The Punjab imagined by Sudip Sharma, Gunjit Chopra and Diggi Sisodia in their stellar series, Kohrra (2023-), is effectively a Hotel California for Punjabis who have returned home from other shores.
At the start of Season 1, Tejinder “Paul” Singh (Vishal Handa) from London is found dead in a field. Season 2 opens with the murder of Preet Bajwa (Pooja Bhamrrah), who has returned to the fictional town of Dalerpura, leaving a husband and children behind in the US.
This is not the Punjab whose fields and rural life have been romanticised in countless poems and songs. Kohrra, which means fog, is set in a cold and bleak Punjab, a place of neon desperation and melancholy.
Tasked with finding Bajwa’s killer is the granite-faced Dhanwant Kaur (Mona Singh). She stoically soldiers through the investigation while grappling with a tragedy-riddled personal life that includes a dead son and an alcoholic husband. Her second-in-command is Amarpal Garundi (Barun Sobti), who has crossed over from Season 1 but feels like a new man. This Garundi is happily married, defers to protocol, and has none of the taboo-laced abrasiveness from before.
Suspects, red herrings, dead ends, Sukhbir needle drops, revelations and social commentary come at a steady trot. Writer, director, showrunner and producer Sharma’s writing credits include Udta Punjab (2016) and Sonchiriya (2019), but his breakout project was Paatal Lok (2020-). Sharma seems to have found his medium in the multi-episode streaming format, and his stomping ground in Punjab, with its complex social dynamics of prosperity streaked with tragedy and despair, and people chafing at the constraints of tradition and convention.
If one needed proof that Sharma is a consistently impressive storyteller in the crime-thriller genre, Kohrra delivers it. His tales hit the necessary beats of crime fiction, but don’t offer the standard assurance that justice will prevail. Instead, they point to deeper cracks in society that cannot be papered over or resolved with an arrest.
There is no fixing or mending the broken hearts and cynical cores of characters such as Hathi Ram (Jaideep Ahlawat) of Paatal Lok and Balbir Singh (Suvinder Vicky) from Season 1 of Kohrra.
Compelling as it is, Kohrra 2 does feel less accomplished than Season 1. It relies on the actors and technical teams to elevate the writing, which is flattened by the liberal use of clichés. The unhappily married man fools around with his babysitter. A woman needs to see herself as a mother to feel complete. The career woman loses sight of her husband’s emotional needs.
With the police also depicted as unabashedly good, Kohrra 2 loses out on both nuance and complexity. There is no more custodial violence by Garundi; no slippery slopes of guilt or temptation for Kaur.
Perhaps the most uncomfortable part of Kohrra 2 is the resolution. The grand reveal is more convenient than convincing. The show sharply critiques the privileged, but the identity of the murderer does little to dismantle the prejudiced perspective that marginalises and demonises the poor, especially those who make a living as migrant labour.
Admittedly, the writing feels disappointing partly because Sharma and his team have raised the bar for crime procedurals. It’s a good problem to have, but let’s hope their storytelling goes on to gain nuance rather than lose it.
(To reach Deepanjana Pal with feedback, write to @dpanjana on Instagram. The views expressed are personal)
