Kakuda Review: Sonakshi, Riteish Turn Ghostbusters for Ratodi ka Shaap
Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
In a remote village called Ratodi, scared men are seen scrambling towards their homes in the evening, closing their doors, saving themselves from a ghost that haunts them all. The viewers get to only see the ghost’s legs. Does it sound a little like the 2018 horror-comedy Stree? Well, director Aditya Sarpotdar, along with writers Avinash Dwivedi and Chirag Garg, are almost upfront about borrowing a few ideas from Stree for their horror-comedy Kakuda, with a few direct jokes referring to it.
Kakuda is, in fact, a light-hearted ode to several horror films, right from nods to good old Ramsay Brothers’ titles to stuff from Stephen King’s novels like In the Tall Grass. The creators also immediately distinguish themselves from Stree in the opening minutes of their film with a new little twist: all the houses in Ratodi have an architectural peculiarity. While the men slam shut their main doors in fear, they also throw open a smaller door situated right beside their entrance, which is almost window-sized. According to local legend, every day at 7:15 pm on Tuesday, the men are expected to open the door for a ghost called Kakuda. If they don’t, the man of the house becomes a hunchback and dies within 13 days.
Sonakshi Sinha plays primary protagonist Indu, whose boyfriend Sunny (Saqib Saleem) lives in Ratodi. Indu doesn’t believe in the curse of Kakuda, despite several hunchback cases, claiming the villagers are victims of superstition and disease. But when Sunny also develops a lump on his back after failing to open his door on time one Tuesday, Indu teams up with Sunny’s friend Kilvish (Aasif Khan) and a ghost-hunter from Delhi called Victor Jacobs (Riteish Deshmukh).
Riteish Deshmukh is quite comical as Victor, the ghost-hunter who often communicates with the dead and uses an array of gadgets for his supernatural cases, which will instantly remind horror fans of the guys from Ghostbusters, or well, our very own Bollywood flick Phone Bhoot. And when all the gadgets fail, Victor hilariously goes old school with his cross and starts chanting verses from the Bible, Exorcist style, to spook the spirits he is dealing with. Sonakshi Sinha’s Indu is feisty and fearless, who doesn’t hesitate to go out with Victor in the dead of night to hunt for their ghost.
The thing is, Kakuda isn’t scary at all, and if you’re an avid horror watcher, there’s probably no scene that will keep you on the edge of your seat or make you anxious, but the writers deliver on the comedy aspect. The special-effects and make-up for the ghost was quite gaudy, that’s where it felt like a Ramsay Brothers’ production, so instead of being creepy or petrifying, Kakuda is like a gaudy male-Annabel doll from a 1980s flick. Although, the supernatural entity does get a solid back-story and reasons for terrorizing an entire village.
Those looking for something wholly fresh might be disappointed with the familiar tropes of the tale, but I really enjoyed all the fun references and banter between the characters. The climax was a little convoluted and the ending could’ve been wrapped up sooner, but overall, Kakuda is a pretty entertaining entry in Bollywood’s growing new genre – Horror Comedy.
You can stream Kakuda on Zee5.
Read Next: Rautu Ka Raaz Review – Quaint Hilltop Whodunit
Also Read: Mother-Daughter Murder Night Book Review (Audio version below)
