 "Netflix ‘Delhi Crime Season 3’ Review: Not just Shefali Shah; it's Huma Qureshi, who stole the show")
Language: Hindi
Cast: Shefali Shah, Huma Qureshi, Rasika Dugal, Rajesh Tailang, Sayani Gupta, Sidharth Bhardwaj, Mita Vasisht, Anuraag Arora, Gopal Dutt, Jayaa Bhatacharrya, Aakaash Dahiyaa, Yashaswini R Dayama, Anshumaan Pushkar and Yukti Thareja
Director: Tanuj Chopra
Just like the previous two seasons of Delhi Crime, Season 3 is equally intense and engaging. Seeing the hidden facts of our society on screen can be tough, but Delhi Crime does that with sensitivity.
Netflix’s Delhi Crime Season 3 focuses on the chilling network of human trafficking, where young girls are moved like commodities and traded. They are given the hope of jobs. Inspired by a true story of the Baby Falak case, which happened in 2012, when a two-year-old girl became the face of child abuse.
Identities erased, and lives traded under the guise of opportunity. Stacks of files reveal a haunting pattern — young women vanishing under the promise of jobs, being forced into marriages, children and women being used as slaves, and disappearing into a country-wide web of deceit.
The child was admitted to the hospital with serious injuries, including human bite marks all over her body. The baby underwent five operations, but she suffered from a heart attack. But the case doesn’t end here. The fourteen-year-old child who claimed to be her mother wasn’t actually her mother.
Digging into the case comes to light a haunting pattern where young women kept vanishing under the promise of jobs, being forced into marriages, children and women being used as slaves, and disappearing into a country-wide web of deceit.
The storytelling of Delhi Crime Season 3 is as powerful as the previous seasons. The story is hugely relevant and human, and the way each case is connected is absolutely mind-blowing. The series at the same time doesn’t lose touch from focusing on the family and personal life of both Vartika Chaturvedi and Neeti Singh (Rasika Dugal). Though Vartika is happy to be back to her kingdom i.e. Delhi to solve the woman trafficking case, she isn’t getting much time to be with her family and this is leading to tensions in the marriage. On the other hand, Neeti too is going through a divorce. Though she is trying to move on, but she not able to actually move on.
The case is handled by DIG Vartika Chaturvedi ( Shefali Shah ) — our steadfast Madam Sir — who begins connecting the dots between these disappearances and a system fueled by fear, profit, and silence. As her investigation deepens, all roads lead to one name whispered across cities: Badi Didi (Huma Qureshi).
Badi Didi too has an extremely sad backstory and she mentions in one of her conversations right at the end of the show with DIG Vartika Chaturvedi (Shefali Shah) how she had a child marriage and how she was regularly beaten and sexually abused by her husband.
Ruthless, invisible, and always one step ahead, Badi Didi is the elusive architect of the criminal empire who Vartika and her team are determined to bring down — setting the stage for a psychological face-off between two women who refuse to lose.
Badi Didi, performed by Huma Qureshi, is one character in the show whom you can’t just stop hating. She is scary, ruthless and inhuman. The two things she understands in life are money and guns, and she doesn’t think twice when it’s time to pull the trigger. She rules like a boss and knows how to control the men in her kingdom too. Not just Shefali Shah, in fact this time it is Huma Qureshi who steals the show.
The best thing about Delhi Crime is that every season deals with a different story, and you don’t really need to watch the previous two seasons to understand the third one. Delhi Crime continues its journey with honesty and bravery in pursuit of justice.
Rating: 3.5 (out of 5 stars)
Delhi Crime Season 3 is streaming on Netflix
WATCH the trailer of Netflix’s Delhi Crime Season 3 here:
Lachmi Deb Roy is the Entertainment Editor of Firstpost, Network18. She reviews films and series with a gender lens. She is a 'Rotten Tomatoes' certified critic. Her interviews are called 'Not Just Bollywood' because she takes a huge interest in world cinema. She has been the winner of the prestigious Laadli Media and Advertising Award for Gender Sensitivity for two consecutive years, 2020 and 2021. OTT over theatrical releases is her preference unless and until it's a King Khan film. She takes interest in fashion, food and art reviews too.