Delhi Crime 3 review: Shefali Shah series returns, as gripping and taut as ever

Tanuj Chopra returns for direction duties, and keeps everything moving briskly, even as the six episodes feel suitably detailed, lasting anywhere between an hour and 45 minutes each. The subject — young girls yoked into sexual slavery and babies stolen for profit — isn’t new, but what this show does, and good for it, is to keep the salaciousness and prurience at a minimum. It’s bad enough to see young women herded together like cattle to be sold to the highest bidder, it’s infinitely worse to witness them being poked and prodded.

Here, a tiny baby, battered to an inch of her life, becomes the emotional fulcrum, and through her fighting for breath, we are shown how — if we can ever forget such a thing — being female in this country is a sin. The strand lends the show heft, even if it is familiar: the Badi Didi monster was also a victim of the patriarchy that kills little girls; if they are unlucky enough to survive, they are preyed upon pitilessly.

The new entrants, topped by Qureshi’s Haryanvi-accented madam, her slit lip hinting at violence that her character has had to face, and her cohorts, the stolid-but-effective second-in-command Vijay (Sano Di Nesh), and Kusum (Sayani Gupta), add freshness to the ensemble. Meeta Vashishth as the one who helps in wholesale procurement chomps into her role with relish; we really should see more of this versatile actor.

Kelly Dorji as John Gupta, the strangely- named kingpin of the flesh trade, doesn’t come off as vicious as he thinks he does, though; and Sayani, as the much younger gang-member tasked with denting-and-painting the new girls stumbles a bit, not being able to hide her polished self as well as Qureshi, who pulls off her role vividly, fighting against its slight filminess, with full-fledged gumption.

A couple of things do stick in the craw : creating a menacing gang without reminding us of Bollywood flourishes is hard, but there are flashes here which hew close to how the movies would do it : whether it is Badi Didi calling her girls ‘lado’ with emphasis, or Sayani’s overdone face. The climax feels long-drawn and familiar, with the cops-and-robbers playing hide-and-seek in a port with large containers, and Qureshi getting her monologue, trying to justify her heinous crime because of what she went through herself— for a show which pats itself for being realistic, this one does keep pushing that boundary.

But the ones who keep us returning for more are our old friends from the earlier seasons, the cops who give each case all they’ve got, despite their own personal problems. Shefali Shah leads the way as the redoubtable Madam Sir, having to deal with reproving seniors and spouse (Denzil Smith) when it comes to her case-first-everything-else-later ways, even if her daughter (Yashaswini Dayama) has lowered her hackles as far as her mom is concerned.

Watch Delhi Crime Season 3 trailer: