Mumbai, India – Given Hindi cinema’s obsession with hypermasculinity and patriotism, it’s surprising it took so long for a spy comedy to emerge. But it’s only fitting that a Kunal—an affable, witty, unpretentious, and naturally unserious observer of Indian living—leads the charge. After giving Dil Chahta Hai the dysfunctional-buddy treatment in Madgaon Express, Kunal Kemmu directs himself in Vibe, a slacker comedy that’s shamed into an identity crisis. It’s the cinematic equivalent of watching two gloriously apolitical dudes accidentally pass a joint at a smoky house party to a proud WhatsApp uncle; nobody is prepared for the night (and fight) that follows.
The premise is just as well. Kemmu takes forward the all-vibes persona of Hardik, the clueless stoner from Go Goa Gone who stumbled into Madgaon Express. Here Hardik gatecrashes, by invite, the life of his best friend Bagirath (Sparsh Shrivastava), a Mumbai-based software genius who offers a fresh-from-rehab Hardik a new beginning. ‘Bugs’ worships the existence of Hardik, who in turn makes it seem like he’s doing Bugs a favour by receiving his help. The buddies soon find themselves in the crosshairs of big-picture stakes; mysterious intelligence boss Madam H (Preity Zinta) is forced to rope them into a mission to protect the nation from a Middle-Eastern terrorist threat.
For the first 90 of its 146 minutes, Vibe is comedy gold. Kemmu trusts himself to bring it, and he does. The initiation of Hardik and Bugs into a genre they want no part of finds the sweet spot between spoofy and slapstick. As a viewer, you’re either laughing or laughing in anticipation of laughing. It works on two levels. The first is just the language of situational humour; it’s not all gags and punchlines. Kemmu’s penchant for physicality and timing are such that the possibilities are endless; he manages to create something out of nothing as both actor and director. There’s a refreshing unpredictability about his presence: panicked reaction shots, throwaway gestures, real-world versions of filmy tropes, self-deprecating pauses, and physical meltdowns.
Sparsh Shrivastava plays the perfect foil as the studious bestie; he’s the first to “feel the josh” before realising that perhaps he’d rather be a computer nerd named Josh. It’s a nice change to see Preity Zinta return as the butt-kicking avatar of MI6 boss M, but she’s the only performer who looks too tuned into the memo. There’s another Kemmu-ism that’s easy to overlook in a whacky format. He has a blast with drugs-are-injurious-to-health gags, but not without a social edge: the intoxication of ‘substances’ becomes a metaphor for the Kool-Aid consumed by citizens who get weaponised by the very escapism they once found refuge in.
Which brings me to the anticlimactic flaw of Vibe. At some point, the film reaches Thailand and turns into the precise breed of plotty action thrillers that it seemed to be skewering. Things escalate quickly; the pockets of giggles are torn. It’s frustrating to see the movie discover its vanity, but the reasons are obvious. It aspires to be a big-screen popcorn entertainer in the vein of Main Hoon Na and Om Shanti Om, where the focus is on giving the audience multiple genres at the price of one. Vibe doesn’t succeed at this because the switch is abrupt. More importantly, the comedy is so good as a baseline tone that you’re disappointed when it changes gears.
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Could Vibe have trusted its primary vibe? Perhaps. Should it have stayed frivolous and local instead of spiralling into something more generic and expansive? Probably. Ironically, like Hardik himself, the film is most entertaining when it’s chilling without any motive. But it’s also the kind of film that’s so effective when it’s funny—especially in this age of Bollywood comic famine—that any other zone feels like a compromise. The lows feel lower because the highs are so dizzying. As a result, I wouldn’t call the stylish action parts a deal-breaker. It’s been long since a movie like this went all in, without getting conscious of the consequences.
