Some Thoughts On…Delhi Crime

Delhi Crime is one of the most riveting police procedural I’ve seen in a very long time, and it’s so good that the ride is more than worth going on, despite a somewhat underwhelming ending. The series, which is created by Canadian filmmaker, Richie Mehta, who also serves as the writer and director for all seven episodes, is based on the infamous 2012 Delhi gang rape case. It features an ensemble cast that covers all the main players revolving around the case and the people in charge of the investigation. Through the course of six days, we watch each and every step taken to apprehend the perpetrators while the police also deal with public outcry and extensive international media attention.

If you haven’t heard or read about the case, it is something worth reading about, as long as you can stomach some of the gruesome details. It’s one of those cases that became a significant cultural moment for India, and one that is still being reckoned with as the Me Too movement has only just become a part of the national conversation last year. Where that conversation will go, and how it will affect things in the future has yet to be seen. Though, I am hoping that having shows like Delhi Crime or films like Soni can bring more awareness to these issues.

The show is very straight forward, managing to keep the beats clear, and the exposition natural. So much of the show has that fly-on-the-wall effect where it really does feel like you’re watching real people doing their jobs. There’s a great satisfaction that can come out of seeing a person being really good at their job, and that is presented a lot here. Despite working practically 24 hours a day, many of the officers and investigators and forensics teams are always up for the job, bringing a real no-nonsense quality to the storytelling.

I have seen a few articles criticize the seemingly pro-police angle of the show, and I think there is some validity to that. The beginning touches on details about poor leadership and lazy officers, but those aspects don’t truly come back in any significant way. There is this constant threat in the latter half of the series where the police need to make sure they do everything clean and by-the-book so that the suspects can’t be released on a technicality, but that never pays off either. It also makes a strange choice in throwing some serious shade at the male victim (there was one female victim and one male), with officers pointing out how he got off rather easy compared to what the girl went through, as well as his choice to do an interview with the news despite it possibly hurting the case. Again, this doesn’t pay off either, and I’m baffled by its inclusion.

The reason certain threads never seem to pay off is because of its ending. They made the choice to end the story as soon as they have the final suspect in custody. Any information about the trial, the impact, the sentencing, the fate of the victims, and all that were just relegated to text before the credits started rolling. It’s a shame that they ended it here because up until that point, I was astonished by its comprehensive coverage of not only the man hunt, but the socio-political climate that surrounded the case, and how they played into the investigation. It paints a strong picture, but ends on a sudden and underwhelming note. A second season is planned, but they are apparently going the anthology route, following a whole new case with the same cast.

However, despite that, Delhi Crime is absolutely worth your time, and it’s a show that I think it accessible enough for non-Indians to enjoy, especially if you’re into police procedurals. It’s well made, the performances are great, especially from the brilliant Shefali Shah, who plays the deputy commissioner of police, Vartika Chaturvedi, the closest this show has to a lead character. It doesn’t feel exploitative of the crime, never showing the gang rape at any point, but still packing a punch whenever the event was described (seriously, one particular detail about the crime never ceased to make me squirm at every mention). I was very impressed by how casually and effortlessly it gripped me without resorting to unnecessary flourishes or stylistic choices, and it kept me engaged from beginning to end. It’s now available on Netflix.