While unravelling a series of murders in her jurisdiction, DCP Vartika Chaturvedi (Shefali Shah) also confronts the cruel labelling and marginalising of a tribe. The British called them “Criminal Tribes”, in free India they’re DNTs (Denotified Tribes) but large sections, including bigoted policemen, still treat them as sub-human born criminals.
Season 1 dealt with the beastly rape of a young woman in Delhi, roughly based on the infamous Nirbhaya gang rape.
Well-to-do senior citizens are being bludgeoned to death in Season 2 and the MO matches that of the Kachcha Baniyan gang, murderers who had a terror reign in the 1990s. Are they back, is the gang from a DNT in the Shahdara locality, or are smart copycat murderers on the loose?
With pressure from Commissioner Kumar Vijay (Adil Hussain) to parade the tribals as the culprits and pacify an anxious media and the public, the DCP has her hands full.
There is, as always, a cop woman who must also face gender injustice at home and it’s ACP Neeti Singh (Rasika Dugal) who’s caught between duty and inconsiderate hubby Devinder (Akash Dahiya). Although marital inequalities continue to be a reality, considering the times we live in and the gravity of the crimes under investigation, Devinder and his demands on Neeti’s times, do come off as outdated.
Shot in sombre shades, director Tanuj Chopra, creative director Rajesh Mapuskar and half-a-dozen writers – Mayank Tewari, Shubhra Swarup, Vidit Tripathi, Ensia Mirza with Sanyuktha Chawla Shaikh and Virat Basoya penning the dialogues – map out six episodes that deal with crime, domestic strife, human rights of the damned and a psychotic killer (Tilotamma Shome) with social grudges in her head.
With a stark, linear narration and professional performances from the entire cast, creator Richie Mehta’s crime watch could have been crisply told in five episodes as some of the sequences are stretched ‘yawnsomely’. But a show worth a watch for all that it sets out to say.
Watch Delhi Crime 2 Trailer:
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