Kakuda Review: Interesting concept let down by poor execution
Kakuda Movie Rating: 2 Stars
Watched Kakuda movie on Zee5. Let’s focus on the complete details, story, positive/negatives and at last my personal view on this movie.
Cast: Riteish Deshmukh, Sonakshi Sinha and Saqib Saleem
Director: Aditya Sarpotdar
Release Date: 12th July 2024 on Netflix
Story: Set in Ratodi, a small town in Mathura is tormented by the ghost of a dwarf clown named Kakuda. Every Tuesday, Kakuda’s spirit preys on the men of the village. The only way to avoid his curse is by leaving a small window-like door open in their homes. Failure to comply results in deadly consequences.
Sunny (Saqib Saleem) resides in this village and he’s in love with Indira aka Indu (Sonakshi Sinha). Indu’s parents are against their relationship. Hence both decided to elope and get married. The mahurat for their wedding falls on Tuesday.
While returning to home Sunny falls victim to Kakuda’s curse. He is doomed to die on the thirteenth day, with a hump on his back. Refusing to believe in superstitions, Indira takes matters into her own hands by involving a ghost hunter named Victor (Riteish Deshmukh). But will Victor’s ghost-busting methods save Sunny from an untimely demise?
Positives
1. Performances
2. Screenplay
3. Story
Negatives
1. Music
2. Climax
3. Length
4. Direction
Durgesh Tiwary’s View: When I watched the trailer of this film planned to watch this movie on premiere day as loved the concept of this film and liked director Aditya Sarpotdar last film Munjya.
When her husband Sunny gets cursed by the terrifying ghost, Kakuda, Indira joins hands with a ghost hunter to find a solution. Can she save her husband before the curse claims his life?
Kakuda story is intriguing and makes for a great horror comedy. Screenplay is captivating, and the writers have managed to add humor and scary moments in doses. There are not too many things which seem to be working in favour of the film. But, amidst all this, there is the film’s star cast who surely have put their heart and soul in the film. The usage of animation to tell the backstory of Kakuda really brings in a refreshing feel! The film’s background score really scores and how. Even though the film’s director Aditya Sarpotdar tried to infuse a few elements to uplift the film, the comparisons to films like Munjya, Stree and others become inevitable, which hampers Kakuda’s prospects in a big way. The only redeeming feature of the film is its main villain. Kakuda’s appearance carries an element of eerie mystery. Sarpotdar manages to create a spooky atmosphere whenever Kakuda comes calling.
On the flipside touted as a horror comedy, Kakuda unfortunately falls short in both genres. The horror elements in Kakuda are underdeveloped. The intentional jump scares and sudden background score changes are ineffective, failing to even startle the audience. For a movie billed as a horror comedy, this is a major shortcoming. A stronger focus on creating a genuinely eerie atmosphere and crafting more sophisticated scares would have greatly benefited the film. The humor in the film also misses the mark. The jokes fall flat, and the comedic timing of the actors does little to improve the situation. The climax of the movie ends on an absurd note, providing an unsatisfactory closure to the story. Instead of concluding on a high note, the ending feels rushed and incomplete. A more thoughtfully constructed climax, with a resolution that ties up the narrative threads effectively, would have left the audience with a more fulfilling experience. Its bewildering that Victor never asks villagers about Kakuda. The villagers, too, have no idea about his origins though the senior citizens should have been aware of it.
Overall movie fails to either scare or amuse. This in itself is a good reason to give this campy horror-comedy a miss. We can’t believe that Aditya Sarpotdar, who gave us the sleeper hit horror comedy Munjya just a few weeks ago can go so lax over his next release, which also belongs to the same genre. The film tries to replicate the formula put forward by Stree but hasn’t been able to successfully build on it. It leaves you unsatisfied at the end of it all. My view on this movie Not Recommended.
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