Kohrra season 2 Review:
A turbaned, smiling, inflatable tube man sways in the night. It’s an affecting image. As if all of Punjab’s trauma, from the Partition to the militancy to the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, is contained in this visual representation of one ‘happy’ sardar dancing in the wind. The always joking Punjabi is a myth, a façade, a coping mechanism, something Kohrra gladly does away with. There are no sunny mustard fields, no ‘paranda’ wielding girls running through them. There is only a thick mist, hiding both mystery and melancholy.
Directed by: Sudip Sharma and Faisal Rahman
Created by: Gunjit Chopra, Diggi Sisodia and Sudip Sharma
Cast: Mona Singh, Barun Sobti, Rannvijay Singha, Anurag Arora and Pooja Bhamrrah
ASI Amarpal Garundi (Barun Sobti) has shifted base to a new town of Dalerpura. He is now reporting to a new entrant to the series, SI Dhanwant Kaur (Mona Singh). An NRI woman Preet (Pooja Bhamrrah) has been found in a barn, impaled on a grass cutter. There are bloodied footprints leading to her room. As the investigation begins, it soon starts unravelling a web of tense interpersonal relationships. Preet was estranged from her husband Tarseem (Rannvijay Singha) whom she suspected was cheating on her. She was also involved in a property tussle with her patriarchal brother Baljinder (Anurag Arora) and had given some money to her paramour cum dancing partner Johnny Malang (Vikhyat Gulati), who has gone missing since the night of the murder. A parallel plot concerns a young man from Jharkhand who is trying to find his father who came to work in Punjab twenty years ago.
Like a good whodunit, there are enough suspects and enough motives for the viewer to get their detective hats on. But then Kohrra has never been a Poirot-style mystery. The big reveal isn’t bigger than what the plot reveals about the characters, each of whom seem to be dragging a boulder of trauma. Dhanwant is tussling with the loss of her young son and often finds herself sitting in her police jeep, looking at school kids crossing the road. Garundi, on the other hand, is hiding the fling he had with his sister-in-law from his newly-wed wife. In the era of intense gratifications and high-speed emotions, Kohrra simmers and sighs. The second season doesn’t offer something radically different but makers Sudip Sharma, Faisal Rahman, Gunjit Chopra and Diggi Sisodia have become adept at weaving a consistently competent story that makes you come back for subsequent servings. Repercussions of a patriarchal system and the underprivileged paying up for the sins of their masters, if you have seen both seasons of Paatal Lok and the first installment of Kohrra, you can trace the themes of Sudip’s sad cop universe. But it never gets repetitive and seems more like delving into a different tale in a short story collection whose components are held together by one thread of emotions.
With its second season, Kohrra reiterates that it is a well-executed noir piece which doesn’t lose its grip. The mystery is complex and layered and the sequel is a worthy successor of the first part. Mona Singh proves to be a valuable addition, an able heir to Suvinder Vicky’s glum cop Balbir. She dissolves in her role, saying more in a gaze which even umpteen confessional monologues can't suffice for. Barun Sobti makes an assured return as Garundi and is often the one offering relief from all the grimness with just a throwaway remark. It’s still fun to watch him go ball-busting on the suspects while questioning.
Kohrra continues to exhibit dense writing which explores deep-seated emotions. Every character seems like it is waiting to be purged. Their trauma stemming from and leading back to the families they live in, which are both their shackles and their roots. Amidst unsaid grudges, however, sometimes love peeps in, like a ray of sunlight on a cloudy day. “Take care of the hearts of your loved ones,” reads a board in a hospital. It’s all that ever mattered.