Why You Should Watch Season 2 of 'Delhi Crime' on Netflix
I fell in love with Netflix all over again when
Delhi Crime made its premiere in the spring of 2019. The streamer was expanding
at a dizzying rate, and the selections felt haphazard, but Delhi Crime's
seven-episode season served as evidence that the selection of international
crime dramas was as strong as ever.
This gritty, astute procedural captivated me. It
depicted the fallout from a historic gang rape that occurred in New Delhi in
2012 and introduced us to Deputy Commissioner Vartika Chaturvedi, a police
heroine in the vein of Helen Mirren's Jane Tennison.
You can now relax with Delhi Crime's second season, which I binged over the past few days and is as good as any crime series I've seen this year. Truly great international dramas can still feel like needles in the Netflix haystack; I loved Borgen's fourth season, and I also really enjoyed the Swedish show Snabba Cash, which will soon return for a second season.
The appeal of this season is the same as the first:
dark, worried realism. Creator Richie Mehta and director Tanuj Chopra present
Delhi as a crammed, tense city that is on the verge of chaos. Constant traffic
(a recurring motif from Season 1), stark income disparities, and an overworked
police force attempting to keep up with it all are all present.
Delhi Crime features plenty of raw violence and coarse
language, yet it doesn't come off as sensational or exploitative. Mehta and
Chopra, who based this new season on the writings of a former Delhi police
commissioner, appear committed to investigating the pressures of rapid growth
in a megacity that is bursting at the seams objectively.
They are also skilled storytellers. Delhi Crime
moves quickly, is expertly filmed, and is incredibly suspenseful. In the
opening episode, we witness a horrifying home invasion in a posh Delhi
neighbourhood, where the attackers are cloaked and ruthless as they move past
CCTV cameras.
When DCP Vartika is requested to track down the
crooks, you can't help but pay attention to Shefali Shah, who is outstanding in
the role. She takes herself very seriously, intimidates her colleagues, who
address her as "Madam Sir," and is obviously overwhelmed by her work.
She must motivate her team to discover the offenders before they strike again
and prevent the news of the home invasion killings from reaching the press,
which happens instantly (which they soon do).
The procedural elements are well-known: a dishonest
investigator, a red herring plot involving denotified ethnic communities—a
lower class in Delhi—and administrative pressure from above to wrap things up
nicely are all present (if unjustly). The people and specifics, though, keep
you interested.
I really appreciate the minute, acutely observed
details, such how suspects are arrested and held by hand in Delhi—apparently
not much usage of handcuffs—which results in criminals fleeing detention.
Additionally, Vartika's subordinates are endearingly human, have softly
explored personal histories, and project a formal nobility that encourages you
to support them.
Despite having expensive shows like Sandman to
promote, Netflix isn't promoting this series in the United States, but it ought
to. One of the top programs on the site, it merits a large viewership. Dive in
if you enjoy reading about international crime.
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