Kakuda Movie Review: Riteish Deshmukh, Sonakshi Sinha are charming in an inconsistent horror-comedy

There is a childlike innocence spread around the frames of Aditya Sarpotdar’s Kakuda. It operates almost like a mystical fairytale with some elements of horror embedded within. The small-town charm of scary legends is blended together with everyday humour. Its extended opening sequence features an old man as he runs towards his home in Rathodi, Uttar Pradesh, checking his watch which is about to strike 7 pm. Each house in the town has two doors: one regular-sized and another much smaller. The old man gets inside his house just in time to open the smaller door and finally heaves a sigh of relief. Anyone not doing so on a Tuesday night is cursed by the local ghost, Kakuda, leading to a huge lump developing on their back that would eventually lead to their death thirteen days later.

What follows then is a lively ceremony that celebrates the cursing. Women wearing red saris gather together and sing songs in the local dialect as the ‘victim’ sits on a chair in mourning. It is a clever device to ease up the intensity of the killings as it gives a tonal shift to the film right at the beginning. It works in establishing a certain lightness in its grim layers. Along with that, there is a well-timed audio-visual comedy in the way this sequence is brought together as the music changes its course into melancholy to mark the person’s death on the thirteenth day. The women are no longer in their eerily celebratory zeal bringing rather an aura of serious absurdity to the front.

Directed by: Aditya Sarpotdar

Starring: Riteish Deshmukh, Sonakshi Sinha, Saqib Saleem, Aasif Khan, Rajendra Gupta, Neelu Kohli and Yogendra Tikku

Streamer: ZEE5

Kakuda begins with a promising flair but succumbs later to an uneven handling. Writers Avinash Dwivedi and Chirag Garg sprawl up the story of love-birds Indira (Sonakshi Sinha) and sweet shop owner, Sunny (Saqib Saleem), who want to get married, but her father has a strange-criteria to select the groom: read up a passage in English. As Sunny fails in doing so, Indira plans to run away. The catch? Their wedding date falls on a Tuesday at 5 pm. After some initial hesitation, Sunny and his friend, Kilvish, played by the brilliant Aasif Khan, decide to finish the rituals and quickly head back home before 7 in order to open the door for the lurking ghost. As Sunny fails to reach back in time, he is afflicted with the curse. His father is in shambles as the women in red saris arrive with their song. However, Indira won’t give up so easily as she contacts a flamboyant ghosthunter, Victor Jacobs (Riteish Deshmukh) to investigate.

It is a worthy premise and there are some genuine moments of laughter along the way. However, it plays out rather simplistically in a 'been there done that' manner. Saqib Saleem brings up his inner softness to greater use as he has well-timed comic exchanges with his father, played by an equally brilliant Yogendra Tikku. Sunny’s dynamics with Indira makes for a tender unfolding as there is a switching of gender roles and power dynamics. Sonakshi plays her role with assurance as she battles the ghost head-on, in order to save the love of her life. There is a stillness in the rhythm of the performances which doesn’t depend on heightened theatrics and gags. Even Riteish Deshmukh, who has earlier been part of many loud and over-the-top comedies, appears to be in much more control of his craft. With tattoos all over his body and a stylized hair makeover, he looks straight out of a graphic novel. It may feel derivative yet there are some moments of likeability to him.

Kakuda is not meant to be a film that would induce threatening scares. At its core, it is a comedy with tints of horror lying along the way. It belongs more to the magical hues of a Neil Gaiman story than the pulsating rhythm of a Stephen King world. It also has an interplay of nostalgia as it delves midway into a circus with a dwarf clown who has a magical leg. Playing out in soothing animation, the sequence blends naturally with the visuals, yet it fails to induce a similar allure into the narrative. The film would have benefitted from not looking at itself as operating in the world of Amar Kaushik’s Stree (2018). Rather, it has an underlying charm similar to Vishal Bhardwaj’s Makdee (1998) that comes out on occasion but never blooms into something as befitting.