Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
“So, this is your Narcos Thane?”
A character from “Dabba Cartel” scoffs at a group of women illegally selling drugs in Mumbai from Thane under the guise of running a tiffin service. They are chaotic, un-organized, and struggle for ideas to push their product when their primary seller backs out of the venture. But even though they aren’t the sharpest minds in the city, the eventually find a way out, making enough business to attract the attention of the biggest drug kingpin in the game. Which only means one thing – trouble.
Created by Shibani Akhtar, Gaurav Kapoor, and Akanksha Seda, Netflix series “Dabba Cartel” offers just what the title and its posters suggest – an entertaining drama about a group of unlikely women peddling drugs. How their paths cross with Ajith Pathak, government officer (Gajraj Rao) and SI Preethi Jadhav (Sai Tamhankar) investigating into VivaLife, a pharmaceutical company suspected of manufacturing a new drug that’s being sold in Punjab, forms the crux of the tale. But the ‘Dabba Cartel’ saga starts with a mistake and is fueled by greed.
Shalini Pandey plays Raji Jagtap, a young married woman who cooks and sells dabbas (tiffins) from home, hoping to support her husband Hari’s (Bhupendra Jadawat) dreams of getting a promotion to move to Germany. Raji gets knee deep in trouble with the wrong guys, when her business partner Mala (Nimisha Sajayan) starts to sell weed in her dabbas, because she is being blackmailed by her thug boyfriend with a sex video. Multiple complications force them to continue selling more potent drugs, and they are assisted in their dabba cartel operation by their broker Shahida (Anjali Anand) and Varuna (Jyotika), a small business owner. But the most unlikely addition? Raji’s aging mother-in-law Sheila Jagtap (Shabana Azmi), who becomes their ‘Godmother’ of sorts, aided by Moushumi Majumdar (Lillete Dubey), an old friend with solid connections in the drug world.
A parallel “Dabba Cartel” sub-plot follows how unbeknownst to Shalini, her husband Hari, a VivaLife employee, is aiding his boss Shankar Dasgupta (Jisshu Sengupta) in covering the company’s tracks in the new drug case. In a co-incidence, Varuna happens to be Shankar’s wife and uses her own VivaLife insights to help her ‘Dabba Cartel’ become bigger than ever. The ease with which the women are able to run their drug business feels exaggerated, but it’s fun to watch their evolving dynamics and interactions through the episodes. Greed, corruption, and unhinged human ambition are some of the primary themes, and viewers can see elements inspired from other stories in the genre, like ‘Breaking Bad’, ‘Griselda’, and there’s of-course its own meta nod to ‘Narcos’ via a dialogue.
All the leading protagonists in “Dabba Cartel” are entertaining in their parts, be it Jyotika as a struggling business owner, or Shalini Jagtap as the easily rattled Raji. Nimisha Sajayan’s Mala serves as comic relief, a sassy domestic worker with big dreams, who often gets the group in trouble with her short temper. Anjali Anand is endearing as Shahida, a greedy broker, who immediately helps fuels the drug business, when she sees the potential. Gajraj Rao as the calm, honest, hard-working, meticulous government officer determined to expose VivaLife delivers an earnest performance, however, a very evidently fake (and bad) hairdo makes his parts unwittingly comical and distracting to watch. Sai Tamhankar as SI Preethi serves as a fun contrast against him – she is more impulsive, energetic, and spontaneous.
I was hoping to see a lot more of Jyotika in “Dabba Cartel”, however, her character doesn’t get enough space. In-fact, even Shaban Azmi’s Sheila Jagtap, who is possibly the most intriguing character in the show, feels underutilized, despite being projected as the lynchpin among the ladies. Since they are two major sub-plots unfolding, the show’s focus can feel lopsided. On one hand, there’s a balanced distribution between the investigative story and the women-run cartel, given the expectations set up by the title, you’d want the screen-space to tilt towards the cartel more. Also, there are far too many co-incidental connections in the series. For instance, Shahida is introduced as Raji’s broker, than she turns out to be Varuna’s broker too, and then she ends up being SI Preethi’s broker too.
While there isn’t a lot of violence in the show, it’s the climactic episode that packs in a lot of tension and blood. The gang come face-to-face with a new antagonist who isn’t pleased with their work and shows them what it means to intrude on another crime boss’ turf. A big twist pertaining to Sheila Jagtap is revealed, although for more perceptive viewers, it wouldn’t come as a surprise, since it’s already foreshadowed in the first half. The fact that “Dabba Cartel” doesn’t wrap things up in the end, comes as both a surprise and disappointment. Things end on a big cliffhanger, and while I will watch season 2, this could’ve been more satisfying as a mini-series.
Rating: 7 on 10. Watch ‘Dabba Cartel’ on Netflix.
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