing the cast to do all the heavy lifting in the already too long 138 minute run time. Rather than building some form of intrigue, the script squanders every opportunity to create tension and coherence, leaving viewers slightly amused but ultimately unsatisfied. Making this one yet another classic case of wasted potential.

Set in 2007, the story follows Manu (Shreyas Talpade), who along with his group of out-of-work buddies – Achyut (Dinkar Sharma), Nanku (Jay Thakkar), Nirup (Varun Pande), and Vijay (Dherendra Tiwari) rent out a semi-ramshackle ground floor apartment in a one-storey spot in Faridabad. With the upper space, taken up by two young girls — Kavya (Siddhi Idnani) and Madhu (Sonia Rathee).

While the group spends their days monotonously – failing to find placements, bickering over the smallest issues, getting high and playing pranks on each other, their lives take a sharp and spooky turn when Manu, inspired by his visit to another friend’s house, creates a home-made Ouija board just for kicks. Though their only working roommate, Rivin (Abhishek Kumar), warns them of the potential dangers for dabbling with the unknown, the group ends up summoning a spirit called Anamika.

Soon enough, their home becomes one of the most happening spots in town with long queue of people eager to get answers from the spirit—ranging from revelations about someone’s father’s real identity to solving petty domestic mysteries like stolen jewelry. But what begins as harmless mischief soon spirals into chaos, turning their lives upside down.

From there on the film, written by Kumar Priyadarshi and Saurabh Anand, gets increasingly convoluted, but with just a bunch of comedic situations & songs thrown in to keep the narrative sparkling. Surprisingly, the introduction of Kabir (Tusshar Kapoor), Manu’s childhood friend, in the second half comes as a welcome change of pace.

Mainly as the character of Kabir possess a very bizarre yet funny trajectory. But while Kabir’s mysterious demeanor creates some tepid suspense and momentarily adds a layer of absurdity, soon enough the already exhausted narrative dials down to becoming neither really scary nor uproarious again.

Key plot points are introduced but not meaningfully explored most notably. Even the origins and motives of the spirit Anamika remain frustratingly vague despite the film’s considerable runtime. The film then culminates on a cliff-hanger that teases a sequel. But this final twist is so haphazardly introduced that it renders the ongoing film callously incomplete.

Performance wise, Shreyas Talpade, a reliable comic presence, is in his element here. He is loud, as expected, but brings the right manic energy to Manu. Tusshar Kapoor’s bizarre, almost creepy Kabir is a standout, his unsettling smile and strange antics lend the film some of its funniest moments.

Dinkar Sharma, Varun Pande, Abhishek Kumar, Dherendra Tiwari, and Jay Thakkar play their roles with natural ease. Siddhi Idnani and Sonia Rathee add the necessary charm and balance to the group dynamic. Dibyendu Bhattacharya and Zakir Hussain appear in cameos and leave a mark even in limited time. On the whole, ‘Kapkapiii‘ is a tepid horror comedy that entertains in spurts but doesn’t fully deliver the expected humor and shivers.