Horror comedy has become one of the most popular genres in Hindi cinema. Many stories in this genre invoke village folklore and tales of ghosts or ghouls around it. Stree and Bhool Bhulaiya are cult favorites, and besides that, Ruhi, Bhediya, and the most recent one, Munjya, were interesting as well. All of these rely on village folklore that connects to the supernatural entity with humor. Released on Zee5 Global on July 12, 2024, Kakuda is the story of an entity that goes after the men of a certain village in the rural heartland of India.
Spoilers Ahead
Why were the small doors of Ratodi village kept open?
The movie began with an elderly gentleman frantically heading home on his bicycle. As he passed through the fields, he spotted a scarecrow, which increased his fear manifold. He made it home on a Tuesday evening, just before 7:15 p.m., and closed the main door while opening the small one beside it. Almost all homes in the village had a small door next to the main ones that were kept open for a peculiar reason. A young man and his wife were in the middle of an intimate moment when he was reminded to keep the small door open. As he was about to open the small door, he heard a loud grunting noise. On opening the door, he witnessed the legs of someone levitating in the air. The man was attacked by this figure, and ended up with a visible hump on his body.
Thirteen days later, the man died because of the attack. This was a phenomenon that had created rampant fear in the village about an entity named Kakuda. There were several vague stories behind the Kakuda attacking only men, as women were granted exemption. The rule was to keep the small door open on Tuesday at 7:15 p.m. to avoid facing the wrath of Kakuda.
Who did Indira want to get married to?
In the same village, Sunny grew up and ran a local sweet shop. Sunny was in love with Indira from the next village over, and they planned to tie the knot. After Indira’s father did not agree to their match based on his zero knowledge of spoken English, she and Sunny decided to get married at a local temple on Tuesday evening without the knowledge of their respective parents. Soon after the wedding, Sunny ran off to his home to open the small door as per the ritual at 7:15 PM, but he was late and was attacked by the Kakuda. Indira also had an identical twin sister, Gomati, who was restricted to the confines of their home. It was not specified in the beginning of the film why she was not allowed outside her home, especially after nightfall.
What happened on the day of Indira’s marriage to Sunny?
Indira moved to Sunny’s home only to find her husband’s hump, which many believe was caused by the Kakuda attack, and everyone had begun the 13-day mourning period, anticipating his demise. Indira, being a pragmatic woman, went against everyone’s advice and took him to a hospital for a minor surgery, as the doctor suggested. The surgery was successful, as his hump was removed. Hours later, the couple found the physical deformity had reappeared. Indira gave up on finding any resolve and came back to Sunny’s home dejected and wondering if only a miracle could save her husband from death.
How did Indira meet Victor Jacobs?
It was during Sunny’s stay in the hospital that she was approached by a shady-looking security guard who shared his business card and mentioned that science and medicine may not solve all their problems. The man was Victor Jacobs, who proclaimed himself to be a ghost hunter. Indira contacted him as a last resort, and he reached the village of Ratodi in shirt order.
How did Victor Jacobs operate?
Victor Jacobs was ready to help Indira and Sunny get rid of the entity so that the curse on the village was lifted. Using a device that helps him detect the presence of ghosts, Victor, Indira, and Sunny’s best friend Kilvish were guided. Victor lays out a white canvas and lets the ghost use him as a medium to portray their reason for its presence through painting. The painting, drawn under the influence of Kakuda, had two crows on the village well with a giant eagle flying towards it. Victor also had a recording device that would convert the gibberish sound of Kakuda into something that could be deciphered into a language understood by all of them. The recording directed them to the abandoned home of a wrestler named Guggu. At that property, all four of them found several things: the skeletons of two people, a metal circus hat, and the Kakuda himself, who wanted to attack them, until the presence of Indira made the entity disappear.
What was the information all of them found out about Kakuda?
The metal hat Victor discovered mentioned the Goyal circus, and he wondered if the troupe would be able to provide them with any information about Kakuda. All of them assumed the skeleton probably belonged to the deceased Kakuda, and that its soul became the enraged entity that was haunting the village. Indira and Victor located the Goyal Circus troupe and found the owner was an aging drunk man who remembered a dwarf named Gullak who had a strange power in his right foot, which came into effect every Tuesday at 7:15 PM. The magical foot would cure all kinds of muscle and back pain. Gullak became even more famous in the village Ratodi. Gullak soon chose to live in the town after the circus left. The owner was not aware of what happened to Gullak, and this led Indira and Victor to seek information about what happened to Gullak from the village elders.
Was Sunny jealous?
On reaching Ratodi, Indira was shocked to find Sunny had attempted suicide, as he felt Victor was more suitable for his wife than him. His father assumed his son was fed up with living off the hope that his wife would find the cure to the curse that would cause his death on the 13th day. Indira and Sunny briefly separated because of the miscommunication, but she never stopped searching for ways to get rid of the curse of Kakuda. Sunny was jealous and slightly insecure, which was why he took that step without releasing the repercussions of his actions.
Why did Victor and Indira involve Gomati?
Indira’s conversation with her sister Gomati took a strange turn when the former made her stance about Gullak very clear. As Indira was badmouthing Gullak, Gomati changed her voice and revealed the villagers had burned down his home and never cared for his life. Indira shared her experience with Gomati with Victor.
