Delhi crime season 2 review

Published: Thu 15 Sep 2022, 6:38 PM The first season of Delhi Crime won Best Drama Series at the 48th Emmy awards in 2020. The true crime series explored the Delhi Police investigation into the horrific Nirbhaya gang rape that took place on 16 December 2012 — a case that shook the nation, and the world at large, and resulted in large-scale amendments to India’s rape laws. While almost every single detail of the case per se is in the public domain, the series takes on the perspective of the rag-tag, overworked, underpaid police department (all characters are based on real-life counterparts) that managed to crack the case in a few days, and arrest the culprits — battling staggering infrastructural odds, at times using unconventional methods to make up for lack of manpower and resources. That context remains the same in Season 2: the fact that the Indian capital — the fertile breeding ground of the maximum number of crimes in the country — is policed by a department that is still working against deafening odds. Most of the characters from Season 1 return in full force. DCP Vartika Chaturvedi (a superb Shefali Shah), who is leading the investigations’ cell, is now confronted with a series of gruesome murders with a class differentiator: a gang is bludgeoning high-net-worth elders to death at night, mucking up their well-appointed residences and then decamping with valuables and cash. The modus operandi — or ‘MO’, as the investigating officers call it — is a throwback to a crim...

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How we look at things hinges on when we look at them. Context lends the subtext. Back in 2019, when the first season of Delhi Crime dropped, the procedural drama reshaped our perspective of the police force. The seven-episode series, which was a deep dive in how Delhi Police tracked down the culprits of the 2012 gruesome gangrape case in the capital in 5 days, showcased the efficiency and effort of the police posited in a pressing system. The Richie Mehta-created show uncovered the extent to which the team went to nab the six perpetrators all the while plagued with systematic deficiency and bureaucratic oppression. Specificity of this insider’s perspective underlined rusted cogs in a wheel which are invisible to the naked eye. Suddenly, the sleekness of police procedural dramas was revamped, revealing rooted undersides. Limited budgetary propositions, lack of personal lives of personnel and constant negotiation of a group of people in uniform trying to do the right thing even when they were pressured to “do the thing” were pushed to the fore. In doing that, season one also treaded the tricky path of glorifying a bastion of power which has often been rightfully accused of exploiting the authority vested on them. That later in December, 2019 CCTV footage from Jamia Millia Islamia University disclosed Delhi Police unleashing violence on students only amplified the precarity of a show like Delhi Crime. Three years later, the new season of the franchise unfolds as a more inform...

I've been more than a little sceptical going into the second season of Delhi Crime . The first season, released in 2019, was some of the most powerful television to emerge from India in years. But the criticism levelled at the series was rooted in its cultural position. Some viewed the gritty police procedural as a glorified image-restoring exercise. The three years since have only swelled this impression. On one hand, there's the true-crime fatigue perpetuated by a slew of similarly themed Delhi Crime 2 opens with full awareness of this discourse. We hear the voiceover of protagonist DCP Vartika Chaturvedi ( Delhi Crime characters internalising the stress of integrity in a crooked system; maybe their mind is just trained to rationalise their identity before expressing it. But it's more likely that the series itself is insecure, and therefore resorts to addressing the audience in disclaimer-like language. Fortunately, this lasts for a mere 15 minutes. The nerves vanish the moment Delhi Crime 2 stops talking and starts walking. Vartika and her team are alerted to the brutal murder of four senior citizens in a gated Greater Kailash (GK) neighbourhood. The case begins. More killings occur across upper-class South Delhi areas. A familiar pattern – victims are bludgeoned to death with hammers – hints at the return of a notorious gang. The targeting of the wealthy prompts pressure from 'above' on Vartika. Over the course of five exquisitely-crafted episodes, the series manages t...

Also read: Shefali Shah says audience shouldn't 'burden' Delhi Crime 2 by comparing it to season 1 Delhi Crime 2 sees the return of Shefali Shah as DCP Vartika Chaturvedi. If Delhi Crime season 1 was about the crime, season 2 of the To start with, Delhi Crime faces a huge challenge. Season 1 was about the most grotesque, shocking, and talked-about crime in modern Indian history. The intrigue, the audience interest was natural. Of course, the show was made well and that was the icing on the cake. But in OTT space, the second season often needs to outdo the first in terms of scale. But to put it rather inelegantly, no crime can ‘top’ the 2012 Delhi gang rape in sheer barbarism and the emotions it evoked in the Indian populace. So, Delhi Crime 2 must find a new way to get the audience invested in the victims. It does so by showing the brutality of the crimes on screen, a marked departure from season one. It is a bold, brave choice, slightly questionable too. But it does have the desired effect, even if it may put some viewers off. In doing so, Delhi Crime 2 sacrifices the subtlety that it had in season one. It is still sensitive and sharp but once you present the victims as defaced carcasses, it is hard to dignify them again. The writing makes up for this choice by presenting the cops as sensitive human beings and also showing us the victims’ families. It is not a heartless police procedural but a show about human emotions--greed, fear, frustration, and determination. Shefali...