In Thane, the city that neighbours Mumbai, Raji (Shalini Pandey), Mala (Nimisha Sajayan) and Shahida (Anjali Anand) use a lunch delivery service to supply narcotics along with home-cooked food. When the dealer Amol (Sandesh Kulkarni) creates trouble for the trio, Raji’s mother-in-law Sheila (Shabana Azmi) steps in, her knowledge of criminal activities vast and suspicious.
This endeavour runs parallel to the shenanigans at the VivaLife pharmaceutical company, where Raji’s husband Hari (Bhupendra Singh Jadawat) works. Company boss Shankar (Jisshu Sengupta) is illegally peddling opioids. Government employee Ajit (Gajraj Rao) teams up with police inspector Preeti (Sai Tamhankar) to expose VivaLife.
Dabba Cartel has a catchy title and an overcooked premise. The seven-episode Hindi series on Netflix is more convincing than the similarly themed Saas, Bahu aur Flamingo on streaming rival JioHotstar, but only just.
Written by Vishnu Menon and Bhavna Kher, Dabba Cartel begins well, with potentially interesting characters and a set-up within the realm of the possible. Filled mostly with plainly attired women who barely wear make-up, Dabba Cartel feels like it could actually be happening.
The forced braiding of two disconnected rackets is especially hard on Shankar’s beleaguered wife Varuna (Jyotika). The script finds a way to nudge Varuna into the orbit of the dabba dames, but the contrivance weighs heavy on the proceedings.
Among the show’s most relatable ideas is the quick shedding of morals because of debt and aspiration.
Keen on getting ahead, Raji’s spouse Hari becomes Shankar’s favourite apple polisher. Varuna, the most sophisticated among the women, overcomes her misgivings to team up with Sheila’s posse. People who enter the drug trade get addicted to it, never to leave, Sheila says to her old friend Moushmi (Lillete Dubey) – wisdom that’s eventually lost on Sheila.
By the midway point, corporate malpractice has fatally intersected with housewifely ambition. It’s time to wonder why the otherwise sharp Preeti can’t figure out what the women are up to, or why the formidable Sheila is so tame before Hari.
Sunil Grover, in an excellent cameo, livens up the proceedings as well as articulates the overall situation. “Narcos: Thane,” Grover’s character sneers.
Director Hitesh Bhatia is at least in control of his performers and the unvarnished settings. The absence of bling is a welcome departure. The dressed-down actors, some of them with sizeable zits on their faces, carry on with admirable commitment.
Sai Tamhankar and Gajraj Rao make a cute pair. Rao neatly plays a government official actually trying to do his job. Tamhankar’s eager beaver Preeti is let down by the script, with any meaningful character expansion left to the second season, if there is going to be one.
Among the drug-runners, the track involving Sheila, played with controlled menace by Shabana Azmi, is the most promising. It’s left to the veteran actor and Lillete Dubey to evoke the fatalism that afflicts every show about the drug trade. This business will stop only when I want it to, a character says, speaking for herself and every content creator obsessed with the manufacture and movement of narcotics.
There are competent turns too by Jyotika and Jisshu Sengupta. Sushmita Mukherjee has a delightful cameo as neighbourhood busybody Tejaswi. What an addition to the dabba cartel Tejaswi would make. It’s never too late.
