“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.
If Alpha treated its serum like doctrine, Vibe lets Hardik and Bhagirath “Bugs” (Sparsh Shrivastava) pocket something similar and keep walking with few questions asked. 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 kaput. Romance is the door he knocks on. Espionage is what he falls into.
Soon, the whiny bros are with Madam H’s team, which is examining a global terrorist nexus’ sudden interest in India because, of course, the country is a booming market. Terrorism is business, claims the villain, and the agency has a week before a covert operation in Thailand where Hardik and Bugs are supposed to collect intel.
So, they are the wrong lab rats. Vibe knows exactly how ridiculous its setup is, and that helps it stand apart from Bollywood’s usual straight-faced spy films. At 2 hours and 26 minutes, it moves from one twist, gag and set piece to the next without much time to catch its breath. Kemmu keeps trying to surprise us, but in vain. Why try? This is not a suspense machine. Disbelief is the ticket price. I didn’t mind the logical disconnects for that reason, and also because the YRF Spy Universe has offered far worse while insisting it was being serious.
Kemmu’s secret weapon is distance. He looks at espionage tropes with a pinch of salt. The film is not a spoof, though it does the work a good spoof must. The frames have a frantic, committed energy. I kept imagining Kemmu handling this the way Rancho delivered that baby in 3 Idiots. Not to brag about how much he can do, but with the frantic commitment of someone who simply refuses to drop the ball. That is the chaos Vibe is selling.
The writing peaks in the second act and slams into a thumping interval. After that, the pace does not slacken so much as the quirk quotient dips. The villain angle never develops any interest. In fact, I never bothered about his activities. Rather, I rooted for the good guys to get out of the mess somehow. The less said, the better about Kareena’s participation in the story. It didn’t make sense, and the whole laboured angle about her “terrorist” brother made me wish for a ‘skip’ button on the big screen.
The final act is neat, with expected turns and thrills. I hoped, true to the characterisations, that the film would wander into an accidental-detective zone. It doesn’t. The boys remain accidents in a serious room. They mostly do what they’ve been instructed to do. That is more interesting than another fake reveal and conventional heroics would have ever been.
Zinta’s return is a pleasure, and Vibe is wise enough not to announce it as a resurrection. Madam H may not be a career highlight, but I kept thinking she should do this again, not because nostalgia demands it, but because there is an ease here that most Hindi female spy/cop roles try to purchase with speeches. The character is interesting without the movie overstating her importance.
Sparsh’s Bhagirath is not the comic in Vibe. Almost nobody is, except Kemmu. Bugs is the board the jokes bounce off. It is not a showy role. It is the right one. The bromance holds because it is built on a gratitude trail: a geek once saved by a cool dude, still paying the debt in competence and panic. Hardik calls him “mummy” for all the nurturing he does. Call it a better love story than Erich Segal’s if you want. I tell you, the film understands that friendship does not have to surprise you to look convincing.
At the center of it all is Kemmu’s robust central act. This magnitude of screen energy is rare among Bollywood actors, old or young. Shah Rukh Khan had it as a condition of being on camera, not anymore. A younger Kemmu in Zakhm had it too, the kind of immersion that makes the National Award conversation around that film still feel slightly upside down, with Ajay Devgn’s deadpan performance taking the official flower while Kemmu was busy being the movie’s nervous system.
Yes, screen electricity means something. Most actors hover around a six and spike. Kemmu lives near a nine. This year, I saw Adarsh Gourav light up the screen in a similar way in Tu Yaa Main. The frames feel occupied and lively in these films even when the plot is only walking.
That energy is what makes Vibe work, and also points to where it falls short. The performance often outruns the page. You can feel Kemmu the writer trailing behind Kemmu the actor-director. Vibe is at its best when he drops the forced tension, trusts his gut, and lets the absurd stuff take over. When he tries to be a “proper” spy picture for a stretch, you can hear the costume rustle again.
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This is larger than one movie’s craft gap because Hindi cinema treats homegrown comedy as a guest, not a resident. Its minuscule mainstream comedy tradition has been thinned by lifts from Hollywood and other Indian industries. What goes missing is not “jokes”. It is an account of how people in Hindi-speaking cities and the heartlands actually sound when they are frightened, horny, loyal and stupid in the same afternoon. That humour lives on Instagram Reels and, to an extent, on streaming channels.
Vibe tries to put some of it back on the big screen while handling serious toys, terrorist networks, agencies, weeks on the clock, with playful vigour. Of course, Kemmu occasionally doubts the audience, and goes out of his way to lay down a runway to land a gag. All unnecessary. We eventually forgive these minor irritants because it is a rare film that can laugh at its own machinery and still be a spy film.
That is why I would take a franchise from this. Let the boys keep cracking cases by accident: Bollywood’s Dasan and Vijayan, poor spycraft, better panic. The idea will attract the wrong stewards. With due respect, keep Priyadarshan away from it. His chaos is a different dialect and arguably dated. This one is Kemmu’s. He already found the vibe. The next film only has to trust it for the full distance.
VERDICT: ★★★ 1/2
Read the reviews of Vibe by the Film Critics Guild HERE.
