Kakuda: Sonakshi Sinha Deserves Better Than This Strictly Average Horror Comedy

DIRECTOR Aditya Sarpotkar, who is basking in the box office success of his latest horror film Munjya, has an interesting filmography filled with conceptual gems. One of his earlier films is Zombivali, a deft Marathi horror movie in which a mysterious virus causes a zombie outbreak in the suburbs of Mumbai. In his latest movie, Kakuda, which sees a direct to OTT release on ZEE5, Sarpotkar blends horror and comedy to present a story that has some promise on paper but ends up falling flat in execution. Despite an interesting premise, the similarities (in intention and narrative) with Amar Kaushik’s Stree are hard to shake off.

Kakuda begins with an urban-legend-turned-into-horror-filled-reality that plagues the town of Rathodi in rural Uttar Pradesh. At 7.15 pm every day, each home has to shut all their doors and keep a smaller door open for a supernatural spirit that visits. In failing to do so, the spirit, called Kakuda, injures the man of the house, causing him a hunchback and eventually, death, 13 days later. The entity itself is not very scary if you’ve seen horror films before, and the snarling sounds attached to him aren’t exactly inventive either. The horror element in Kakuda is not very impactful, however the comedy elements far supersede them.

Spearheading the comedy tone in Kakuda are Sonakshi Sinha and Riteish Deshmukh, both of whom have the unique ability to take an average film and elevate it with their presence, which is exactly what they do in this film. Indira (Sonakshi) and Sunny (Saqib Saleem) want to get married but her father is against their union. One evening they decide to run away and get married, but in the haste of the elopement, Sunny forgets to leave the small door open to his house and when he returns, he gets attacked by Kakuda, becoming his latest victim. He has 13 days to live, but Indu is hell-bent on getting to the bottom of this “curse”. She enlists Victor (Riteish) — a humorous and out-of-the-box ghostbuster whose talents include having a therapeutic heart-to-heart with ghosts — to help her out.

The history behind Kakuda’s curse reveals a tragic story involving a circus entertainer called Gullak, who was first embraced by the town of Rathodi for his magical powers. But as soon as the sheen wore off, the villagers turned against him and burned down everything that was precious to him. Gullak is abandoned by the villagers. He dies a slow, painful death in the outskirts of Rathodi, and in turn curses them for life.

The animation that is used in the film to describe Kakuda’s backstory is impressive, and one wishes that more of the narrative time was allotted to the village, the curse and the supernatural element. But Sonakshi, Saqib and Riteish take away a large chunk of screen time. Sometimes that’s a good thing, as each of them excel in comic timing, but sometimes the story starts to drag on. A little more fine-tuning to the dialogues and narrative flow, and a little more rooting in folklore could have elevated Kakuda. That said, the funny scenes between the lead trio are still fun to watch.

A note here about Sonakshi Sinha, who seamlessly shifts between horror and comedy in key scenes. Sinha has finally gotten to a place in her career where her mere presence is enough to make or break a film, and here she adds immense value as the main character who drives all the action. Riteish Deshmukh is treated as a guest appearance/supporting role and he plays his part with panache, but most of the heavy lifting is done by Sinha. The industry needs to give her meatier roles, because she can handle them.

Kakuda is a mid film. You won’t miss it if you don’t watch it, but if you happen to be bored and can’t find the right thing to watch (we’ve all been there), you can perhaps switch on Kakuda, and let it play in the background while you do other chores (or doom-scroll). It’ll be a fun watch, I promise, but if you’re looking for a more engaging horror comedy, may I suggest a rewatch of Go Goa Gone instead?