The trailer for Kunal Kemmu ’s upcoming directorial, Vibe, elicited a lot of laughter and chuckles from the audience. Its jokes, set up, and the actor’s own comic timing were praised. But what many noted were a couple of Easter eggs, seemingly connecting the film to Kunal’s previous directorial Madgaon Express, as well as his cult zombie comedy Go Goa Gone. In a chat with Hindustan Times, Kunal talks about Vibe and whether he is indeed building a cinematic universe, as many suspect.
Vibe’s trailer introduces Kunal as an aimless young man living with Sparsh Shrivastava, his younger and more focused friend. At one point, Sparsh’s character refers to Kunal’s character as Hardik, who once had a bad drug overdose and confused Goa for Pondicherry and Mumbai for Bangalore. The one line is a small hint at two Kunal films. In Go Goa Gone, Kunal’s character was named Hardik, and he was a stoner. In Go Goa Gona, the actor appeared in a cameo as an unnamed man who, in a drug-fuelled daze, confused Goa for Pondicherry and Mumbai for Bangalore. He explains, “It is technical. On set, if you expect that when I do this scene, everybody will laugh, it may not happen. And if they don’t laugh, you can’t think it didn’t land. That is not always guaranteed. We had a very serious set when we shot some of what I hope will be our funniest scenes. Nobody is laughing. Somebody from outside may wonder if it is a funny film. It was the same with Madgaon Express. Barring that scene where Pratik snorts all that coke since it was so over-the-top, there were no laughs on set.”
The actor-filmmaker has often said that he finds comedy ‘a serious business’, as it is very technical to shoot.
