Kakuda review: It's so convenient to jump the bandwagon the moment you see a particular genre working in films. Horror comedy being the latest obsession. After Stree and Bhediya clicked with audiences, the universe expanded and entered Munjya, which has already turned out to be a sleeper hit crossing the ₹100-crore mark. 

And in a little over a month of its release, its director, Aditya Sarpotdar, is out with yet another horror comedy. However, his latest outing, Kakuda, doesn't even come close to what you'd expect from this genre. There's barely anything scary or spooky about the story, and in the name of horror, a rather creepy figure, hanging mid-air, appears occasionally to give us jump scares. Oh, this ghost reminded me of Stree, merely because she also never walked on ground and would mostly be flying around or hovering on people's head.

Kakuda story

Based on a strange folklore, the film begins on an intriguing premise telling us how a small town in Mathura, named Ratodi is cursed by the ghost of Kakuda (Gullak, a dwarf man) and every household has two doors, one of a normal size and the other meant for Kakuda, who was once wronged by the people of this village. Every Tuesday at 7.15pm sharp, every house must leave the small door open for Kakuda or else the man of the house will face the brunt and end up with a fatal hump on their back leaving them to die in 13 days.

On one ill-fated night, when Sunny (Saqib Saleem), is in another village getting married to Indira (Sonakshi Sinha), he fails to reach home on time and can't open the door for Kakuda. He ends up getting the fatal kick from him and the hump appears. While Indira initially rubbishes this as a mere superstition and insists that Sunny see a doctor, she is left with no choice but to hire a ghost hunter Victor Jacob (Riteish Deshmukh) when medicine fails her.

How Indira, Sunny, Victor along with Sunny's friend Kilvish (Aasif Khan) devise new ideas and strategies to catch hold of this ghost and free him is what Kakuda revolves around.

Kakuda review

Written by Avinash Dwivedi and Chirag Garg, Kakuda is devoid of enough substance to engage you. The story and narrative make no sense, becoming absurd after a point with no clear direction or message it wants to stick to. Folklore stories can be indeed interesting if they are presented in a manner that evokes curiosity but Kakuda never establishes the folklore in a convincing manner. The film suffers from an extremely dull screenplay where events unfold in the most bizarre manner, not laving any impact.

There are jump-scares by means of a loud background score, or every time Kakuda's ghost appears on screen, but it's never enough to make you feel scared. In fact, no character ever looks scared enough on screen no matter what is happening in the moment. The jokes, the humour and punch lines are so average that they sound silly rather than making you laugh. You feel bad that even a performer like Ritesh Deshmukh with an impeccable comic timing, can't salvage a film so boring as this.

An underwhelming twist

The only twist or a surprise in the film is Sonakshi's dual role, but it's so underwhelming to see it not being utilized to uplift a slow and sluggish story. Kakuda's back story is so weak and unconvincing that you just don't find any connect. There's an evident Stree hangover, but even that doesn't help, barring a joke or two when Riteish takes a jibe at the 'Oh Stree kal aana' dialogue.

Sinha tries hard to deliver an honest performance but there's only so much she can do with the script. She is expressive, it's something that comes so naturally to her, but that's about it. We never see her rise above the mediocrity of the script. Saleem looks bored while portraying a simpleton. Knowing that he is going to die in 13 days, we barely sense any fear in his body language or actions. Deshmukh brings some flair and manages to trigger a few laughs here and there, but remains plagued by a poor script.

In conclusion

In a nutshell, Kakuda is a below average watch that doesn't do justice to the genre it belongs to and ends up testing your patience. While Sinha and Deshmukh might keep you invested for a while, the final outcome and a not-so-exciting climax won't satiate the movie lover in you. Kakuda is now streaming on Zee5.