Daldal review: A reflective psychological thriller that starts strong until it runs out of depth!

A dark, gritty thriller, this Bhumi Pednekar starrer attempts to show that the real crime isn’t committed by criminals alone but by society and its deep-rooted hypocrisy.

“The world isn’t split into good people and Death Eaters. We’ve all got both light and dark inside us. What matters is the part we choose to act on.” Sirius Black says this to Harry in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. This was probably the first time I truly understood that the world isn’t divided into good and bad people, at least not as neatly as films and shows often make it seem. No matter how familiar the ideas of heroes and villains are, the real difference between them often comes down to one thing - choice! The same is true for human beings. We all have darker parts within us, parts we hide or pretend don’t exist. Sometimes, all it takes is one choice to let those parts take over and Daldalis about exactly that. Presented as an investigative crime thriller, this psychological thriller is dark, gritty, and reflective. It looks at how criminals are often made not born, shaped by neglect and indifference rather than pure evil.

Based on Vish Dhamija’s book Bhendi Bazaar, the series adapts the story loosely, focusing more on themes than the plot. As the show moves through the forgotten lanes of Mumbai, it brings attention to people society chooses not to see - addicts, sex workers, orphans. These are lives left behind because society decided they didn’t matter. And at the centre of this world is Rita Ferreira (Bhumi Pednekar), a police officer shaped by trauma and trained to keep her emotions tightly locked away. And perhaps that’s why she understands these invisible people better than most. As Rita investigates a series of strange murders targeting men, she uncovers a serial killer with a disturbing pattern of murdering victims by forcing objects into their mouths. Alongside this investigation, she is also pushed to confront her own past, something she has been avoiding for far too long.

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There are two ways to read Daldal - a crime thriller that leans more towards psychology than mystery. By revealing the killer in the very first episode, the show makes it clear that it’s not interested in who committed the crime, but why. Instead of following the killer alone, the story unfolds through Rita. As she puts the pieces together, we learn just as much about her as we do about the person she’s chasing. Slowly, Rita begins to resemble the killer in unsettling ways. Both are shaped by trauma, both are driven by unresolved pain, especially tied to the loss of a mother’s love, and both carry deep anger that they want to unleash on the world. The difference is simple but crucial - Rita chooses control, while the killer gives in.

The second way to see the show is as a social commentary. It doesn’t just examine how neglect creates violent individuals, but also calls out the hypocrisy of men who present themselves as progressive. When Rita becomes DCP after a successful undercover mission, her promotion triggers sexism from her colleague Vikram, while the commissioner’s support feels more like performative “naari shakti” than genuine respect. This critique even becomes sharper in quieter moments with men whose gaze harasses, invades personal space, or dismiss women entirely. While the show does present genuinely decent men like Sajid, a drug addict who still shows empathy and kindness, the killer’s choice of victims of men praised as “good men” forces us to question who society chooses to honour.

While the seven episode series starts strong, it does however fall into familiar territory, relying too much on explanation and repetition, especially in the latter episodes that are more spectacle than genuine exploration. What tries to keep it together then is Rakesh Haridas’s cinematography, which finds creative frames in ordinary visuals like that of a discarded boat, and performances across the board. Bhumi Pednekar brings a cold restraint to Rita, Samara Tijori is deeply unsettling as Anant/Anita,Aditya Rawal is heartbreaking as a struggling addict, and Geeta Aggarwal Sharma brings quiet innocence to a cruel world. The ensemble supporting cast and brief cameos add an unexpected edge. Though everything soon starts to feel over stretched, much like the over-explained finale.

Despite its flaws, Daldal, created by Suresh Triveni and directed by Amrit Raj Gupta, ultimately becomes a reflection on what society chooses to celebrate and what it prefers to hide. In doing so, it shows how trauma becomes a guiding force, neglect turns into armour, and revenge begins to feel inevitable. What begins as a hunt for a serial killer slowly turns into a confrontation with darker sides, the parts we ignore until ignoring them becomes too costly. One only wishes the series had resisted giving in to surface-level emotions like the killer, choosing instead to be as restrained as Rita.

Daldal is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video!

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