Vibe Review: Kunal Kemmu’s Film Is More Ridiculous Than Funny

Despite occasional bursts of spunky comedy, the madness simply doesn’t land as expected, and the overall vibe feels off, notes Mayur Sanap.

IMAGE: Sparsh Shrivastava and Kunal Kemmu in Vibe.

The last time I had a proper belly laugh watching a Bollywood comedy was Kunal Kemmu’s directorial debut Madgaon Express. It was a rare comic caper that proudly embraced its stupidity and somehow made it work.

As Kemmu is back in the director’s chair with Vibe, I pretty much expected the same brand of madcap humour and zany energy.

For a while, it works. You grin. You laugh. You settle in for a carefree ride.

There are some cheeky references sprinkled throughout. Taare Zameen Par, Don, Kick get playful shoutouts, while Kareena Kapoor Khan, Huma Qureshi, Hrithik Roshan, Bobby Deol, Salman Khan also become part of the joke machine through verbal references (some of these names are thanked in the opening credits).

But if you are looking for the same comedic zing of Kemmu’s earlier film, good luck finding it here. Despite occasional bursts of spunky comedy, the madness simply doesn’t land as expected, and the overall vibe feels off with Vibe.

Vibe‘s Loony Hero

Kemmu’s character is named Hardik, perhaps a hat-tip to his character in the cult-favourite zombie comedy Go Goa Gone. He plays a hero whose very existence feels like one long running gag.

He is loony, lazy, and gloriously lowbrow.

Hardik lives with his nerdy bestie Bhagirath aka Bugs (Sparsh Shrivastava), his junior from college who is fiercely protective of him. After a drug overdose, Hardik is sober following a stint in rehab and reluctantly starts working at Bugs’ software company, where he falls for Kareena (Vanshika Dhir).

For a while, the drama plays like a frothy rom-com, until Hardik discovers something about Kareena.

After this revelation, Hardik gets caught up in a national security crisis and has to follow orders from Madam H (Preity Zinta), the no-nonsense head of a top-secret spy agency.

Bugs gets dragged into the mess too, and the unlikely duo are forced to become accidental spies.

Comedy Gets Complicated

Kemmu, the actor, remains easy to root for.

We have seen him excel in this space before with Kanjoos Makhichoos, Go Goa Gone, and Lootcase. He has a natural ability to play lovable idiots who somehow stumble into extraordinary situations. He brings the same energy here. At one point, a character dismissively calls his ‘Hardik bahumulya gadha (a one-of-a-kind donkey)’, and that becomes a recurring gag.

As a writer, Kemmu has a bunch of zany ideas up on his mind. You can see that right from the opening credits, where a crackling voiceover keeps the ball rolling even before the film has begun. Once the characters are introduced, the screenplay wants to keep throwing surprises at the audience.

Sadly, it is Kunal Kemmu the director who struggles to maintain control over all those ideas. The problem begins when the film tries to become something bigger that it really is.

For nearly an hour, Vibe remains a goofy entertainer that understands its own ridiculousness. The laughs don’t always hit the bullseye, but the film keeps moving at a light pace.

And then comes Thailand.

The moment the narrative shifts gears and heads into international territory, things start getting messy. Suddenly, the film becomes obsessed with bigger stakes, throwing in terrorism, AI paranoia, software attacks and geopolitical conspiracies. Almost none of it is convincing, and much of it feels lifted from other films.

At one point, a character even shouts: ‘Picturey bahut dekhte ho tum.’ The line rings true, because at this point, Vibe feels like it has borrowed ideas from too many films.

This is where the film misses the opportunity to become sharp satire on the spy genre. But, Kemmu plays things surprisingly straight.

The film curiously turns increasingly serious about being an action drama in the second half, eventually reaching that obligatory massy moment where Kemmu rips off his shirt to show off his chiselled physique.

Preity Zinta Gets The Fun Moments

Unlike Madgaon Express, which thrived because every character was distinctly wacky, Vibe never creates a gallery of truly zany personalities.

Kemmu remains an entertaining presence, but there’s a nagging feeling that we have seen this from him before. The facial expressions, the line delivery, the buffoonery — all of that feel too familiar to make much of an impression.

The exception is Sparsh Shrivastava.

Even when the scenes aren’t particularly funny, the young actor’s little reactions make them work. He comes across more natural than other players around him, and easily stands out in the packed cast.

Preity Zinta gets some enjoyably moments as the commanding figure. The feminist subtext to her Madam H is pretty juvenile, but Zinta appears to be enjoying it. Her action scene is easily one of the film’s most fun moments, and just before that comes a full-on flattering shot of her dimpled smile. Didn’t we miss that about her?

Debutante Vanshika Dhir has glimpses of Triptii Dimri from certain angles, with an early-Katrina Kaif-like accent and screen presence. She looks pretty, but that is the extent of what the film gives her to play.

Sharmila Tagore makes a delightful brief appearance on a screen within the screen. If only the film knew what to do with her for longer.

By the climax, Vibe feels like several films fighting for screen space, eventually turning into a ridiculous mix of genres that delivers only patchy comedy.

Instead of staying focused on its irreverent humour and absurd characters, the film trades masti for geopolitical mumbo jumbo. No wonder the vibe simply disappears.

Vibe Review Rediff Rating: