There are several moments in the sophomore season of Kohrra, Netflix’s haunting police procedural drama, where the violence is not in the explicit, but the implicit. The terrified recoil of a bonded labour, a mother looking at a motorcycle on which her son died, and a road accident. None of these scenes show violence. Yet, brutality is central to the second season of Kohrra. The beauty - if that word can even be used for a show as grim - is in how the creators have presented that violence, and more so in how it affects the people it hits.
Kohrra season 2 review: Mona Singh and Barun Sobti excel in this police procedural.
ASI Amarpal Garundi (Barun Sobti) has been transferred out his hometown and is working under SI Dhanwant (Mona Singh). Newly married Amarpal is hiding a dark secret from his wife, while Dhanwant is watching her husband turn himself into an alcoholic. The two need to put their personal lives aside as an NRI woman is found murdered in her brother’s house. A broken marriage, estate battle, and a shady boyfriend suggest there are more suspects than leads.
Kohrra season 2 excels like few second seasons have before, save for Delhi Crime and Paatal Lok. In six episodes, it manages to set the ambience, suck us in, and engage us with the twists and the turns. It never gets too pacy or hectic, nor does it spend too much time in setting up the world. Despite its slowness, Kohrra is never dull.
The entire dialogue is in Punjabi, and yet, you never feel the need for subtitles. For even someone like me, with only a rudimentary understanding of the language (largely through pop culture), it never gets difficult to follow. That is the hallmark of good writing, and a testament to how easy to follow the show is, despite its heavy premise.
The stars of the show are the performers, and not just the leads. Mona Singh and Barun Sobti are sublime. They let their eyes do the talking, capture the mannerisms and gait of two seasoned cops well, and bring to life these human characters in a brilliant manner. If Barun shines through his one-liners and quips, Mona is the rock as she lets her body language do the talking. But the support cast is just as brilliant. Notable mentions are Prayak Mehta and Pooja Bhamrrah. As the victim, Pooja gets only a few scenes, but in those, she does enough to etch out a fully-formed woman, who had her flaws as well as her virtues. Prayak, on the other hand, brings forth the helplessness and sadness of a young man looking for his estranged father.
The biggest victory for Kohrra 2 is how it makes us care for the characters and their fates. We see how violence, betrayal, bad choices, and just fate can drag poor souls into a pit, often of their own making. It never sermonises on who the villains are and what their fate should be. It just tells us that life is more unfair than fair, and all we can do is pick up the pieces and move on.
Abhimanyu Mathur is Deputy Editor, Entertainment at Hindustan Times. With almost 15 years of experience in writing about everything from films and TV shows to cricket matches and elections, he inhales and exhales pop culture and news. Currently, he watches movies and TV shows and talks to celebrities for a living, while occasionally writing about them as well.
A journalism graduate of Delhi College of Arts and Commerce, Delhi University, Abhimanyu began his career with Hindustan Times at the age of 20, swapping classrooms for newsrooms at an early age. He began his journey in the early days of digital journalism, later switching to the madness of print journalism.
Work has led him to far off places like Japan and Jordan, as well as to the interiors of Haryana and the Indo-Pak border. He dabbled in city reporting in places like Meerut, Gurgaon, and Delhi, covered the Olympics and Cricket World Cups, before finding his calling in entertainment and lifestyle during the pandemic. A Rotten Tomatoes Certified Film Critic, he is equally at home covering stories on ground as he is interviewing celebrities and studios, and sometimes prefers to shepherd teams in delivering traffic through the day.
Even as his role has evolved from reporter to supervisor over the years, his first love remains writing (and of late, talking on camera). With a good understanding of cinema and its trends, and a keen eye for detail, he continues to spark conversations around showbiz for readers around the world.Read More
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