Dabba Cartel is a female-driven Netflix crime drama centered around Shabana Azmi, whose commanding performance anchors the series. She plays Sheila, a Gujarati matriarch leading a ragtag group of women involved in a covert, dangerous operation. Alongside Azmi, the ensemble cast features Jyotika, Nimisha Sajayan, Sai Tamhankar, Lillete Dubey, Shalini Pandey, and Anjali Anand, each contributing significantly to the storyline.
Dabba Cartel: Movie Review
The seven-episode series, created by Shibani Akhtar, Gaurav Kapur, Vishnu Menon, and Akanksha Seda, delves into the lives of women who, driven by their secrets, dreams, and struggles, become embroiled in crime. Sheila leads a team of women, from a housemaid to a struggling businesswoman, navigating class and gender prejudices in their quest for survival. The series, though uneven at times, is marked by strong performances and a fresh spin on the crime genre.
The plot revolves around the women’s illegal activities in the food delivery business, which eventually intersects with a dark corporate conspiracy involving the pharmaceutical company VivaLife. As the women work with shady characters like drug peddler Amol Chavan and the dismissed R&D head Bhowmick Bose, their lives spiral into conflict and danger. Meanwhile, Ajit Pathak (Gajraj Rao) and Preeti Jadhav (Sai Tamhankar), two investigators, work to uncover the company’s dark secrets.
Azmi shines in her role in Dabba Cartel as the matriarch with a double life, while Jyotika excels as the ex-corporate wife turned housewife, desperate to keep her business afloat. Anjali Anand and Shalini Pandey also impress with their portrayals of women drawn into the criminal world with varying degrees of reluctance and ambition. The series not only focuses on crime but also examines the emotional and social forces driving these women to make life-altering decisions.
The series is more than just a crime thriller; it is a layered character study that delves deep into issues of class, gender, and the struggles of women in a patriarchal society. The characters are not defined merely by their involvement in crime but by their personal ambitions, dreams, and vulnerabilities. Each woman in Dabba Cartel has her own reasons for getting involved in the criminal activities, whether it’s Sheila trying to protect her past, Raji’s desperation to move her family to a better life, or Mala (Nimisha Sajayan), a housemaid struggling to give her daughter a better future.
While the men in Dabba Cartel, such as Gajraj Rao’s role as Ajit Pathak, a tough drug inspector, and Jisshu Sengupta’s Shankar Dasgupta, the head of VivaLife, are significant, it is the women who are at the center of the story. The male characters, though important to the narrative, are more peripheral, with the show focusing on the women’s complex relationships, the class divides, and the ways they cope with adversity. Their survival instincts and willingness to take drastic steps in pursuit of their goals add a layer of tension and drama to the series.
The writing of Dabba Cartel excels in bringing fresh twists and turns to the genre, and while some plot points may feel predictable, the dynamics between the characters (particularly the conflicts between Sheila and her team) keep things engaging. The interactions between these women, filled with contradictions, betrayals, and hidden agendas, make the show more than just a typical crime drama.