Rating : ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre : Mystery
Year : 2023
Season: 1, Episodes: 6
Director : Randeep Jha
Cast : Barun Sobti, Suvinder Vicky, Varun Badola, Harleen Sethi, Manish Chaudhari
Kid rating : PG-13
Kohra is a murder mystery set in Punjab. Tejinder “Paul” Dhillon, a young British national in Jagrana for his arranged marriage, is found in a field with his neck slit. His close friend Liam Murphy has also gone missing. The investigators are Sub-Inspector Balbir Singh Sekhon (Suvinder Vicky) and Assistant-Sub-Inspector Amarpal Garundi (Barun Sobti) of the Punjab Police.
The murdered man was the nephew of a local businessman Maninder Dhillon (Varun Badola), who uses his clout to get the police off his back when he thinks they are getting too intrusive. The dead man’s fiancé is evasive, his father “Steve” Dhillon is taciturn and prone to violent fits, and his family, wanting quick answers, are still openly hostile to the police. Both Sekhon and Garundi must work within the confines of the system, keeping their superiors happy and the witnesses cooperative.
Kohhra was so gritty – the violence, the everyday misogyny, the class divides and politics that are at the root of the problem – every situation is raw and bleeding. There is a seething, raw, almost vicious underbelly to all that Punjabi bonhomie. Series creator and writer Sudip Sharma brings the intensity of his earlier work, Paatal Lok, to Kohrra.
Sekhon and Garundi are the heroes of this series, but they aren’t your typically do-gooders. Kohrra’s writers draw these men with nuance, and plentiful flaws. I did want them to succeed in catching the killer, but honestly, I was more sympathetic to the women they so ill-treated. Sekhon’s daughter’s story was especially heart-rending.
The most intriguing mysteries, even police procedurals, work best when the situation is deeply mired in the society and the milieu in which the characters live. And Kohrra is spot-on in that regard! The murder, and the events surrounding it are linked to the social norms and taboos – there are undercurrents of animosity and jealousy, sibling strife, the weight of familial obligations and of course the ever present patriarchy.
Paul was in India for his arranged marriage. His wife-to-be might have had a checkered past. Paul’s father and his uncle (father’s brother) aren’t on good terms because of a long-standing land dispute. The uncle’s son lives under the constant weight of never being good enough for his father. And on and on. So many emotions, and so many motives!
Fantastic acting all around here. Baron Sobti (we also saw him in Asur), as the streetsmart Garundi, delivers what might be his best performance. Surinder Vicky is a revelation – he IS Sekhon right down to his measured walk and menacing stare. Varun Badola looked almost unrecognizable under that turban and does well. Harleen Sethi as Sekhon’s unhappy daughter Nimrat is quite marvelous!
Kohrra is at the end of the it, a mystery, a police procedural with lots of personality and emotional undertones. And it does work at that level. The mystery is many-layered and the layers peel a little by little, in every episode, keeping you hankering for the next installment.
Kidwise: Mature themes, so caution with the younger ones.
