'Kakuda' Review: Sonakshi Sinha-Riteish Deshmukh's film is all humour, no horror (2024)

Sana Farzeen

With ‘Stree’, filmmakers seem to have hit a goldmine. From ‘Roohi’, ‘Bhediya’, and the recently successful ‘Munjya’, they are digging deeper into horror comedies and treating audiences with films from the genre regularly. Now, it’s time for another one with Zee5’s ‘Kakuda’. Starring Sonakshi Sinha, Riteish Deshmukh, and Saqib Saleem in the lead, the film is quite an enjoyable watch. While there are hardly any chills, it does provide some laughs, thanks to the quirky dialogues and performances of the actors.

The plot is straight out of folklore where villagers have constructed a shorter door on their entrance and wait for a ghost ‘Kakuda’ every Tuesday evening. If this supernatural creature finds a door shut, he kicks a man from the family, leaving them with a bulge on his back, and only 13 days to live.

Indira (Sonakshi Sinha) and Sunny (Saqib Saleem)play a couple in love, fighting to get married. The major obstruction – Indira’s father wants an English-speaking son-in-law. As Saqib's character fails the language test, the two decide to elope. On the day of their marriage, Sunny is late to reach home and thus faces the wrath of Kakuda. While he awaits his death, his newlywed bride decides to take charge and save her husband, just like the story of Savitri and Yamraj.

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Enter ghost hunter Victor (Riteish Deshmukh), who also plays Cupid for departed souls. With the power to use charcoal painting to decipher the unfulfilled desires of souls, he helps them to attain salvation. Along with Indira, he gets on the journey to solve the case. They are also joined by the couple's friend Kilvish (Aasif Khan), who although jitters at the thought of a ghost, puts up a brave front for his friends.

Through a series of misadventures, failed attempts, and confrontations with the spirit, the team finally manages to unravel the mystery. But, will they manage to save Sunny? That’s for you to watch. Also, Sonakshi has a surprise for fans, but we are not giving away any spoilers.

Riteish Deshmukh steals the show as the extremely cool, new-age tantrik. We have all been fans of his comic timing, and he proves his mettle once again by pulling the film through with his humour. Sonakshi Sinha is also pleasant and gets to tap on many shades in this part. Having seen her play strong roles in ‘Dahaad’ and ‘Heeramandi’, one might miss her powerful stance and attitude though. Saqib Saleem and Aasif Khan are sincere but do not have a lot to contribute.

None of the songs are worth remembering and were actually skipped by us while watching the film. The biggest highlight, however, is how the makers used animation to show the backstory of Kakuda. It was refreshing and added a new dynamic to the storytelling process. The VFX and background score also add strength to the narration.

Director Aditya Sarpotdar, fresh from the success of ‘Munjya’, does a fairly good job with ‘Kakuda’ too. He seems to understand the genre and folk tales, making his storytelling process quite engaging. The story, screenplay, and dialogues are by Avinash Dwivedi and Chirag Garg, both actors themselves. The story is quite a winner, but their screenplay could have been tighter. Dialogues, on the other hand, have also been elevated, thanks to the actors who added the punch and kick with their timing.

However, they did manage to grasp the nerves of rural India - be it Indira's father's desire to have an English-speaking damaad, or Sunny's father helplessly waiting for his son's death without giving a fight because of their blind beliefs. The mystery behind Kakuda is also a heartening one, given how society has still not come to fully accept the differently-abled. The 'ghost' has been given quite a well-prosthetic look, but we wish the film also had more jump scares. It ended up more like a comedy film with horror just for its namesake.

You can watch it over the weekend at home if rain spoils your plans.