Kunal Kemmu's Vibe got off lightly with the censors. The Central Board of Film Certification cleared the film on September 11 with an 'A' certificate, and according to Bollywood Hungama, the only change the Examining Committee actually asked for was to mute the phrase "B* C" somewhere in the dialogue track. Everything else, every romantic beat and every bit of violence, stays exactly as Kemmu shot it.

The board did want one addition though: an anti-drug disclaimer at the start of the film. No visual trims, no scene cuts. For a film billed as a comic caper with action stretches, that's about as smooth a censor run as it gets.

The certificate lists Vibe's runtime as 145.55 minutes, which works out to 2 hours, 25 minutes and 55 seconds. That's a reasonably long sit for something pitched as a caper comedy, so expect a fair bit of plot to go along with the laughs.

A crowded September 18

Kemmu directs and stars in Vibe, and he's got Preity G Zinta alongside him, back on screen for her second film since returning to acting. Her comeback vehicle, Batwara 1947, released last month and also picked up an 'A' rating from the board. The cast rounds out with Sparsh Shrivastava, Vanshika Dhir, Dinesh Lal Yadav (the Bhojpuri star known as Nirahua) and Yashpal Sharma, a combination that suggests the film is playing to a wider, more mass audience than a straight urban comedy would.

Vibe isn't opening quietly, either. September 18 is also the release date for Daayra, Meghna Gulzar's film starring Kareena Kapoor Khan and Prithviraj Sukumaran, which Bollywood Hungama reported on a day earlier also passed with an 'A' certificate and no visual cuts. Two adult-rated films clearing censors clean, dropping on the same Friday. That's the kind of coincidence trade watchers will be tracking once the weekend numbers start coming in, because an 'A' certificate narrows the audience on both sides before a single ticket sells.

For Kemmu, who's spent more time behind the camera than in front of it lately, Vibe is a bet on his own instincts as director and lead. For Zinta, it's the second step of a comeback that started with a period drama and now pivots straight into comedy. Whether either film's censor smoothness translates into box office comfort is the actual question September 18 has to answer.