Delhi Crime 2 is excellent procedural thriller

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Season 1 of the series was a dramatization of the Nirbhaya case, but this season, with only five but lengthy episodes, gets its base from a story in an ex-cop’s published book.

With a real saga and some extensive research, the sequel turns out to be exceedingly watchable and a great successor to Season 1, even if it may not match the emotional connect the country had with the actual Nirbhaya case.

The story moves on a police procedural note, much like John Creasey’s famous Gideon series of books, though in those (which were also filmed for television), the cops were shown handling simultaneous cases of an assorted nature. In this story, the focus is on a gang that kills rich and elderly people from houses in gated communities and decamps with their moneys, jewels et al. The difference from normal murders for robbery is that the bodies have been mercilessly hit with hammers et al, and also the robbers seem to have dirtied the houses with litter from the food and drink in the premises.

DCP Vartika Chaturvedi (Shefali Shah) has her determined hands full, also dealing simultaneously with a temperamental daughter (Yashashvini Dayama) in Canada. Initial assessment of the modus operandi and the CCTV coverage suggest the resurgence of a 1990s kachcha-baniyan gang (hailing from de-notified tribes) but there are some differences. Vartika suggests that she suspects some other kind of killers. Her loyal colleagues, inspector Bhupendra Singh (Rajesh Tailang) Neeti (Rasika Dugal), sub-inspectors Jairaj (Anurag Arora) and Sudhir (Gopal Datt) and station house officer Subhash (Sidharth Bhardwaj) all rally around her when she faces pressure from her superior, commissioner of police Kumar Vijay (Adil Hussain) and the minister.

In addition, thanks to a careless officer, a key point the cops want to keep secret is leaked out to the media, and the pressure mounts. Vartika and team are doggedly on the trail, make errors, correct them and forge ahead. After this comes a surprising revelation about the identity of the killer who has organized the gang, its aim and the persevering, immensely tough manner in which the police trace and finally apprehend the psychopath.

Apart from the script and the direction (exceptional—Tanuj Chopra is an NRI who has a great sense of clinical narration but with the correct dose of Indian emotions), what stands out is the atmospheric music (Ceiri Torjussen)—this season must be watched by aspiring as well as existing background music composers in cinema and the small screen.

The performances are all fabulous, facilitated by the serious and nuanced script, and there is only one word to describe Shefali—awesome! Tilottama Shome is fascinating as the hothead beautician, and among the cops, Rajesh Tailang makes the maximum impact. Sidharth Bhardwaj, Anurag Arora, Yashaswini Dayama as Vartika’s daughter and Jatin Goswami deserve special mention among the rest while Rasika Dugal comes into her own only in the last two episodes.

Full marks to the team, headed also by series producer Vicky Vijay, for this extraordinary work.

Rating: ****

Netflix presents  Golden Karavan’s, Ivanhoe Productions’, FilmKaravan’s & Poor Man’s Productions’ Delhi Crime Season 2 Created by : Richie Mehta Series Producer: Vicky Vijay  Produced by: Sidney Kimmel & Brian Kornreich Directed by: Tanuj Chopra Written by: Mayank Tewari, Shubhra Swarup, Ensia Mirza, Virat Basoya, Bhavesh Mandalia, Sanyuktha Chawla Shaikh & Vidit Tripathi Music: Ceiri Torjussen Starring: Shefali Shah, Rajesh Tailang, Rasika Dugal, Anurag Arora, Adil Hussain, Denzil Smith, Gopal Datt, Sidharth Bhardwaj, Yashaswini Dayama, Tilottama Shome, Jatin Goswami & others