Never Ending Movie Carnival
Never Ending Movie Carnival
Kakuda Movie Review: Monster Menace!
What: ‘Kakuda’ - freaky and fascinating, this combines folklore, fun with fear.
‘Kakuda’ is directed by Aditya Sarpotdar who helmed the last month's sleeper hit, ‘Munjya’. You must have got the hint that this is yet another addition to the horror-comedy-monsters' genre that the makers are consciously trying to expand and propel as a universe.
Kakuda movie synopsis
Like ‘Munjya’, ‘Kakuda’ is the eponymous and disgraced monster and the product of society's collective evil. Evil breeds evil. The midget monster unleashes evil every Tuesday 7:15 pm in the village of Rathori to avenge the cruelty meted on him.
Rathori is saddled with the curse of Kakuda. The men are in perennial danger that knocks their door every Tuesday. Each house has two doors - one large, the other small. You must leave the smaller open for Kakuda at the specified time else face his wrath, which involves inflicting the victim with a growing hump on his back that claims his life within 13 days.
The latest victim in the block is the Ill-fated Sunny (Saqib Saleem) who fails to comply with the ritual on the eve of his run-away marriage with his sweetheart Indu (played by Sonakshi Sinha).
With Sunny's life hanging by a thread, Indira seeks help from Victor, an eccentric ghost hunter played by Riteish Deshmukh.
Together, they embark on a freakishly hilarious yet spooky journey to solve the mystery of Kakuda (Mahesh Jadhav), uncover the shocking truth about the ghost's identity, motives, and the village's haunting curse that has lasted for decades. However, will unexpected twists leave Sunny's fate hanging. Or will Victor and Indira be able to save him before the 13th day?
‘Kakuda’ has an interesting and peculiar premise conjured up by writers Chirag Garg and Avinash Dwivedi and nurtures a credible storytelling by Sarpotdar who has exhibited prowess in articulating horror comedies like Munjya and Zombivili.
But the film loses its steam too early. And Kakuda is no Munjya - the fun here is limited and frustration is prolonged despite the presence of a sturdy cast - Riteish Desmukh, Sonakshi in double role and Saqib who are adept in their comic timing, along with the talented Aasif Khan who plays Sunny's bestie barber, Kilbees (in really good form).
Some one-liners and jokes land, but plenty are amiss.The intrigue that shows some promise and dwells in Sonakshi's identical sleepwalking sibling, who seems to have come out straight from the sets of the feverishly pitched Heeramandi fizzes out too soon. Kakuda then meanders to a convenient and contrived plotting without any conflict.
‘Kakuda’ went on floors exactly three years back amidst Covid and the shoot was wrapped in a break-neck two months’ time. I am not sure why it was so hastily made and if at all it was made for OTT.
Kakuda – final words
The cracks are glaringly visible and mostly attributed to its inept writing. It required good chills and thrills which ‘Stree belonging to the same universe, clearly boasted of.
Nevertheless, it's not a bad movie. I go with 3 stars out of 5.
Kakuda is produced by Ronnie Screwvala and streaming on Zee5 from 12th July 2024.
Ahwaan Padhee, is an IT Techie/Business Consultant by profession and a film critic/cinephile by passion, is also associated with Radio Playback as well, loves writing and conducting movie quizzes. More By Ahwaan Padhee