Vibe

A film may possess an ingenious premise, an assured director and a cast brimming with talent, yet still lack the one intangible quality that can make or break a genre exercise: the right vibe. Not vibe in its loose, fashionable sense, but the precise tonal alchemy of mood, rhythm, atmosphere and attitude that tells us how seriously—or how gleefully—we are expected to take what unfolds on screen. For an action-comedy, that equilibrium is particularly precarious. Too much solemnity makes the jokes feel intrusive; too much frivolity diminishes the stakes. Vibe, for the most part, negotiates this tonal tightrope with considerable assurance.

Unfortunately, I’m not on team Kunal Khemu. I used to be, when I thought of him as an actor who didn’t get his due. However, his directorial debut, Madgaon Express (2024), changed that. Laced with typical “boys-will-be-boys” silliness, I found myself drifting off during many points of the inanity that was unfolding on screen. It needs a special kind of wit and sorcery to keep people invested in a film where nothing truly matters but the makers’ whimsy. Then I heard his views on pay parity, on his wife Soha Ali Khan’s podcast, and he didn’t seem all that wise. It’s futile to assume the above instances wouldn’t colour my perspective of his directorial venture, Vibe, a film he has also co-produced, and is starring in. But for the sake of fairness, I have to concede that there are few things more effortless in Hindi cinema than Khemu enacting a gag he wrote.

इस फिल्म (Vibe) को एक्शन-थ्रिलर-कॉमेडी कह कर बेचा जा रहा है तो सबसे पहले एक थ्रिलर वाला देखिए-भारत की एक खुफिया एजेंसी अगले हफ्ते थाईलैंड जा रहे दो साधारण लड़कों को एक मिशन सौंपती है। एजेंसी की हैड कहती है-‘हम कोशिश करेंगे कि हमारी दो साल की ट्रेनिंग तुम्हें एक हफ्ते में करा सकें।’ इस बचकानी बात के बाद बाकायदा कोशिश की भी जाती है और इस कोशिश में उन दोनों मरगिल्ले लड़कों को जिम में कसरतें करवाई जाती हैं गोया कि विलेन थाईलैंड में इनसे बाल्टियां भरवाएगा। सोचिए कि इतनी मरगिल्ली प्लानिंग लेकर जा रहे लड़कों के इस मिशन में कैसा थ्रिल होगा? अब कॉमेडी वाला सीन देखिए-हवाई जहाज में बैठे इन लड़कों में से एक अचार के साथ थेपले खा रहा है। दूसरा लड़का कहता है-‘यह ठीक है, वे गोलियां मारेंगे, तू पाद मारियो।’ सोचिए कि इतनी सड़ी हुई कॉमेडी देख कर आपको कितनी हंसी आएगी?

“Kaise soldier banunga? Bobby Deol hoon kya main?” Hardik (Kunal Kemmu) wails at Madam H (Preity Zinta) in Vibe, and the line does what most Hindi spy films refuse to do: it cheerfully winks at its own tropes. From that micro-meta gag here, Kemmu, directing himself, builds a legitimate ode to the ’90s actioner in a later scene, played for joy rather than piety. Fun is not a garnish here; it is the method. And I enjoyed watching almost everyone have some. I could only feel bad for Deol, who had none in the recent Alpha, a cousin film that took itself far too seriously, as if seriousness alone could give it a pulse. Alpha treated its serum like doctrine. Vibe lets Hardik and Bhagirath “Bugs” (Sparsh Shrivastava) pocket something similar and keep walking. Few questions asked, which is both the joke and the design. They are corporate slaves, one a buffoon, the other a nerd, who become accidental spies after Hardik’s planetarium date with his crush Kareena (Vanshika Dhir) goes sideways. Romance is the door he knocks on. Espionage is what he falls into.

It’s been a while since Bollywood attempted a full-on goofy spy saga, leaning into it with the right degree of silliness, and made it work. ‘Vibe’ is a vibe, and I’m here for it. It’s not so much a spoof, but a goof-off, and that’s what makes all the difference. Hardik (Kunal Kemmu), whose name leads to the predictable jibe about hardness and nether male regions, which Hindi cinema writers have made much of for years, is a fool who enjoys being one. He is a slacker, and therefore a doper, but haha, inside him hides the smart coder, who only needs that one nudge to make him better.

There will be no sophomore slump in Kunal Kemmu’s directorial career, which began with the sleeper hit comedy Madgaon Express (2024). His second movie is called Vibe, and this title is by far the worst thing about it — aside from, perhaps, its bloated length. They explain the meaning behind the title right at the end of its 145-minute run-time — it’s an acronym; surprise, surprise — but there’s no denying that it makes the movie sound like a rooftop bar in Delhi’s Hauz Khas. Or worse, an elder millennial’s desperate attempt to attract a young audience. Vibe is neither a rooftop bar nor is it in need of any publicity gimmicks. It’s a movie that should succeed on positive word-of-mouth alone. A smartly directed and impeccably performed action comedy, the film more than earns a place alongside Go Goa Gone (2013) and Madgaon Express in a spiritually connected trilogy about fools who find themselves in sticky situations.

Slacker comedy meets espionage thriller in an awkward but passably entertaining union in Vibe, produced, written and directed by lead actor Kunal Kemmu. The fun elements in the film vary wildly but they do not veer too far off the path the screenplay marks out for them. And that, for what it is worth, is no mean achievement. High-spirited frivolity of the kind that Vibe peddles demands extreme caution. The danger of it falling through the cracks and sinking into brainless buffoonery is real and ever-present. To its credit, even as it navigates differing strains of mirth that occasionally appear to work at cross-purposes, the film retains its grip on a wacky sense of verbal humour. For the most part anyway.