Dabba Cartel Review: Alright, let’s talk about Dabba Cartel. You know, that new Netflix series that should have been an exciting crime thriller but somehow ended up being… well, not that. If you saw the trailer and thought, “Oh, wow! A bunch of women secretly running a drug cartel in Mumbai? Sounds intense!”—I hate to break it to you, but nope. It’s more like watching a really ambitious recipe fall apart in the oven.
So, here’s the deal. Dabba Cartel is about five women who start with a regular dabba service (you know, those steel lunchboxes that Mumbai runs on) and somehow turn it into a whole drug cartel. Sounds cool, right? On paper, it is. The cast? Absolutely stacked—Shabana Azmi, Jyothika, Shalini Pandey, Nimisha Sajayan, and Anjali Anand. But somewhere between the promising start and the never-ending seven-episode runtime, the whole thing just fizzles out.
A Slow Burn That Never Really Catches Fire
The show kicks off with the first two episodes setting the stage—introducing us to the five women and their individual backstories. The writing, done by Bhavna Khera and Vishnu Menon, spends the first two episodes setting up these women’s empire—something the original article compares to a female-led Breaking Bad. The idea? Simple: make money, lots of it. The kind their husbands and boyfriends could never dream of. And yeah, escaping the mundane routines of life is a sweet bonus.
Azmi plays Baa, the quiet but powerful leader of the group. Shalini Pandey is her daughter-in-law, the one who starts off timid (but you know she’s going to step up later). Jyothika, Nimisha Sajayan, and Anjali Anand have their own reasons for getting into the game—mostly centered around identity, independence, and, well, survival. It all sounds like a great setup, but the execution? Oof. Messy.
The biggest problem? Dabba Cartel seems to think it’s more gripping than it actually is. There’s a lot going on, but instead of feeling fast-paced and thrilling, it just gets confusing. So many subplots keep getting thrown in—there’s a pharmaceutical scam with Gajraj Rao, Sai Tamhankar, and Jisshu Sengupta that had potential, but instead of blending smoothly into the main storyline, it just clutters everything up. It’s like the show is trying to juggle ten different things at once, and instead of impressing us, it just drops everything on the floor.
The Dabba Could’ve Been a Star, But…
Here’s where the show could have done something cool. That iconic steel tiffin box—the ‘dabba’—is a huge part of Mumbai’s culture. It represents the city’s hustle, its spirit, its everyday life. And the show tries to use it as a symbol for these women’s struggles and ambitions. But, honestly? We’ve seen it done better before. If you’ve ever watched The Lunchbox (Irrfan Khan, Nimrat Kaur—absolute perfection), you know how much emotion a simple dabba can carry. Dabba Cartel tries to give the lunchbox a new, darker meaning, but it never quite lands. It’s like it wants to be a deep metaphor, but instead, it just sits there, being a lunchbox.
And let’s talk about the “twists.” Because, apparently, this show really wants to surprise us. But instead of jaw-dropping moments, you just end up with a mild “Oh. Okay.” It’s like when someone hypes up a dish, and you take a bite, and it’s… fine. The last episode? A whole 1 hour and 13 minutes long—yep, you read that right. The climax is supposed to blow your mind, but by that point, you’re probably just checking your phone, wondering how much longer this thing is going to drag on.
Wasted Potential and Lost Opportunities
Honestly, the most frustrating part of Dabba Cartel is that it could have been great. The cast is solid. The concept? Super interesting. Even the setting—Mumbai’s dabba system as a front for something much bigger—is such a cool idea. But the show never fully figures out what it wants to be. It starts off strong, loses focus, and then just keeps going, hoping you won’t notice how many unnecessary side plots it keeps throwing in.
It doesn’t help that the pacing is all over the place. One minute, you’re trying to keep up with a new twist. The next, you’re stuck in a long, drawn-out scene that adds nothing to the plot. And with each episode being around 49 minutes long, it just feels exhausting. It’s not that the story is bad—it’s just not engaging enough to hold your attention for that long.
Final Thoughts: Should You Watch It?
Look, if you’re really into crime dramas and have a lot of patience, Dabba Cartel might be worth a shot. The performances aren’t bad—Shabana Azmi, in particular, is always a powerhouse. But if you’re expecting a fast-paced, edge-of-your-seat thriller? This ain’t it. It’s more of a slow burn that never fully ignites.
Netflix has given us some great crime dramas in the past. This one had the potential to be among them—but it just doesn’t hit the mark. If you’re looking for something gripping, you’re better off rewatching Breaking Bad. Or Sacred Games. Or, honestly, anything else. Because unless you’re really into long-winded crime sagas that take forever to get to the point, Dabba Cartel is just going to leave you checking the runtime every five minutes.
Final verdict? Good ingredients, bad execution. Like a fancy dish that got overcooked.
