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Cast: Bhumi Pednekar, Samara Tijori, Aditya Rawal, Geeta Agrawal, Chinmay Mandlekar, Sandeep Kulkarni
Creator: Suresh Triveni
Director: Amrit Raj Gupta
Streaming On: Prime Video
Language: Hindi
Runtime: 7 episodes of 45 minutes each
Psychological thrillers are the new destination for OTT lovers. A few days ago, we had Madhuri Dixit trying to catch her copycat thriller in Nagesh Kukunoor’s serial killer psychological drama, and now we have Bhumi Satish Pednekar trying to solve a high-profile serial killer case as Mumbai’s DCP Rita Ferreira. Both women have a lot in common – both carry the weight of an abusive past and deeply scarred worlds on their shoulders.
Both of them are fighting their own demons while mending broken relationships with their loved ones. While she’s grappling with her own demons and a fractured relationship, she has to chase a serial killer before he finds his next target. The murders get more personal, and the depth of the investigation deepens, while Rita finds a way to stop the killer before she either loses her sanity or her life.
Daldal Review: What’s It About:
The show is less about the whodunnit and more about the impact of violence on those who investigate it. It bluntly asks a simple question – How much of yourself can you lose to the darkness before you can no longer find your way back?
The plot is set in motion when a series of gruesome, cold-blooded murders begins to haunt Mumbai. The killings are not random; they are characterized by a level of calculation and cruelty that suggests a deeply disturbed and intelligent perpetrator. Rita is tasked with leading the investigation, which forces her into a dangerous cat-and-mouse game through the streets of Mumbai.
Daldal Review: What Works:
Amrit Raj Gupta does not present Mumbai as the city of dreams, but as a swamp of nightmares. The constant rain and the claustrophobic frames effectively mirror Rita’s personal trauma and inner battles, making her mental state another character for the show! Amrit Raj Gupta and his team follow the serial killer template a bit too closely. We’ve seen the troubled cop chasing a genius psycho trope many times, right from Pataal Lok to Delhi Crime to the recently done Mrs Deshpande, and Daldal does not bring anything new to the table. I agree that the problems of society are the same, but the way these problems are dealt with and faced is too varied to be caged in a single palette or set template. But Daldal falls prey to this. The pacing in the middle episodes and the repetition of Rita’s trauma cripples the narrative after a certain point!
Daldal Review: Star Performance:
Bhumi is an actor who inhales the atmosphere as Rita, the youngest DCP of Mumbai. Stripped of any Bollywood glamor, appearing weary, sleep-deprived, and perpetually on edge, her physical transformation makes her performance believable! She ditches the typical angry young cop archetype for something far more weary and haunted. Meanwhile, Samara Tijori brings a much-needed emotional anchor to the show. Aditya Rawal, on the other hand, continues to prove he is a talent to watch, bringing an unsettling intensity to the story!
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Daldal Review: What Doesn’t Work::
The only problem with the show is the pacing – it turns gloomy way too many times. Despite being gritty in its narrative, it becomes too repetitive! You know the culprit from the beginning, and it is the chase that should be enticing enough. But Daldal becomes so messy that it safely borders on one-dimension since it would drown if it dives into this damp. Bhumi Pednekar‘s character comes off as a psychologically annoyed character, and you cannot follow the lead after a certain point in time!
The story is ambitious, attempting to weave personal trauma with the angst of a professional chase. Director Amrit Raj Gupta manages to extract great performances, but the restrained storytelling pushes the downfall at times. The script needed more sharp turns; instead, it settles for a slow burn that occasionally fizzles out.
Daldal Review: Last Words:
Daldal is a well-acted, visually sharp thriller that unfortunately gets bogged down by its own gloom. It is no ground-breaking thriller, but you can definitely watch it for the honest performances from the ensemble!
Daldal aims for the prestige level of shows like Delhi Crime, but the writing doesn’t always support that ambition. This whodunit meets whydunnit does not offer anything that is mindblowing, and since it prioritizes characters over plot, it sets the tone so consistently dark that it lacks the contrast needed for such an engaging psychological thriller.
3 stars.
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