Vibe Movie Review: Kunal Kemmu’s Spy Universe Is Brilliantly Outrageous, Making Him A Bahumulya Gadha – A Loveable Idiot Bollywood Needs Badly!
Star Cast: Kunal Kemmu, Sparsh Srivastava, Preity Zinta, Dinesh Lal Yadav “Nirahua”, Yashpal Sharma, Vanshika Dhir
Director: Kunal Kemmu
What’s Good: Everything that makes an accidental-hero comedy shine -chemistry, chaos, and a director who finally seems to trust his own punchlines.
What’s Bad: A second half where the film slightly slows down to turn into a serious mission!
Loo Break: Maybe once, right during the interval!
Watch or Not?: Oh, absolutely, yes. This is your dose of laughter this weekend!
Language: Hindi
Available On: Theatrical release
Runtime: 2 hours 21 minutes
User Rating:
When Salman Khan arrived years ago with Ek Tha Tiger, no one knew that the Spy Universe would become one of the most talked-about cinematic events of the next decade! However, amidst the brooding, gritty spy thrillers, Kunal Kemmu enters, trusting his directorial instincts more than anyone else as he flips the Spy Universe genre completely and decides to bring a hilariously comical Spy world! Vibe is a spy parody that does not go wrong anywhere and delivers the prime purpose of cinema – entertainment!
The film revolves around two accidental spies who find themselves indeed in a high-stakes intelligence operation. Led by a hopelessly optimistic yet surprisingly resourceful rogue agent played by Kunal Kemmu, the team must intercept a national threat. Along for the wild ride is a tech-obsessed rookie (Sparsh Srivastava), a lethal senior officer with endless swag (Preity Zinta), and her assistants with extremely confident screen presence (Nirahua and Yashpal Sharma). As expected, nothing goes according to plan, turning a global espionage mission into a comedy of errors.
Kunal Kemmu clearly thought a lot after Madgaon Express pondering, what if I did this again, but with spies and villains? And honestly, thank god he did, because Vibe takes that same route but bolts a national-security plot into it, and the whole thing just works brilliantly!
Vibe Movie Review: Script Analysis
The plot is tricky and fun. Hardik is a drug addict who is taken care of by his childhood friend, Bugs – Bhagirath Bhargav. Bugs sends him to a rehab, and then makes sure to give him a job in his company’s advertising and marketing department! Hardik is warned to keep a safe distance from women here, until he falls for Kareena, an intern in the same office! Things go south after Hardik and Kareena’s first date, as he gets abducted by the National Security Agency and is planted as a spy in a National Mission, after intel suspects a terrorist attack is being planned on India!
Why was Hardik chosen? How does he become the right man at the wrong place or the wrong man at the right place? How Preity Zinta’s Madam H & her subordinates, Nirahua and Yashpal Sharma, lead this mission is something that turns into the whole hilarious plot of this film!
Vibe Movie Review: Star Performance
Kunal Kemmu, both in front of and behind the camera, is clearly having the time of his life. As Hardik, he leans fully into man-child energy without ever making the character cringe! There’s a specific skill to playing useless and still being likable, and Kemmu has it. Sparsh Srivastava is the film’s quiet USP. After an outrageous performance in Dupahiya, he is yet again a panicky guy. However, he is the reasonable one here and turns increasingly reasonable in dramatic situations! He is a genuine treat to watch on screen! Preity Zinta as Madam H gets the comeback she deserved! She’s commanding with a bit of dry humor, and clearly enjoying being back on screen in a role that lets her be both an action figure and a boss. Every scene where she has to deal with Hardik and Bugs is fun!
Nirahua and Yashpal Sharma, as the agency’s actual competent agents, are used well as a contrast – their scenes together have a nice deadpan rhythm, though the film could’ve given Nirahua a bit more to do beyond this! Vanshika Dhir, in her debut, is phenomenal! She has an impeccable screen presence and never overdoses it! She knows what she is doing! Sharmila Tagore’s brief cameo is a lovely surprise that the film doesn’t overplay.
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Vibe Movie Review: Direction, Music
Kunal Kemmu’s screenplay never lets the momentum dip until the second half! Rather than relying on lazy slapstick, the jokes are woven directly into the absurdities of the spy genre – parodying high-tech gadgets, dramatic hero entries, and overly complicated villain plots. The comic punches work, and while the film runs out of them in the second half, it loses its grip for a while! The action sequences are fluidly choreographed, serving the comedic narrative without feeling tacked on. Surprisingly, the music here is so good! It is infectious and beautifully elevates the chaotic energy of every sequence!
Hardik (Kemmu) and Bugs (Sparsh Srivastava) are two grown men who cannot be trusted to order their own lunch, let alone save the country — which is, naturally, exactly why the universe picks them. Preity Zinta’s Madam H barks orders at them with the exact energy of someone who has already accepted this assignment will end badly, and every scene she shares with the boys is a small comic masterclass in I cannot believe I have to work with you people. The camaraderie Kunal Kemmu tries to build is genuinely grounded in punches and gags!
Sparsh Srivastava, fresh off proving he can do quiet and devastating in Laapataa Ladies, flips the switch completely here, and it’s a delight to watch him be silly on purpose. Nirahua and Yashpal Sharma round out the agency as the two guys who actually know what they’re doing, which makes the contrast even funnier. Is the plot doing any heavy lifting? Not really, but Vibe isn’t here to reinvent the spy genre; it’s here as a spoof while giving you a genuinely funny time at the movies. Kunal Kemmu, the director, once again backs Kunal Kemmu, the actor, and this time, the bet pays off in full.
Vibe Movie Review: The Last Word
Vibe is an absolute crowd-pleaser that proves spy movies can be genuinely fun without losing their momentum. Driven by stellar performances from Sparsh Srivastava, Preity Zinta, Nirahua, and Kunal Kemmu himself, this film delivers non-stop entertainment from start to finish. If you’re looking for a stress-buster packed with laughs, clever parodies, and endless replay value, this one hits all the right notes!
Kunal Kemmu sets the palette nicely – ordinary people, extraordinary mess, comedy mined from panic rather than punchlines alone, and mostly, it works beautifully. Except for a second half that lacks a major antagonist, the film works! The first half moves fast, the jokes land smoothly, and the mission setup gives the comedy wings to fly! The film would have worked better if the second half had been a bit tighter and smoother! Vibe has a genuine The Man From Toronto vibe, and it sticks very smoothly to that zone for most of the film! It does not try to be a serious spy film wearing a comedy costume – it knows exactly what it is, and for the most part, it commits to that bit with real conviction. Carried by a terrific Kemmu-Srivastava double act and a Preity Zinta who reminds you why we missed her, this is a breezy, big-laugh entertainer that stumbles only when it takes its own plot too seriously.
PS. Kuna Kemmu turning into a Bahumulya Gadha for Bollywood comedies, it’s the genre I really want to put my money on! He is by far the most loveable Idiot I have seen on screen!
3.5 stars.
Vibe Trailer
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