Manoj Bajpayee and Neena Gupta’s ZEE5 thriller dials in the suspense almost to a 100°, almost
OTT Film: Dial 100
Dial 100 Cast: Manoj Bajpayee, Sakshi Tanwar, Neena Gupta
Dial 100 Director: Rensil D’Silva
Where to Watch: ZEE5
Bollywood has dished out myriad masterpieces in the thriller genre over the years while also holding its head high with several classic cop movies, albeit mostly in the action genre. It’s very rare though that the two have a union, with a police procedural premise or a cop being the central character of a thriller, and that, too, a very good one, with Govind Nihalani’s Droh Kaal, starring Om Puri, Anubhav Sinha’s Article 15, starring Ayushmann Khurrana, Pradeep Sarkar’s Mardaani, starring Rani Mukerji, Raj Khosla (India’s greatest Director, IMO)’s CID, starring Dev Anand, and Anurag Kashyap’s Raman Raghav 2.0, starring Vicky Kaushal and Nawazuddin Siddiqui, being some of the brilliant ones that come to mind. So, does the latest cop-thriller amalgamation, Manoj Bajpayee and Neena Gupta’s Dial 100, on ZEE5, measure up? Not quite, but it does hold its head high like other good ones such as John Abraham’s Batla House and Ajay Devgn-Akshaye Khanna’s Aakrosh?
So, are you excited about what to watch this weekend or what to watch this week and wondering whether Dial 100 is worth your time? Scroll down for my full Dial 100 review…
What’s it about
Senior PI Nikhil Sood (Manoj Bajpayee), who’s in-charge of a police helpline centre, gets a random call from Seema Pallav (Neena Gupta), who’s supposedly contemplating suicide, but as the rain-soaked night and his efforts to save her unfold, it’s clear that there’s more than what meets the eye, the call is not so random after all and that Seema, who has a personal connect with Nikhil and his son, is actually looking for a means to avenge the death of her child.
Watch the Dial 100 trailer below:
What’s hot
Dial 100 uses it’s torrential rainy milieu to great effect, almost giving it a life of its own in the movie, for which, cinematographer Anuj Rakesh Dhawan deserves a pat on the back. The editing is also extremely crisp, keeping the runtime down to exactly what’s needed and interchanging between scenes whenever require, so kudos to Asif Ali Shaikh. And then, there’s those two chameleons, Manoj Bajpayee and Neena Gupta, lending a heart and soul and pumping blood even in scenes that have no business being that good, ensuring that our interest never dips, infusing empathy into the mystery that many thrillers lack. The equally competent Sakshi Tanwar provides them terrific support. Coming to Rensil D’Silva’s screenplay and direction, it must be said that Dial 100 is supremely tight and suspenseful till the halfway stage, but could’ve benefited from the same temp being maintained thereon.
What’s not
The one big issue with Dial 100 is that some of its major twists can be seen from miles away and the underlying suspense becomes all too detectable way before it needed to. The other minor issue is that the aforementioned grip I had with the tempo becomes progressively prominent as we head toward the climax. Also, if it weren’t for Manoj Bajpayee, Neena Gupta and Sakshi Tanwar, some of these issues would’ve stuck out like a sore thumb.
BL Verdict
Without stamping its authority as one of Hindi cinema’s best cop thrillers, Dial 100 does enough to make its mark as one that can be enjoyed for its performances, empathetic relatability and some pretty good suspenseful moments. I’m going with 3.5 out of 5 stars.
3.5 out of 5
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