This Delhi Crime series belongs to Huma Qureshi, who plays Badi Didi as a hateful woman.
She also commands some admiration for the way she negotiates with venal men and even some degree of sympathy for making the best of whatever life throws at her, observes Deepa Gahlot.
‘No one misses missing girls,’ is a hard-hitting dialogue from Delhi Crime Season 3, the excellent police procedural created by Richie Mehta, which is based on fictionalised versions of real cases.
The new season, directed by Tanuj Chopra, is based on the Baby Falak case of 2012, in which a battered two-year child was left in a Delhi hospital by a teenager.
This links to a human trafficking ring that fiery cop Vartika Chaturvedi (Shefali Shah) stumbles upon, while on a punishment posting in Assam.
A truck stopped on suspicion of carrying weapons reveals a bunch of young girls, obviously headed for the flesh trade ‘market’ in Delhi. Vartika fights to be allowed to investigate this interstate case, chipping away at the apathy of her male boss.
In Rohtak, Haryana, a mass wedding is being conducted by Badi Didi (Huma Qureshi), who is obviously not a social worker who cares for the welfare of the women.
Between sex work and bride-selling, she capitalises on the poverty and helplessness of girls from rural families, some of them sold by their own parents. They are told they are being trained for jobs, though even the most ignorant parent or girl knows what is going to happen to them.
In Delhi, Vartika is reunited with her deputies from earlier seasons, Bhupinder (Rajesh Tailang) and Neeti (Rasika Dugal), the latter dealing with a mix of stoicism and relief at the break-up of her marriage due to the pressure of her job.
Vartika’s senior cop husband (Denzil Smith), says he is ‘fed-up’ of her excessive commitment to her cases, though her grown-up daughter (Yashaswini R Dayama) is a journalist and proud of her mother.
Moving with a brisk, though not artificially accelerated pace of so many crime shows, Delhi Crime 3 goes from Delhi to Assam, Haryana, Rajasthan, Mumbai and Thailand, as Vartika pulls on the threads that connect the mystery of the baby — called Noor in the show — to the well-oiled human trafficking gang.
Another brave and enterprising female cop in Haryana, Simran (Yukti Thareja) joins the hunt.
Tracing the 14-year-old Khushi (Aditi Subedi), who abandoned the baby in the hospital is aided by CCTV cameras, and her tragedy comes to light — the heartrending conditions that wrecked her life before she is even old enough to understand anything.
There is male lust that forces women into the sex trade at one level, and the patriarchal ways of small town India, that demands the birth of sons from women they have to buy from other states because unchecked female infanticide has wiped out women in their regions.
‘We respect women,’ says a Rajasthani man, ‘provided they stay within their limit.’
Interestingly, in a country where women are not valued, the main movers and shakers in Delhi Crime 3 are women. Apart from Vartika, Neeti, Simran who excel at their work, the criminal mastermind is Meena or Badi Didi, her nasty deputy Kusum (Sayani Gupta) and the ‘trainer’ in Delhi, Kalyani (Mita Vasisht).
They are women functioning in a male-dominated world with their own brand of courage.
Badi Didi even teaches the cowering girls in her grip that they must not be afraid of men, rather make men afraid of them.
She is enterprising, sharp, fearless and ruthless — all the traits required in the criminal underworld in which she operates.
Again, it is interesting to see that the women on the right side of the law wear uniform or simple male outfits and speak in dignified tones, while the women in crime are dressed in bright finery, red lipstick and speak aggressively in the local dialect.
Like the earlier seasons of the show, this one is also made without sensationalising crime, in this case, the plight of the young women.
The performances — even by supporting actors — are excellent, also because their look and speech blends with the location to which they belong.
Shefali Shah ably anchors the show, playing a cop who is affected by the horrors she deals with, but has not allowed herself to be hardened by her work.
Rasika Dugal is understated and hits just the right note of anger and resignation.
But this series belongs to Huma Qureshi, who plays Badi Didi as a hateful woman. She also commands some admiration for the way she negotiates with venal men and even some degree of sympathy for making the best of whatever life throws at her.
Delhi Crime Season 3 streams on Netflix.
Delhi Crime Season 3 Review Rediff Rating:
