Dabba Cartel Review – Part Narcos (of Thane) part Breaking Bad, web series Dabba Cartel on Netflix with its splendid cast takes off on an engaging note, writes Rajeshwari Kalyanam.
Whatever men can do women can do better – be it running a household, managing a company or even in this case running an illegal business – a cartel mind you.
As a take away from Mumbai dabbawalas – bunch of three women happily married Raji (Shalini Pandey), househelp Mala (Malayalee actor Nimisha Sajayan from the OG version of The Great Indian Kitchen) and real estate broker Shajida (Anjali Anand) run this delivering lunch in a dabba wala business – that along the line gradually becomes a cover for selling drugs. How they get entangled in the dirty business unable to get out and how they get deeper and deeper in trouble is primarily the premise of Dabba Cartel. htar, Vishnu Menon, Gaurav Kapur, Akanksha Seda.
Dabba Cartel Web Series
Part Narcos (of Thane) part Breaking Bad with the grand old lady of it all Shiela Ben Aka Kashi of yesteryear underworld (Shabana Azmi) getting into the business of drugs and enjoying it, Dabba Cartel – the latest and one of the most awaited web series takes off on an engaging note.
Add to that the back drop of crime drama involving a pharmaceutical company Viva Life Pharmaceuticals, and a banned drug, a cooperative society with its share of nosey president, mischievous children, its Ganpati festival and God Bharai ceremonies. And a whole bunch of actors each a force to reckon with contributing their might to this film – Lilette Dubey, Gajrag Rao, Jyothika, Jisshu Sengupta to name a few – Dabba Cartel spells exciting from word go, and it is indeed that despite its faults.
While the film is a thriller in the face of it, it sensitively portrays several domestic, societal disparities and pressures that women face on a daily basis. Dabba Cartel has an all prevailing undercurrent of toxic relationships, moon lighting, lack of choice, lack of respect, and as the women fight for their place the narrative retains the thriller aspect thanks to the investigation run by inspector Preeti Jadhav (Sai Tamhankar) and honest drugs inspector Ajit Pathak (Gajraj).
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Creators Shibani Akhtar, Vishnu Menon, Gaurav Kapur, Akanksha Seda and director Hitesh Bhatia and producer Farhan Akhtar pulled off a coup of sorts by bringing together some of the best talent in Indian film industry to showcase sisterhood in the face of adversity. And with the best in the fray there is no dull moment in Dabba Cartel.
As you soak in your favourite actors as they come and go in the narrative- somewhere along the line you feel the plot could have been thicker, the characters more defined and the script funnier – but then this is just Season 1. Hopefully there are more seasons to this confluence of some of the brightest actors of Indian acting world to explore the theme better.
Rating: 3.5
Written by Rajeshwari Kalyanam
