Telephone (1985)
Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Parveen Babi, Dipti Naval, Marc Zuber, Prem Chopra
Director: Tulsi and Shyam Ramsay
Music: Rajesh Roshan
Synopsis: Major misfire from the Ramsays as they try to join the masala mainstream
Reviewed by: Omar Khan

 

By the mid-80s, the Ramsays had achieved some significant successes, which brought them to a sort of midlife crisis. They clearly thought they were ready to break free from their horror-movie mould and enter the mainstream, but it went woefully wrong for them, and subsequently they didn't stray too far from their tried-and-tested formula. No monsters, no fangs, no swirling mist; Telephone is an attempt at a slick, masala-laden action-revenge potboiler which fails dismally at almost every level.

The plot centres around two business partners who fall out when one (Shatrughan Sinha) discovers that the other is a sleazebag (Marc Zuber). They plot and scheme against each other, and poor, decent Deepti Naval is caught up in the blackmail and intrigue, eventually crashing to her death from a high-rise building.

After that, Zuber attempts to get back at his business partner by framing him for murder. In the mix are sleazy Prem Chopra and a whole bunch of seasoned Bollywood hoods, with the excellent Yunus Parvez leading the way and support from Bob Christo and Mac Mohan, among others. Parveen Babi returns from abroad to avenge her sister's death and plots the downfall of Sinha, who is already battling Zuber's constant sniping. There is a letter written by Naval before she dies which implicates the killer, but that falls into the hands of a buffoon like Jagdeep. Round and round we go in this circle of vengeance, with twists and turns that never really land.

There is a feeling that, amidst the muddled confusion, there could have been a fun movie to be found, but everything gets caught up in a mess, with the Ramsay Brothers, Tulsi and Shyam, unable to deliver a coherent plot that engages the audience in any satisfactory way. It's all muddled, confusing, and irritating, going off on tangents and circling until the tangled web becomes rather boring. The film fails to grip the audience sufficiently to maintain interest.

It isn't good enough to be bad, either, which is a shame because the cast is largely wasted. Many years later, the Ramsays attempted another thriller, Khoj, which was thoroughly enjoyable, but this one is simply a confused, convoluted mess.

Shatrughan Sinha goes through the motions, and Parveen Babi looks fetching, but Yunus Parvez steals the honours with his stylish attire and stunning looks. Marc Zuber does well as a cold-hearted nasty and Prem Chopra sleepwalks through his role with relative ease.

Sadly, the film loses its way fairly early on, and things never get back on track. It turns into one of those movies where you hope the end comes soon because, after a while, nobody really cares what happens to any of the characters on screen.

On the whole, a bad misfire from the Ramsays and it is unsurprising that it is considered by fans to be one of the weakest efforts in their long and uneven filmography. They soon got back on track, though, sticking to what they did best.

Monsters, billowing mist and mayhem.

Telephone was dull, flat, stale and messy. Not an enjoyable experience at all.