Vibe Review:

There are two types of actors when it comes to comedy. There are those who can hit the right note with good material, and then the ones who can elevate the material no matter how good or bad it is. Kunal Kemmu, I realised while watching his latest directorial Vibe, belongs to the latter. It helps that Kunal is also the writer of his film. While he reserves the best lines for himself, the actor also frequently lends hilarity to mediocre moments with his gifted comic timing. Vibe is a good showcase of why Kunal is possibly one of the best comic actor we have today, and deserves better scripts, including the ones he is writing.

Also starring Preity G Zinta and Sparsh Shrivastava in lead cast, Vibe tells the story of Hardik (Kunal), a laid-back man if there was one, and his more driven friend Bugs (Sparsh). Amidst a regular everyday life — Hardik is also falling for the new intern Kareena (Vanshika Dhir) — the two find themselves to be a part of a top-secret mission to nab a wanted terrorist figure. Preity meanwhile plays Madame H, the in-charge of the mission who is getting passive-aggressive co-operation from her colleagues at the government office who are still working with software systems older than a decade. 

Cast: Kunal Kemmu, Sparsh Shrivastava, Preity G Zinta, Vanshika Dhir, Dinesh Lal Yadav 'Nirauha', Yashpal Sharma

Directed by: Kunal Kemmu

Yet, it can be safely said that Vibe is essentially about how many ways Kunal can make us laugh. It makes perfect sense that his Hardik is almost phobic of giving off the ‘elderly Bhaiyya’ vibe — there is an impish, juvenile quality to almost everything in Vibe, and that can get both endearing and grating at times. Credit where it’s due, some of the humour aptly taps the filmmaker’s irreverence, and also his vibe that often drives memorable humour — a throwaway joke about marketing jobs, a dig at actors who get too big for their boots, or the way Hardik nonchalantly mentions he is not ‘Taare Zameen Par’ to prove his normalcy. There are also some throwbacks to Kunal’s Go Goa Gone (2013), be it the funky opening number about office drudgery or that one scene with Hardik coping with the pressures of police surveillance. In a scene otherwise aimed to be sweet and romantic, a streetside burger joint is randomly named ‘big tits.’

And that’s pretty much all Kunal is aiming for here — easy laughs, witty timing, and a plot that doesn’t necessarily have to go anywhere. While such an aim is not wrong by itself, I am tempted to wonder — why does making a comedy, for most Indian filmmakers, often mean keeping confined ambitions? Vibe could’ve been a more irreverent parody if it wanted to be. Kunal has the writing chops, but is not ambitious enough, appearing too content with a string of uproarious one-liners that land well, but probably won’t stay with you outside the theatre. Some visuals are inspired in their dementedness like a nervous spy puking on the lie-detector machine. But the desperation for punchlines gets bigger than the search for situations that demands your attention.  Meanwhile, some of the smarter running jokes — Bansi (Dinesh Lal Yadav 'Nirauha') calling the two protagonists 'bahumoolya gadhe' (priceless donkeys), an insult that hits another level of hilarity in Hindi — are sacrificed for the sake of easy, low-hanging fruits. This comic trade didn’t work for me, at least. 

Vibe also takes too long to set the premise in the first half, and doesn’t exactly deliver a suitable pay-off after raising the stakes. The dialogues land, but the plot points don’t. There is an inadvertent dig at Alpha (or intentional, one cannot be sure) with the concept of super-soldiers that could have been a lot funnier. There is a fleeting thread about misuse of AI that goes nowhere. We get a few endearing moments of bonding between Bugs and Hardik, but it doesn’t culminate in a way that adds to the sentiment Kunal is going for by the end. Similarly, the bond between Kareena and Hardik doesn't carry enough weight for that moment to land when Kareena thanks him for arriving in her life.

Also, after convincing us to relax and sit at ease, the film ends up spending too much time explaining the complex web of events behind the reasons for Hardik and Bugs being in danger. There was so much potential with Hardik and his stoner personality in terms of comic quotient, but there is just not enough enthusiasm on a writing level to tap into every possible angle. Towards the end, when a major character has a moment of comeuppance, it feels too intense for a narrative of this tonality. Eventually, the film comes sprawling apart in its second half, struggling to strike the right balance between spoof and sincerity.

It’s great to see Preity G Zinta in a campy action set-piece, but otherwise the actor struggles to keep up with Kunal's tonality. Vanshika Dhir makes a passable debut. As for Sparsh Shrivastava, he definitely deserves better roles from the industry. Despite playing the proverbial second fiddle, the one with fewer punchlines and lesser backing from author, the Laapataa Ladies actor holds his ground. 

There is clearly great confidence in the material which reflects in the final promise of a sequel. Madgaon Express 2 is in the works too. But next time around, Kunal needs to step up his game as a more in-command writer — so that he doesn’t let down the actor in him to begin with, let alone the audience.