Delhi Crime Season 2 Review: Evil Still Looms But In Shefali Shah’s Incredible Madam Sir, We All Trust!

Cast: Shefali Shah, Rasika Dugal, Rajesh Tailang, Tillotama Shome, and ensemble.

Creator: Richie Mehta.

Director: Tanuj Chopra.

Streaming On: Netflix.

Language: Hindi With English (with subtitles).

Runtime: 5 Episodes Around 50 Minutes Each.

Delhi Crime: Season 2 Review: What’s It About:

So after tackling the haunting and traumatizing season 1 of the show where the Nirbhaya case was the center plot, DCP Vartika Chaturvedi (Shefali Shah) and her team are on to their next case. It is a group of masked murderers supposedly the ‘Chaddi Baniyan’ gang creating havoc in Delhi. The team is put to test yet again and the makers of International Emmy Award-winning show prove it, yet again!

Delhi Crime: Season 2 Review: What Works:

Now, first, everyone sitting with their judgemental apparatus to compare the season 2 with 1, please throw that away. Why? Well, the first season was Richie Mehta’s 6 years long research and a real-life case that had all of us agitated and emotionally connected to. A lot of it was already known to us and the visual retelling of it made us connect even more and empathize with the victim and everyone involved in giving her justice. Shefali Shah played the inspired version of IPS Officer Chhaya Sharma who was involved in solving the real-life Nirbhaya case. So while you can rightfully compare the cinematic language and the filmmaking, comparisons between the stories might be wrong.

Begins season 2 of Delhi Crime with a new director. Writers Shubhra Swarup and Mayank Tewari continue to be on board under the leadership of Richie, Tanuj Chopra joins the clan as the new director. While the police force that is working round the clock to keep Delhi safe are also trying to balance things at their personal spaces, the clock strikes midnight and a new havoc is created in the capital. They are called to work again and they leave behind everything and join.

The writing in season 2 of the show is aware that the viewers by now know the landscape, so it doesn’t waste time in introducing you to the new case. While the moral compass was at test last time, it is the class system and inherit casteism and oppression at full display this time. The marginalised of Delhi are biting the elite who are unaware and almost comical about the struggles they face. A tribal community is called the culprit only because they were once framed criminals by birth under an act imposed on us by the British in 1871. Can someone be criminal by birth? But 150 years of oppression and partiality has conditioned minds to think of them as criminals and devoid them of their right to have a life.

Writers and the director shape Delhi Crime in the metaphors that are pretty visible but never said in words. How the have-nots revolt and become criminals due to lack of resources, and how the elite are full of themselves to not even look at the world. At one point after the first murder, the daughter of the victim lists down an “expensive” face cream in the items stolen. Her parents are killed, read that again. That cream enters the screenplay again but in a very subtle manner and you need to catch that. Or there is a sequence where Tillotama Shome dreams of buying a property in a high rise but as soon as she looks down from the window, she sees a man wiping the floor reminding her of the strata she comes from.

The investigation is joy to watch because there are procedures being followed without inducing dramatic dialogues. The best part about the show is how it manages to capture the energy draining out of each person working on the case. Not just Vartika, but everyone. There is nothing left in them emotionally to reserve it for their homes, but they still try to find that little bit and give it. There are personal conflicts and real ones that occur and they are amazing.

The art department excels again as they create a world that is lived in and one can connect too. Nothing is overtly done, but there is visual drama in every thing and place.

Delhi Crime: Season 2 Review: Star Performance:

Can we start a cult after Shefali Shah’s name if she may allow us? I can worship the sheer talent this lady has consistently brought to the table in the last couple of years. People who know me, know how much I admire her craft of acting with the eyes and here the camera zooms into them quite often. Do I need to tell you she aces it every single time?

Rasika Dugal is a force to reckon because she has been the one who is growing the most throughout the course of both the seasons. Her conflicts with her married life and the fact that things aren’t settling well, gives her an entirely new layer and that is so good. Rajesh Tailang manages to bring his A game on yet again even in the limited part. A scene between him and Shefali where they discuss their daughters is so vulnerable that you can see through.

Tillotama Shome is another gem and the actor brings the emotions of her character out even without almost no dialogue and a very limited screen time.

Delhi Crime: Season 2 Review: What Doesn’t Work:

Delhi Crime 2 seems to be in a rush to reach the end. The last episode, as a result, ends up looking like it is on some speed track and refuses to slow down giving us little to no room to absorb some major things that were built so well until episode 4. The effect is toned down as a result and that irks.

The same rush ends up making Tilotama’s storyline look half baked and the antagonist is diluted in the jiffy.

Dialogues by Sanyukta Chawla Shaikh are good but the ratio of English to Hindi is not balanced well. Maybe to make it more international audience friendly, but English is spoken in moments that required Hindi and for that moment many where it is also difficult to believe.

Delhi Crime: Season 2 Review: Last Words:

I love how the franchise is shaping up to be about women rising in the police force without anyone pointing out their gender in a male-dominated profession. Delhi Crime 2 even with its flaws is a step in the right direction and must grow and flourish even more.

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