Zee5’s Dial 100 Review: Swoops High and Then Falls Way Too Easy

Dial 100 is a recently released crime thriller on Zee5, directed by Rensil D’silva and starring Manoj Bajpayee, Sakshi Tanwar, and Neena Gupta in lead roles, among other cast members. It has a total run time of just over an hour and 45 minutes.

Dial 100 follows Senior PI Nikhil Sood, a police officer who works at the Police Emergency Call Room. As part of the job, Nikhil is not someone who is easily phased, but when a strange woman calls the emergency number, with oddly specific details about him, things quickly turn sour.

Zee5 describes it as:

Dial 100 is a fast-paced crime-thriller movie starring Manoj Bajpayee, Neena Gupta, and Sakshi Tanwar in the lead roles. The Police emergency control room receives a call from a woman, who sounds troubled and wants to commit suicide.

As officer Nikhil tries to calm her down, he discovers that the hysterical woman has bought a gun. When asked, she tells him to stay tuned to find out about her real intentions.

But as time progresses, Nikhil figures out that the woman has sinister intentions and his family is in danger. The rest of the movie Dial 100 is the execution of the events that unfold. Watch this fast-paced crime thriller with seasoned actors.

Via Zee5

– This Dial 100 review does not contain any spoilers –

Judging from the cast and the trailer alone, this film was on my watchlist for a while now, and naturally, after watching Bajpayee’s work in Gangs of Wasseypur and The Family Man, watching him in another action role sounded like a treat. However, after watching the film, I was left feeling quite underwhelmed.

The film can be divided into two distinct halves. The beginning that grips you right from the first scene, and the climax, which occurs at some time right in the middle of the film. The first half of the film does well in holding on to the suspense. It has the classic “whodunnit?” feel to it, with a nameless, faceless caller and a perturbed cop at his wit’s end.

But somewhere around the middle, when a film would usually break for intermission, all the cards are laid out for the audience to see. And while you keep expecting an ace up their sleeve, none come. It’s like a rollercoaster that starts off with a bang, building up anticipation with twists and turns, only to fizzle out in the end.

Also Read: The Family Man S2 Review: Bajpayee and Akkineni Bring Back the Gripping Series!

Dial 100 is, like the Zee5 description claims, rather fast-paced. So much so that quite a few plot points remain unexplored to a great extent. The film tries to touch upon drug abuse, teenage antics, corruption within the government authorities, and mental health all in its 100 minutes run time.

Throughout this run time, however, we see consistency within one department, and that is the acting. To no one’s surprise, Manoj Bajpayee steals the show with his floundering cop act, Sakshi Tanwar is great as the cliched mom who’s constantly worried, and Neena Gupta really does make the audience believe she’s actually deranged. Dial 100 is promising at first, and one hour into the film, you really do expect it to keep you sucked in. The second half, however, does nothing but push you out.

Also Read: Aftermath (2021) Review: Decent Thriller Keeps It Going

Final Verdict: Dial 100 Review

Dial 100 is fun, and quite frankly a decent enough thriller you can watch and enjoy once. Although it loses its grip just as soon as things begin to get intense, it rounds off to a plot you could enjoy if your expectations were a little lower, but I know for a fact that mine were sky-high.

Dial 100 is now streaming on Zee5.

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