There is a particular kind of film that is difficult to describe without sounding like you are making it up. Karakkam is one of those films.
It is a musical horror-comedy about two friends who drunkenly remove sacred crosses from graves on New Year’s Eve — because apparently some decisions really do need alcohol as an explanation — and then spend the rest of the film dealing with the five restless spirits they accidentally woke up.
The film released theatrically in May 2026 and is now streaming on SonyLIV from July 3, 2026, kicking off the platform’s month-long Malayalam Movie Fest. Here are five reasons it belongs on your watchlist.
5 Reasons to Watch Karakkam on SonyLIV Before Everyone Else
1. It Is Malayalam Cinema’s First Musical Horror-Comedy
This is not a marketing description — it is a genuine genre distinction. Malayalam horror tends to be serious, atmospheric, and deliberately unsettling. Karakkam goes in a completely different direction: vibrant colours, music, dance, lighthearted humour, and supernatural scares all coexisting in the same film.
The ghosts here are not the creeping, shadowy presences of typical horror. They are colourful, expressive, and apparently have strong opinions about the people who disturbed their rest. The visual approach is bold and distinctly its own — more musical theatre energy than conventional horror, which makes the scary moments land differently when they do arrive.
If you have watched enough serious ghost films and want something that takes the same premise and spins it in an entirely unexpected direction, Karakkam is genuinely unlike anything else in Malayalam cinema right now.
2. Sreenath Bhasi Is the Right Person for This Role
Sreenath Bhasi has a specific quality that makes him particularly suited to this kind of film. He can be simultaneously funny and genuinely unnerving — he plays eccentric and mysterious without it looking effortful, and his comic timing is sharp enough to carry scenes that lesser performers would let slip into chaos.
His lead role in Karakkam requires him to ground the film’s absurdity while also being part of it. That is a harder balance than it sounds, and he manages it in a way that keeps the film anchored even as the situations around him get increasingly strange.
3. Sam C.S.’s Music Is Doing a Lot of Heavy Lifting
Sam C.S. is the composer behind Drishyam 2, Raakh, and several other well-regarded projects, and his work in Karakkam reflects someone who understood exactly what the film needed. The soundtrack shifts between upbeat, almost celebratory tracks and genuinely eerie sequences — sometimes within the same scene — and the tonal agility is impressive.
In a film that calls itself a musical, the music has to actually earn that label. Here it does. The songs and background score are not decorating the film — they are actively shaping the mood and pace, which is what music in a musical is supposed to do.
4. The Supporting Cast Lifts Every Scene
Beyond Sreenath Bhasi, the film features Femina George — who announced herself to wider audiences through Minnal Murali — alongside Sidharth Bharathan and veteran actor Bijukuttan. The ensemble chemistry matters considerably in a film where the comedy is largely situational and depends on how characters react to each other under escalating supernatural pressure.
Femina George in particular has a natural quality on screen that makes even the more outlandish moments feel grounded, and her dynamic with the rest of the cast keeps the film from tipping too far into parody.
5. It Works as Family Entertainment Without Cheating on the Horror
This is perhaps the most difficult thing Karakkam pulls off. It is a film about ghosts that does not rely on jump scares to create tension, and it is accessible enough for a family watch without feeling like it has been defanged.
The film weaves themes of karma, guilt, and redemption through the comedy — which means the supernatural elements have actual emotional stakes rather than just being set dressing. The spirits are not simply there to be scary. They are there because two people did something they genuinely should not have done, and the film is interested in what that means.
That combination — funny, a little spooky, emotionally honest, and watchable across age groups — is exactly what makes Karakkam a good weekend pick on SonyLIV.
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Karakkam is streaming now on SonyLIV. If you are looking for something genuinely different from the usual Malayalam horror, this is the one to try first.