Delhi Crime Season 2 review: The making of a ruthless murderer

Delhi Crime Season 2
Cast: Shefali Shah, Rajesh Tailang, Rasika Dugal
Director: Tanuj Chopra
Rating: 3.5/5

The National Capital is a mirage. It lures with the promise of a better life, but also affects the ability of rational thinking. It’s judgmental, unforgiving and darker than our imagination.

The second season of creator Ritchie Mehta’s Delhi Crime brings South Delhi DCP Vartika Chaturvedi (Shefali Shah) back into action. She is on a trail for a tribal gang that’s committing gruesome murders of rich elderly couples. Just when everyone marked it as return of a tribal gang, Vartika’s hunch leads the police force into a totally unexplored territory.

Delhi Crime is another Hindi web series with a focus on violence, but it’s been thoughtfully layered. Some subtle hints about class divide and societal prejudices add a lot of depth to it. There are characters unabashedly assured about their outbursts and violent streaks. Then there is a debate about police reforms without making it the central point.

We get introduced to people like Rajesh Tailang’s Bhupender and Rasika Dugal’s Neeti who have their own biases, but with a belief in the system. We also meet a retired cop Chaddha (played candidly by Kuldip Sareen) whose methods are old but somewhat effective. Actually, Chaddha and Vartika are at two ends of a system that’s coping with crimes of mammoth magnitude.

The sinister Delhi roads and bylanes shot in yellow tinge don’t even pretend to be something else than the crime capital of the nation. Frequent flow of expletives and punches keep the audience in the know how. For somebody like me, it wouldn’t take even a second to take everything on its face value. Delhi bares its soul just like you thought it would. Sad, scary and sensational.

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At times, Delhi Crime looks like a story from an upper middle-class lens, but then I also don’t know how to look at these crimes otherwise. These crimes are not just about ambitions and poverty, but also about the will to commit them. There is something unexplained somewhere. The makers also make a comment towards the end about how everything can’t be expressed in words. That seems like an apt description!

Shefali Shah is a treat to watch, but Delhi Crime is more about the set up than any character driving it. It also has the usual tropes of Indian web shows, but the thriller-like treatment keeps the viewers glued. Sometimes gloom forces a better vision.