Dabba Cartel Review, gripping Netflix series with unveiled Thriller

Dabba Cartel Review: A female-driven Netflix crime series with gripping thriller & a Powerhouse Performance by Shabana Azmi and cast has blown audience mind

Dabba Cartel is the most engaging & gripping web series on Netflix loaded with brains, humor and electric performances. Amazingly well written story on how the Dabbawala housewives from behind the kitchen doors shake the corporate Pharma syndicate.

A strong performances of the cast, particularly Shabana Azmi and Nimisha has blown audience mind. Absolutely a female-driven web series from Director Hitesh Bhatia with humour ka tadka. A Binge-worthy series one could sit well with popcorn. A Well-Made Crime series with unveiled Thriller & Unique Concept.

Everything You Need to Know About the Netflix Crime Series Dabba Cartel:

This Netflix serie¹s is all about woman-oriented storyline where Five housewives who run a high stakes secret drug cartel in tiffin boxes. This is a story of style, friendship, love, betrayal, ambition & power, set against the backdrop of a world they never imagined being a part of it.

A web series starts as a simple lunchbox service which soon sucks five middle-class women into its spirals & a perilous game of crime, deception, and survival. When a string of disastrous events unite a group of five women from different walks of life who together form their own drug cartel & selling drug into tiffin boxes.

Where does Dabba Cartel take place?

The web series unfolds in the bustling suburbs of Thane, Mumbai where ambition meets danger at every turn.

Is Dabba Cartel based on a true story?

No, It’s a fictional series about lives of five ordinary women whose lunchbox business takes an unexpected turn & how ambition, resilience, & survival instincts pushed them into unimaginable circumstances.

‘Dabba Cartel’ is female-driven web series

Unlike all male-centric stories, where violence takes the main frame, ‘Dabba Cartel’ is female-driven web series where women are in the foreground & men are backgrounded to take on the role of narcissistic husbands and manipulative partners. In this sense, the Netflix series ‘Dabba Cartel’ is so refreshing.

What happens in Dabba Cartel?

In this series Viva Life Pharmaceuticals is one of the 5 dominating pharma industry in India involve in illegal painkiller distribution. Which is generally a illegal drugs, due to death of one consumer after consuming illicit Modella pills. A massive scandal hits the company involving an unregulated opioid named modella & the government’s regulatory committee, the Federal Drug Standard Control Organization (FDSCO) started investigated which is lead by government official Ajit Pathak and his police aide, Preeti.

Five residents of VivaLife’s staff community see it as a chance for a new opportunity.

Here the story begin when Chef Raji the owner of a modest lunchbox delivery & her business partner and Domestic worker Mala, together running a dabbawala business.

Initially, it was Mala’s boyfriend who blackmailed mala through her video recorded in his phone & dragged her into the drug business and instructed her to sell drugs by placing them in the tiffin boxes.

Later on, broker Shahida & Chef Raji find out about the drug inside the lunchboxes but Despite of being scared they agreed to join drug cartel in desperate need of money.

Raji mother-in-law Sheila also joined her when the drug dealer boss chavan threatened them to kill. Sheila (aka kashi), was thrilled to be back to the good old days.

One by one, everyone joins in for some reason. Each woman has her own motivations for being involved in drug cartel: one wants to prove it to herself that she’s a independent capable woman, one craves for control, one does it for her family, another seeks respect within her community, one needed freedom to love, and even the police officer isn’t a tough enough figure—she’s inexperienced, curious, and prone to mistakes.

Instead of presenting “strong woman” portrait writer cleverly presented character with contradictions, vulnerabilities & evolving personalities. This layered approach makes the series feel refreshingly realistic & gripping.

Chef Raji & Domestic worker Mala who run a small lunchbox business together, Sheila (kashi) who has ties to the drug cartel business in past, broker Shahida & ex-VivaLife CFO Varuna Dasgupta teams up to build their own drug empire.

These women launches their own drug cartel business in form of tiffin service with a secret drug ingredient named modella, MDMA & food colour.

About ‘Dabba Cartel’ cast & crew

Director – Hitesh Bhatia

Writers – Vishnu Menon and Bhavna Kher

Production Company: Excel Media and Entertainment LLP

Executive Producer – Ritesh Sidhwani, Farhan Akhtar, Kassim Jagmagia, Abbas Raza Khan, Shibani Akhtar, Sunitha Ram

Creators – Shibani Akhtar, Gaurav Kapur, Vishnu Menon, Akanksha Seda

Co-Producer – Vishal Ramchandani

Cast – Shabana Azmi, Jyotika, Shalini Pandey, Jyotika, Nimisha Sajayan, Gajraj Rao, Anjali Anand, Lillete Dubey, Sai Tamhankar, Jisshu Sengupta, Bhupendra Singh Jadawat

Cast of Dabba Cartel:

Shabana Azmi as Sheila Jagtap (kashi), an associate of crime boss Haji Mastan.

Shalini Pandey as Raji Jagtap, a chef and Sheila’s daughter-in-law.

Bhupendra Singh Jadawat as Raji Jagtap husband Lillete Dubey as Moushumi, Sheila’s friend

Jyotika as Varuna Dasgupta, VivaLife.

Pharmaceuticals’ former head of finance who runs a clothing label Sitara.

Jisshu Sengupta as Shankar Dasgupta, Varuna’s husband

Anjali Anand as Shahida, a broker

Nimisha Sajayan as Mala, a domestic worker

Sai Tamhankar as Preeti, a police officer

Gajraj Rao as Ajit Pathak, a drug safety officer

Sushmita Mukherjee as Tejaswi Tijori, who works for VivaLife

The series also features Sandesh Kulkarni, Santanu Ghatak, and Sunil Grover.