Indira revealed her sister, Gomati, was taunted by the people of their hometown as she was found waking up outside of her home rather than indoors. Gomati was revealed to have been sleepwalking, but the taboo around mental health made her shun interaction with people, including her parents. Indira was the only person Gomati was close to. Gomati knew Gullak was perplexed, which made them consider involving her to find out what happened to the dwarf after he settled in this town.
What was the story behind Kakuda’s emergence?
Victor asked Indira to let Gomati sleepwalk, saying her walking route may lead them to some clues regarding Gullak. Victor was shocked to know Gomati was Indira’s twin sister, and he began to fall for her. Since Victor was a ghost hunter, he was strangely attracted to the moodiness of Gomati, which was different from the demeanor of the eclectic Indira. He was sure she had some connection to the world of the supernatural, which made the attraction stronger. As Indira and Victor headed towards the field, they were joined by Sunny and Kilvish. Sunny had given up on any hope of living as the 13th day was approaching. He felt guilty for shunning Indira and wanted to apologize. On reaching the field, all four of them witnessed a terrifying image of Kakuda possessing Gomati and retelling his tragic tale.
Gullak was close to Shibu, a small child in the same village whose mother, Ganga, was a widow. Since this all happened many decades ago, there were strict social norms about how a widow had to be treated in a village. Shibu requested that Gullak help his mother get rid of the chronic back pain using his magical feet. Gullak was apprehensive, as he had never touched a woman. The local wrestler Guggu, who was jealous of Gullak for stealing the limelight, twisted the narrative and rained moral policing on the dwarf, Shibu, and his mother Ganga. Gullak’s home was burned, and nobody in the village helped him. Ganga and Shibu were buried alive in the courtyard of Guggu’s home. Gullak could not save Shibu or Ganga and died after spending 13 hours in the field, hiding behind the scarecrow, in the middle of a chilly winter.
Gullak then returned to Kakuda to haunt the village that never helped him. Gullak was angry at the fact that he did everything in his power to help people with his magical foot and cure them of their muscle ailments. He had hoped someone would help them. His dwarf stature could also be the reason why people did not help, as there was taboo about people who, according to society’s standards, did not look normal. This was a commentary on many skewed social norms that had deeply affected many people inside and outside of the village.
How did Victor and Indira tackle Kakuda?
As Kakuda narrated the tale using Gomati’s body as a medium, the entity had not disappeared. All of them were yet to find out why he chose Gomati’s body as a medium for his antics and how he needed to be gotten rid of to lift the curse on the town. There was no point in getting an apology from the town elders, as most of them might have died, keeping the story of this tragedy alive as well. It was crucial, according to Victor, to cut off the right foot of Kakuda, which contained all his powers. This power manifested into Gullak becoming a scary entity whose only aim was to kill the men who wronged him. This was very similar to the storyline showcased in another Hindi horror comedy, Stree. The only way to lure Kakuda was to use Gomati and her proximity to him. Gomati was not confident, as she had been restricted to her home all these years. Victor knew she was confident, as she had the power to be different and possibly save the village.
Gomati was traumatized for life because society labeled her as a lost woman. She chose to step forward to help Indira, her husband, and the village. They decided to make Kakuda angry by keeping the door open in a house that had only women. There was no logic to this move, but we assume that since Kakuda only attacked men, women challenging him by keeping their doors open would probably enrage the ghost. Initially, none of them were successful at chopping the right foot off because of many distractions. Kakuda used Gomati’s body again as a medium in an attempt to kill Victor and the rest of them.
Kakuda turned out to be a lot more dangerous than they anticipated. As Victor followed the ghost to Guggu’s property again, Gomati followed them and distracted the ghost again. This distraction helped Victor chop off the right foot, and the ghost finally disappeared into the thin air, marking the end of his curse on the village. Victor immediately discovered it was Indira, posing as Gomati, who showed up and faced the ghost to get rid of it. As mentioned in the movie, Indira would go to any extent to make sure her husband Sunny lives, it is a retelling of Savitri bringing back her husband Satyavan from the mouth of death, and it shows her love for her partner.
Kakuda’s anger was justified as he, Shibu, and Ganga were victims of moral policing and jealousy, and people rallied behind a man whose actions went unquestioned. The unwritten social evils and norms needed to be gotten rid of, but Kakuda’s revenge plan of killing people who did not keep the door open for him was a little bit twisted, and it felt like the ghost enjoyed the ego trip it got out of it.
The movie ended with Sunny losing his hump and the destruction of Kakuda. The whole village was happy and proud of Indira and Victor for having diligently gone to the root cause of the curse and destroyed it. Gomati and Victor may have developed feelings for each other as he gave her the strength to look beyond her life behind the closed doors of her home. Victor also revealed that Gullak found solace in people like Ganga and Gomati, who were shunned by society, as he made no mistake of his own. Victor heads back home and gets rid of the canvas he had painted upon reaching the village. The painting he drew to understand Kakuda’s history, flew off and fell on the destroyed scarecrow in the middle of the field. A while later, an older gentleman was seen attacked by the Kakuda yet again, as one could notice the small door was replaced by a brick wall.
Either Kakuda had not fully gone, or some part of him still lay in the scarecrow. Kakuda’s revenge plan could be far from over, and he might use Gomati again to fulfill his goal of killing people who do not respect him. Victor could be back to help the village get rid of the menace eventually. The ending suggests there could be a sequel that would further expand Kakuda and his new nemesis, Victor.
