Kakuda, Riteish Deshmukh, Sonakshi Sinha, and Saqib Saleem's new horror comedy has no scares and very little entertainment
Director: Aditya Sarpotdar
Cast: Sonakshi Sinha, Ritesh Deshmukh, Saqib Saleem, Aasif Khan
Where to watch: Zee5
Rating: 3 stars
On paper, Kakuda has everything going for it. It is a horror comedy, a genre that has given us gems like Stree and Bhediya in the recent past. It is helmed by Aditya Sarpotdar, fresh from giving audiences the much-liked Munjya. And it is led by Riteish Deshmukh’s impeccable comic timing and ably supported by Sonakshi Sinha and Saqib Saleem. Yet, in the end, Kakuda is less than the sum of its parts. Kakuda growls more than it barks and sadly, never bites. The comedy is good but the horror never comes to the fore, and the witty one-liners do make you chuckle but they stand out as aberrations, not seamless parts of the story.
Following in with the trend of a marriage of folklore and horror, Kakuda is set in Rataudi, a village where the titular ghost comes to haunt every Tuesday at 7.15 pm. Any house that does not open the specially-made small door for Kakuda sees a man develop a hunchback and die in 13 days. Sunny (Saqib Saleem), a much-in-love good-for-nothing man fails to open the door one Tuesday as he is busy eloping with his lady love Indira (Sonakshi Sinha). Now Sunny is cursed to die and Indira must employ ghost hunter Victor (Riteish Deshmukh) to find out why Kakuda kills its victims and save Sunny.
The premise of Kakuda is simple. But after a litany of Strees, Munjyas, and Roohis, all these films have sadly started to look and feel the same. The trend, or rather the laziness of following it, has started to catch up with the makers now. Kakuda looks and feels not very distinct from anything we have seen in this genre in the last five years. The large shadow of Stree looms on this film throughout, right from a cowardly protagonist to a dabangg heroine and an eccentric ghost hunter.
But tropes aside, Kakuda had the promise to be a good horror comedy. The premise is different enough to hook you. And the initial setup only adds to that promise. Saqib Saleem is immediately likable and even pitiable. Sonakshi manages to infuse believability in her small-town girl avatar, and Riteish Deshmukh lights up the screen with his comic timing.
The trouble with Kakuda is that it relies too much on one-liners and silly gags to bring laughter. So far, the most successful horror comedies in Indian cinema have resorted to situational humour, infused with some quirky dialogue. But just one without the other does not make for a great or fun watch. Hence, Kakuda has moments where the dialogue will leave you in splits but it feels like am embellishment on the plot rather than being a part of it.
The absence of scares is another low point in the film. A horror comedy must have some amount of horror. But a limited budget and even more limited imagination restrict the titular ghost to a badly-rendered floating spectre that does not evoke fear, but merely mild amusement. The presentation of the scares is also very amateur and reeks of the 90s, making this film feel more like a telefilms at points.
Kakuda suffers in the journey between intention and execution, where many Indian films have died. Some shoddy writing, non-existent horror, and forced laughs drown out some competent performances, good premise, and an in-form Riteish Deshmukh, leaving a sweet taste and bitter aftertaste in the mouth.
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 "Kakuda stars Sonakshi Sinha, Riteish Deshmukh, Saqib Saleem")
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