Vibe movie review: It’s been a while since Bollywood attempted a full-on goofy spy saga, leaning into it with the right degree of silliness, and made it work. ‘Vibe’ is a vibe, and I’m here for it.

It’s not so much a spoof, but a goof-off, and that’s what makes all the difference. Hardik (Kunal Kemmu), whose name leads to the predictable jibe about hardness and nether male regions, which Hindi cinema writers have made much of for years, is a fool who enjoys being one. He is a slacker, and therefore a doper, but haha, inside him hides the smart coder, who only needs that one nudge to make him better.

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In a smart move, Kemmu surrounds himself with real actors. Sparsh Srivastava as the straight-faced Bugs is a solid foil to the all-over-the-place Hardik, and newcomer Vanshika Dhir is a smash as the looker who hooks our hero, using a series of unlikely wiles.

We’ve seen Kemmu the eye-catching actor ever since he was a child: have never forgotten how good he was in ‘Zakhm’. This is his second directorial outing, and he makes up for his lax lapses in his debut, ‘Madgaon Express’ by keeping everything zippy. For the sequel, and I’m sure there will be one given the hook it leaves us on, just a little tip for Kemmu: if he gives the others a little more play, it will be much more fun.

As befits these kinds of films, the plot is just a device to pile up the jokes, and the film doesn’t slip up in creating this little bubble where a svelte Madam H (Preity Zinta) bosses over a bunch of spooks beavering away in ill-equipped dank rooms, helped by her two main men (Yashpal Sharma and Dinesh Lal Yadav) who nail the serio-comic tone to a nicety.

And that’s something you can say for the whole film, in which Zinta gets to loosen up a little by the time it reaches Bangkok, where some bad fellows speaking gibberish about AI and its potential evil ways (about the only time things get a bit slack) are lying in wait for our pals. In all this, movie references abound in a good-natured, in-your-face fashion: a nightclub fight sequence is very ‘Kill Bill’; red and blue pills are very ‘Matrix’ and so on; when they come up, we smile.

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Psst, a veteran star shows up in a walk-on part – what are family connections for, otherwise – but Sharmila Tagore can be a great comedienne too. I demand a larger part for her next time around.

Meanwhile, I laughed out loud in many places.

Vibe movie cast: Kunal Kemmu, Sparsh Srivastava, Vanshika Dhir, Preity Zinta, Yashpal Sharma, Dinesh Lal Yadav, Mark Bennington, Salem Kali


Vibe movie director: Kunal Kemmu


Vibe movie rating: 3 stars