Dial 100 movie review: Manoj Bajpayee meets Neena Gupta in an unexciting, unenergetic crime thriller

Language: Hindi Imagine the trailer of a suspense thriller giving away more information about the plot than the average review would. Imagine a team so inattentive to detail, that a prominent character in the storyline is listed by a different name in the credits. On second thoughts, do not trouble yourself to imagine any of this – let me just tell you about Dial 100. The new Hindi film streaming on Zee5 from today is directed by Rensil D’Silva, its story and screenplay are by D’Silva himself and the dialogues by Niranjan Kannan Iyengar. D’Silva made his directorial debut with Kurbaan (2009) starring Kareena Kapoor and Saif Ali Khan. His standing in the industry comes largely from the screenplay of the iconic Rang De Basanti that he co-wrote with Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, but don’t get your hopes up. Dial 100 stars Manoj Bajpayee as Senior P.I. Nikhil Sood who works in the police control room that Mumbaikars reach when they – literally – dial 100 for emergencies. Early on a particular night shift, Nikhil takes a call from a distressed woman (Neena Gupta) who seems intent on ending her life. On a parallel track, he fields the tension between his wife Prerna (Sakshi Tanwar) and son Dhruv. (Spoiler alert, unless you have seen the trailer) Nikhil later discovers that the woman on the telephone had asked for him by name. A personal connect is revealed not long after. (Spoiler alert ends) [caption id=“attachment_9868211” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Manoj Bajpayee in a still from Dial 100. Image from Twitter[/caption] Dial 100 then becomes a race against time for the leading man to ensure that there are no fatalities at the mysterious caller’s hands on his watch. What happens on the writers’ and director’s watch is a different question altogether. The premise of Dial 100 is not novel anyway, and what is worse, the screenplay and storytelling style are so inexorably lifeless, that the film is dead on arrival. No ‘twist’ in the proceedings comes as a shock or a surprise. This is supposed to be a thriller, but thrills are hard to find in its running time of 1 hour and 44 minutes. Adrift in this sea of dullness are three lovely artistes. Bajpayee has the most screen time, and seems earnest as a troubled parent, spouse and professional, although he can do little to save Dial 100 from its complete lack of vigour. Gupta, whose moving performance in Vikas Khanna’s The Last Color (2020) is still fresh in public memory, is given little in this script on which to pin her personality and formidable talent. The camera rarely rests on her face and seems as disengaged from her as the film is from itself. Tanwar gets the least space of the three but manages to extract just a tad bit more out of her role than they do. In such a curiously unenergetic film with so little to recommend it beyond this trio’s natural charisma, it feels pointless to launch into a deep analysis. One of the characters in Dial 100 is the spoilt rich kid Yash Mehra who is played by Aman Gandotra, a winner of the television talent show India’s Next Superstars in 2018. In the credits, Yash Mehra is listed as Anant Mehra instead. This casualness speaks volumes for Team Dial 100’s commitment to their work. How can anyone take a film seriously when it takes itself so lightly? Dial 100 is now streaming on Zee5 Rating: 1 (out of 5 stars)