Delhi Crime is an Indian anthology series on Netflix, written and directed by Richie Mehta. The 6 episode miniseries, debuted on March of this year, has been reconstructed around the police investigation into a notorious 2012 gang rape case of a student in Delhi that shook the entire world; triggering mass protests and reforming India’s law on rape and sexual assault.
The crime drama dwells on a route displaying honest and crude part of police’s day and night unbending and uncompromising investigation which took them across the country to find the rapists and bring them to the justice.
Starring Shefali Shah (Vartika Chaturvedi), Rasika Dugal (Neeti Singh), Adil Hussain (Kumar Vijay) and Rajesh Tailang (Bhupender Singh) and many more as police officers working on the case.
The real-life crime drama series has one of the best well balanced characteristics of how professional lives meets the personal while each and every character takes care of not only their jobs but also how these officers have to leave behind a huge chunk of their personal issues and focus on the tasks at hand. You are reminded of that throughout the series.
As the story develops the miniseries reflects on the roles of the police officers from the lowest rank to the highest rank controlled by a feisty, professional and unbending police officer Vartika Chaturvedi played by Shefali Shah. Shah’s role a strong minded police officer a workaholic in an underfunded, undertrained and endemically corrupt police system, manages to select a team of investigation officers of various ranks to work with her.
With a single stare at her subordinates every time they make mistakes reflects on the tough position she is in; not only to bring the rapists to justice but also to save her rank and her position
Shah’s character also struggles hard on keeping personal emotions out of the case as she is seen teary eyed yet calmingly managing all the mismanagements that comes while finding the culprits within a weeks’ time.
The description of the investigation also shows various aspects of what goes behind the investigations, the urge of some officers to bunk work, under budgeted police stations where the management fails to pay the electricity bills, over worked under slept; away from home and working for weeks without any breaks shows the dedication that goes unnoticed.
Delhi Crime despite being made on a very sensitive dark subject matter, the director skillfully pictured the aftermath of the incident, where each and every character is struggling not just with the incident but how it has affected them despite of being part of their professional life.
Among other prominent characters Rajesh Tailang’s acting is admirable, Bhupender Singh is one of the senior police officers in the investigation who is shown as one of the most level headed characters throughout the series. The great camaraderie between Shah and Tailang can be seen throughout the show and is one of the key factors on how investigations needs calmness and dedication.
Other characters are shown as well seasoned officers following their long years of experiences during the investigation while they keep on looking for the traces left by the rapists, by risking their lives, swimming across the rivers, looking at every details into the crime scene, pushed to their limits to track down and arrest the victim’s rapists.
The series has successfully engulfed many viewers into rethinking about the roles many people play while working on such sensitive issues. The series is promised to return for a second series with the same characters but with a different story. I’d highly recommend this series to everyone!
