4 min readUpdated: Jan 30, 2026 01:38 PM IST
Daldal Review: Serial killers are flooding Mumbai. Just a couple of months back, Madhuri Dixit was hot on their heels in the web series ‘Mrs Deshpande’. Now it’s Bhumi Satish Pednekkar’s turn to do the same in ‘Daldal’. Both women have dark pasts, both confront their demons while navigating the quicksand of the present, in which good guys, bad guys and ill intentions wallow: by now, these tales, despite differences in plot and place, feel almost templated.
Newly-appointed DCP Rita Ferreira (Pednekkar) runs slam bang into her first big case as soon as she takes over. A dog-feeder with whom she has a chance meeting is found with his wrists slit and mouth stuffed with raw meat. Her team – which mostly seems to consist of a good-natured junior officer (Geeta Agrawal Sharma) – starts finding traces of similar killings. All men, all apparently respectable, all killed in the same way – a ritualistic slashing and stuffing.
The seven episode series, created by Suresh Triveni and directed by Amrit Raj Gupta, has an intriguing opening. In an unusual move, the killer is revealed from the get-go, so we are in the know. Ferreira is up against not just an unhinged serial killer, a trope in and off itself, but also a bad-tempered colleague (Chinmay Mandlekar) who feels cheated because of her promotion, and a top boss (Sandesh Kulkarni) with his own reasons for propping her up.
Till the show, based on Vish Dhamija’s book Bhendi Bazaar, stays within the lines of a police procedural, it remains believable. A couple of characters – a journalist (Samara Tijori ) who seems to know more than anyone else, and a drug addict (Aditya Rawal) who has old connections with the former – take the plot and begin running with it.
Paedophilia and drug abuse raise their ugly heads. So does a strand in the red light area, involving an ‘encounters specialist’ and a Russian sex-worker and their progeny. Some parts, one of which shows us how unfulfilled women (Vibhawari Deshpande) can cause immense harm to their daughters, and another which has a good man wanting to fix unfixable problems of drug addiction, have impact. But more and more, as we go along, the bizarre-contrived elements start taking over, and it’s eye-roll time.
Watch Daldal trailer:
Pednekkar, who leads the show, comes off far too morose. Her conflicted cop has good reasons for feeling the way she does, but to create nuance is the job of both the writer and the actor, and here she is one note: only in one place is she given a chance to break down, and break out, and that’s when we see the actor emerge. Both Tijori and Rawal, the former more than the latter, have been given more chances to be interesting, as does Sharma, and in a small role, Deshpande, and all make the most of it.
Daldal cast: Bhumi Satish Pednekkar, Samara Tijori, Aditya Rawal, Chinmay Mandlekar, Geeta Agrawal Sharma, Sandesh Kulkarni, Ananth Mahadevan, Vibhawari Deshpande, Prateek Pachauri, Rahul Bhat
Daldal director: Amrit Raj Gupta
Daldal rating: 2 stars
