The Hunt and the Hurt
No one misses missing girls, says Vartika Chaturvedi (Shefali Shah), with sadness and pain. She takes these crimes personally.
A raid on a brothel puts her in the midst of a full blown global trafficking ring stretching from Assam to Haryana to Southeast Asia. The girls are hoodwinked with the promise of jobs, and their families are happy to get rid of them.
Badi Didi aka Meena (a diabolical Huma Qureshi) is in charge of the ring. It is chilling when she asks her underage victims to smile. Her empire of flesh is run mainly by women who rationalise their reign of terror by claiming that they give these so-called rejects better lives. These girls, some as young as 14, are made to do sex work with the worst of humanity. Tanuj Chopra shoots in close-ups and Shah’s eyes do all the talking, showing her hurt, her rage, and her resoluteness in the face of the reluctance of her superiors. She gets a talking-to from her police officer husband; her bosses who want face time with her; and defiance from Badi Didi, but her juniors are loyal to her, with Neeti (Rasika Duggal) finally coming into her own. Season 3 of Delhi Crime is heartbreaking, riveting, and impossible to look away from.
