A peep into human nature with all its complexity

One of the most heinous crimes of last decade happened in Delhi in 2012, when a twenty-two-year-old physiotherapy intern Jyoti Singh was gang raped by six men in a private bus while travelling with her male friend. She was savagely beaten, tortured and died after almost two weeks in the hospital. There was an international coverage and condemnation of the incident. On a national level, it caused a big havoc as thousands of protests took place in major Indian cities against the police for failing to provide protection for women. The six men were caught; one committed suicide before going on trial, four were executed and the last one was a minor who was given the maximum time of three years in a reform facility.
The brutality of the crime and the swiftness of Delhi police in solving it is what inspired Canadian film director Richie Mehta to create a TV series based on the events called Delhi Crimes (2019). It took Mehta six years of research — including writing and meeting policemen involved in the case — before he started filming it in 2018. The main character is DCP Vartika Chaturvedi (Shefali Shah) and her team who are put in charge to solve the brutal case, after finding the two victims naked in a ditch on the side of the road.
The investigation begins at once by trying to locate the bus and hence catch the culprits. But how would that be possible in a city that has more than ten million people? The series consists of seven episodes, where on each a part of the case is solved. The brutality of the case takes toll on the policemen trying to solve it, especially when meeting the victim and her family and when being updated on her critical condition.
Unintentionally, this clouds their professionalism when interrogating the rapists where the only viable question asked is: Why? The series was critically acclaimed and became the first Indian series to win the International Emmy Awards for Best Drama Series in 2020. This encouraged Mehta to produce a second season in 2022 where he highlights another famous case of a criminal group called Chaddi Baniyan gang (both words mean different underwear garments in Hindi, as the gang members used to attack their victims wearing these garments, facemasks and oiling their bodies to avoid being caught).
The gang started their criminal activities in 1987 covering different Indian states but were finally eliminated in 2016 by Mumbai police force. Vartika and her team return to solve serial crimes that involve attacks on rich old couples’ homes in Delhi for robbery purpose. Security camera footage shows the culprits wearing similar attires as the Chaddi Baniyan gang. But are they the real Mccoy or mere copy cats? Vartika’s investigation takes her to the slums to meet Phase Pardi tribe who few of them were members of the Chaddi Baniyan gang decades back. But then another lead guides them to the unexpected real culprits. There are only five episodes in this series but that doesn’t make it less intense or intriguing than the first one.
Mehta succeeds in reflecting Indian culture subtly and impartially with its broad issues: authority corruption, youths seeking better future, women struggling to find work-life balance where gender roles are etched in stone, and citizens’ distrust of the police.
The cast members did a marvelous job playing their respective characters especially Shefali Shah whose leadership skills and tolerance are tested every step of the way. Delhi Crimes explores human nature with all its complexity and reasoning. It’s original, engaging yet gruesome at times. Highly recommended and available on Netflix.