Vibe, Kunal Kemmu's second directorial and a genuine comeback vehicle for Preity Zinta, released in Indian theatres today. As of this writing, no formal critic reviews with star ratings have been published — what's circulating instead is trailer-based anticipation and unverified early social media reaction, which is worth being clear about before treating any of it as a verdict on the finished film.
What is Vibe actually about?
The film follows Hardik, played by Kemmu himself, and his best friend Bugs, played by Sparsh Shrivastava — two ordinary, unemployed men whose unremarkable lives get upended when they're pulled into a national security threat they're spectacularly unqualified to handle. Preity Zinta plays Madam H, the authority figure who recruits and trains the reluctant pair as makeshift agents. The premise leans hard into contrast: two people with no business being action heroes, thrown into exactly that role anyway, with the comedy built around how badly suited they are for it.
Written, directed, and produced by Kemmu under his own Drongo Films banner alongside Chirag Nihalani, the film is backed by Amazon MGM Studios for Indian theatrical distribution, with PVR Inox Pictures handling domestic release and Reliance Entertainment covering overseas markets. It carries an A (adult) certificate from the CBFC and runs 2 hours 26 minutes.
Why does Preity Zinta's presence matter here specifically?
Zinta's casting is being treated as a genuine event rather than a routine supporting role, and the context explains why. Vibe marks her second big-screen role in fairly quick succession after Batwara 1947 earlier this year, following an extended gap from mainstream Hindi cinema. Where Batwara 1947 was a serious partition drama, Vibe puts her in a considerably lighter, more openly comedic register — reportedly her first outing in that specific action-comedy space in years. She's spoken publicly about working intensely long days on the shoot, which has become part of the film's pre-release conversation in its own right.
How does this fit into Kunal Kemmu's broader career arc?
Kemmu's path to this point is worth understanding for context. He's been a working actor since childhood, with roles stretching back decades, but his more recent run has been defined by a shift toward writing and directing rather than just performing. Go Goa Gone, a zombie comedy he co-starred in back in 2013, became a cult favorite for its genre-bending, offbeat humor — a sensibility that's clearly carried through into his directorial work now. His most recent prior credits before Vibe include hosting Prime Video's Alliance and headlining the Netflix series Single Papa in 2025, meaning Vibe represents his first time back leading a full theatrical feature in both senses — as an on-screen lead and as the person calling the shots behind the camera — since Madgaon Express established him as a director worth watching.
That trajectory matters for how expectations around Vibe have been set. This isn't a first-time director taking a swing with unproven instincts; it's someone with a recent, genuine box office and critical success behind him, attempting to prove that success wasn't a one-off. Whether Vibe manages that will only become clear once real reviews and audience reaction actually land.
Why is Kunal Kemmu's directorial track record relevant to expectations here?
Kemmu's previous directorial outing, Madgaon Express, was a genuine surprise hit that built real goodwill for him as a filmmaker capable of finding humor in ordinary, unglamorous characters rather than conventional Bollywood heroes. That film's success is doing a lot of the promotional heavy lifting for Vibe — nearly every piece of pre-release coverage references it directly, treating Kemmu's comic instincts as the main reason for confidence in this new film rather than the espionage-thriller premise itself, which several outlets have noted plays as a deliberately self-aware contrast to big-budget spy franchises like Tiger or Pathaan rather than a straight competitor to them.
What's the actual competition at the box office today?
Vibe isn't releasing alone. Daayra, a separate film marking Kareena Kapoor Khan's tenth CBFC "A"-rated release, opens in theatres on the same day, meaning the two films are splitting opening-day attention and screens between them. Trade reporting ahead of release suggested more confidence in Vibe's prospects specifically, with some trade voices predicting a possible sleeper-hit trajectory rather than a blockbuster one, similar in shape to how Madgaon Express built its reputation gradually rather than through a massive opening.
There's also a less obvious complication worth naming: Mirzapur: The Movie is still holding strong weeks into its release, and Hanuman Ansh remains a genuine ongoing box office story of its own. A new release competing for screens and audience attention against films that are still performing unusually well past their opening weekends is a different, harder environment than launching into a quiet week.
What's confirmed versus what's just early buzz?
Worth separating clearly, since a lot of pre-release coverage blurs this line. Confirmed: the cast, the premise, the runtime, the certification, the distribution arrangement, and the same-day clash with Daayra. Not confirmed: any actual critical assessment of how the finished film plays. References to "positive early reviews" circulating on social media ahead of release are, by every source reporting them, explicitly unverified — informal reactions from early or promotional screenings rather than published reviews from credentialed critics. Trade predictions about the film's likely box office shape are estimates, not results.
We'll follow up once real reviews and Day 1 box office numbers are actually available, rather than speculating on either before the data exists. Given the specific competitive environment Vibe is launching into, the coming days will say a lot about whether Kemmu's comic instincts can pull an audience away from two films that have already proven they can hold theirs. For how another recent Bollywood release's box office trajectory has played out, see our coverage of Mirzapur crossing Rs 200 crore worldwide and Haiwaan's weak opening earlier this month.
