Delhi Crime Season 3 review: Huma Qureshi, Shefali Shah's performances triumph over writing of the show

When the first season of Delhi Crime was released on Netflix back in 2022, the series, however much difficult it was to watch, won over the audience for its raw and authentic portrayal of a case that had shocked the entire world. The Nirbhaya gang rape case, formed the base of the Delhi Crime plot and director Richie Mehta presented a very real picture of how the case was first ignored by the Delhi Police and then cracked. The show opened up a new genre of thriller for the Indian audience- one which feels almost real and yet is fictionalised. It also gave us a new heroine, supercop Vertika Singh – played by Shefali Shah- a no-nonsense, honest police officer with a sharp mind, calm demeanour and one who brings apathy into the otherwise cold, corrupt Police force. Vartika Singh comes back in Delhi Crime Season ,3 and while her core characteristics are intact, she is now more hardened – perhaps due to circumstances or age. Vartika is now posted in Silchar, Assa,m but a case of human trafficking and search for a certain Badi Didi (Huma Quereshi) brings her back to the national capital.

Plot of Delhi Crime Season 3

Based on the Baby Falak case of 2012, Delhi Crime Season 3 moves out of Delhi and travels to other cities on a whirlwind chase to find a certain Badi Didi or Meena. In an attempt to seize a truck full of illegal weapons, Vartika and her team stumble upon a human trafficking nexus. Young girls are vanishing after setting out of their homes from smaller towns and villages of Bihar, Jharkhand and the North East in search of jobs. Agents lure them to big cities promising jobs, but instead, these girls are then trained by Kalyani (Mita Vashisht), Kusum (Sayani Gupta) and then sold off by Badi Didi either for marriage to much older men who want an heir or to international clients as escorts.

Meanwhile, Neeti Singh(Rasika Dugal), who is now the ACP in Delhi Police, stumbles upon a case of a battered, deeply bruised two-year-old girl who has been left at AIIMS trauma centre by a woman who claims to be her mother. As Vartika arrives in Delhi and slowly the two cases start unravelling, the women find the cases to be connected. But Badi Didi is a smart player and knows how to cover her tracks well and leads the team of investigative officer of Delhi Police on a wild goose chase across cities of India, even as she cracks a deal with a certain John Ji (Kelly Dorjee) to supply 30 escorts.

What works in Delhi Crime 3

While many of the actors reprise their roles from the original, Season 3 has Tanuj Chopra taking up the director’s role. Chopra also serves as the writer of the show. The screenplay is taught only in parts, but it’s the actors who make Delhi Crime Season 3 a superlative show. Shefali Shah plays the supercop with absolute perfection. It’s a character that she has now played for three seasons and the actress maintains the consistency while playing her. She is a tough cop, but someone who always looks out for her team and is also sympathetic towards victims. In Season 3 of Delhi Crimes, Shefali Shah has fewer dialogues , but it's her eyes, that do the talking. From grieving over brutality meted out over a child, to being cold towards a hard-nose criminal during interrogation, to being sympathetic towards a grieving colleague and giving her the space to mourn a personal loss, Shah aces every scene.

The fact that the makers could manage to cast actors like Shefali Shah, Mita Vashisht, Sayani Gupta, Rajesh Tailang, Jaya Bhattarcharya, Rasika Dugal and Huma Quereshi together in one show should be celebrated. All great performers in their own accord, they seem to complement each other in the show. While some of them have limited screen time in comparison to the lead protagonists, all of them are superb in their respective roles. Vashist plays a tough, crass woman called Kalyani who can sweet-talk everyone into doing wrong. Gupta plays an aid to Badi Did,i who enables her to commit crimes but soon realises that she is mere pawn in the larger scheme of things.

The other scene stealer is Huma Quereshi, who has had a fantastic month, first playing CM in Maharani Season 4 and now as the pimp in Delhi Crime, who doesn’t blink twice before doing wrong. Meena or Badi Didi is a cold-blooded criminal, but can fool you with her sweet talk. In so many scenes, Huma towers over others with her excellence and her convincing performance.

The show also brilliantly highlights how Badi Didis and Kalyanis of the world are products of a very flawed system where women are wronged daily, where they are just treated on the whims of men or predators.

What does not work

The show is realistic, but it lacks the thrills. The climax is over-stretched and too filmy, which doesn’t align with the realistic tone of the show. Characters state the obvious at regular intervals. When a character is shot outside a court by the two masked men on a bike, a cop shouts – Go chase them- to her juniors, an instruction that should come naturally to cops around the court during a shootout. A lot of instructions seem unnecessary and slightly juvenile, especially coming from cops.

As I finished watching Delhi Crime Season 3, I went back to the first season of the show, just to note which characters had returned in the third part. While the makers attempt to maintain the same rawness in the third season, one senses that there is added weight of success that stops them from taking uncharted territory, thus making the narrative sluggish.

Final Verdict

Should you be watching Delhi Crime Season 3? Yes, simply because of its cast. They are all pitch perfect, and Huma’s devilish act will give you the creeps. The actress is in top form and matches Shah in every scene. Together, they create a storm.

Delhi Crime Season 3 is now streaming on Netflix.