Dial 1975
Thriller Drama Hindi
In 1975, India was declared in a state of emergency. This movie tells a story of that year and how the first mobile phone arrived to India.
| Cast: | Kay Kay Menon, Kirti Kulhari, Pravessh Rana, Vishwanath Chatterjee, |
|---|---|
| Director: | Navneet Behal, Vibhu Kashyap |
| Editor: | Som Chavan |
All Guild Reviews of "Dial 1975"
Dial M for Mediocrity
The Emergency-era thriller, starring Kay Kay Menon and revolving around the race to weaponise India’s first wireless phone is scattered, strange and disorienting at best
It’s not often you go into a film blind — and come out blinder. But Dial 1975 is that rare Hindi thriller. When you have an intriguing logline like “a gripping race to control India’s first wireless telephone takes place during the Emergency,” it takes some doing to make the furthest possible iteration of it. There were times I had to look up the premise again to make sure I wasn’t watching the wrong film. A semblance of a storyline pops up every now and then, and I can’t be sure, but it’s a pot-of-gold plot featuring an ex-soldier-turned-baddie (Kay Kay Menon), an ex-con-turned-goodie (Pravessh Rana), the goodie’s girlfriend (Kirti Kulhari), a bag full of cash (currency notes), missing tapes, a German guy with the precious invention, and a battle between government loyalists and rebel factions to procure said phone.
Emergency-Era Film Starring Kay Kay Menon Traps Actors in Amateurish Production
Streaming on Waves OTT, directors Navneet Behal and Vibhu Kashyap bring a film seeing a delayed release of almost a decade, but still appears incomplete.
There is a long history of small-budget films that escaped the limitations of finance and showed the world what true innovation really is. Generations of filmmakers have relied on techniques indistinguishable from magic tricks to make up for budgetary constraints. Scores of these movies are now regarded as classics. Dial 1975, which dropped on the OTT platform Waves this week, isn’t one of them. The film features a trio of talented actors and traps them in a production so amateurish that it could be mistaken for a student project. The starting premise is familiar. It’s the Emergency (of the ‘70s) and civil rights have been greatly restricted by the administration of a prime minister, who, however, is never seen or heard in the film. It is up to the prime minister’s loyal aides to ensure that even the mere thought of rebellion is quelled before it can morph into something more damaging.
‘डायल 1975’ फोर कन्फ्यूज़न
इस फिल्म ‘डायल 1975’ की कहानी कुछ यूं है कि… यार, मैं न बता रहा कहानी। पूरी फिल्म देख ली, इत्ती लंबी और उलझी हुई कहानी है कि देखने में माथा खराब हो गया, अब बताने में भी होगा। एक काम कीजिए, खुद ही ट्रेलर में देख लीजिए, अगर वह भी समझ में आ जाए तो। हां तो, अब आपकी समझ में आ गया होगा कि… बताइए क्या समझ में आया? नहीं आया न कुछ? चलिए मैं कोशिश करता हूं। जून 1975 में तब की ताकतवर प्रधानमंत्री इंदिरा गांधी ने भारत में इमरजैंसी लगवा दी थी। उन दिनों हर तरफ नज़र रखी जा रही थी, फोन-शोन रिकॉर्ड हो रहे थे, ऐसे में एक फोन-कॉल रिकॉर्ड होता है कि जर्मनी से एक ब्रीफकेस आ रहा है जिसमें आने वाले ज़माने का एक यंत्र है। इसकी डील चार लाख रुपए में एक होटल में होगी। अब बहुत सारे लोग इस डील के आगे-पीछे घूम रहे हैं। किसी को उस कॉल-रिकॉर्डिंग की टेप चाहिए, किसी को वह ब्रीफकेस, किसी को चार लाख रुपए तो किसी और को कुछ और। इन सारी चाहतों को पूरा करने के लिए अलग-अलग लोग, अलग-अलग लोगों को ज़िम्मेदारी देते हैं और ये अलग-अलग लोग बहुत सारे अलग-अलग लोगों को मारे जा रहे हैं।
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