‘Kapkapiii’ movie review: Tusshar Kapoor and Shreyas Talpade’s unfunny horror-comedy is instantly forgettable

Cast: Tusshar Kapoor, Shreyas Talpade, Sonia Rathee, Abhishek Kumar, Varun Pandey, Manmeet Kaur

Director: Sangeeth Sivan

Language: Hindi

The landscape of horror-comedy is now getting frustrating and futile. The genre was mastered by the remarkable Stree in 2018 until many titles followed and took away its innocence and ingeniousness. _Stree 2_ , despite paling in comparison in terms of writing, at least for the grammar of visual effects spot on. The ingenious characters are for the ages. But Hindi films don’t want to be ingenious, they prefer being inane to please the box office despite ghastly results. So after the entirely washed-out The Bhootnii that scared its distributors more than the audiences, we have another utterly and immeasurably forgettable Kapkapiii. Yes, it has three ‘i’s in its name to either suggest too much panic or maybe due to numerological reasons.

The film is a remake of the Malayalam film Romancham. It’s a story that talks about seance, blind faith, and a rather unknown disease. Kapkapiii is directed by the late director Sangeeth Sivan, the man behind Kya Kool Hain Hum and Apna Sapna Money Money. Sivan had a flair for slapstick comedy but here, he buried under the pressure to get the genre of horror-comedy right. It’s all too pretentious and predictable. He brings his two regular actors Shreyas Talpade and Tusshar Kapoor back. These two individuals have scored in the Golmaal series but the collective failure here shows how it’s all about the director calling the shots and not respective tenacities alone.

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Talpade, in particular, is one remarkable talent who never got the due he deserved. He completes 20 years in cinema this year. His Iqbal is one of the finest pieces of work by a debutant. Unfortunately, he was made a sidekick in most of the corny comedies. Kapoor looks and acts the best when mute. Barring Khakee and Shor In The City, he hasn’t had one solid performance in his repertoire. To be honest, both the actors are capable of so much more.

What the film is about?

Without giving away much of the puerile plot, Kapkapiii is about a man desperately trying to meet his roommates to tell them something but is not allowed to meet anyone. The story then moves into a flashback. It’s about silliness and subterfuge. With dried results of course. Unlike the Malayalam original, the remake fails to do justice to the rootedness of the story. The makers are too busy in trying to gratify the appetite of the audience to see more films of this genre but fail.

What exactly makes a horror comedy work? The ability of the entire team to make people laugh when they are supposed to be scared. Or create a blend of two contrasting emotions. Kapkapiii fails in these accounts. Even the ensemble delivers run-of-the-mill likes and performances. I had expectations because this is one genre that has the potential to score well. But it seems it’s now suffering from fatigue. We may have to call an emcee to drive away with the ghost of horror comedies.

Rating: 1.5 (out of 5 stars)

Kapkapiii is now playing in cinemas