Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
Two small-town cops investigate the murder of a young groom days before his wedding in the 2023 Netflix series “Kohrra”. Pressure keeps mounting on the police to solve the case as the victim was a affluent NRI lawyer and his best-friend, a British national, is also missing. With multiple suspects emerging, the case keeps getting murkier by the day.
Suvinder Vicky and Barun Sobti star in the series as the senior-junior cop duo, Balbir Singh and Amarpal Garundi, respectively. They are constantly chasing leads in the complex murder case. As clues pile up, a family saga of rift, jealousy, rivalry, hatred, and power struggle unravels. The first episode begins with an early morning scene, where a young man discovers a dead body seconds after having sex with his girlfriend in the fields. As the cops arrive on the scene, a drone is already relaying the body’s footage to a local news channel. The episode swiftly introduces most of the main characters and establishes its primary themes – sex, crime, family conflicts, and the uneasy relationship between the media and the police.
Vishal Handa portrays Paul Dhillon, the murder victim, who ironically gets very little screen-time despite events revolving around his death. Except for a few happy engagement photos, and a flashback establishing a tense family atmosphere, we don’t get much. There are even fewer details on his best-friend Liam Murphy (Ivantiy Novak) who goes missing the same night, drawing more media attention to the case as he is a British national. While Manish Chaudhari is intimidating as Paul’s grieving father, Satwinder; Aanand Priya delivers a low-key riveting performance as Paul’s bride-to-be Veera Soni, who seems genuinely distressed at her fiance’s death, yet invites a lot of suspicion with her behavior. Saurav Khurana however is the most entertaining in his cameo as Veera’s jilted ex-boyfriend, an aspiring rapper who struggles to get over her and soon becomes a primary suspect too.
“Kohrra” unfolds as a Desi version of an Agatha Christie mystery, but with a grittier tone and more mature, serious themes. The writers delve into strained father-son and father-daughter relationships, highlighting how some parents struggle to treat their grown adult children with the autonomy and respect they deserve. Apart from these personal dynamics, the plot sheds light on Punjab’s drug problem, depicting how vulnerable addicts are often unjustly held responsible for others’ actions, especially when the police need cases to be quickly “solved.” The class divide between the victim’s affluent family and the other characters is discerningly established to portray how wealth dictates the system.
Crucial twists are astutely foreshadowed in the first two episodes, allowing crime content enthusiasts to foresee where the story is going, yet the plot remains engaging. However, the pace is quite slow and might challenge viewers who aren’t patient. There is a significant focus on the personal lives of the cops, and while senior cop Balbir Singh’s character explores the blurred lines between his personal and professional life, making glimpses into his family affairs necessary, Amarpal Garundi’s post-work activities could’ve been trimmed in the show. However, Balbir is one of those “grey” characters, who is more than flawed and undeservedly gets to redeem himself towards the end, for events and acts that didn’t have anything to do with the primary plot of the tale.
Like its title, which means “fog,” Kohrra is a well-spun crime thriller series where the primary murder case is shrouded with secrets and twists. It takes two flawed but dedicated small-town cops to get to the bottom of the matter, even while they struggle to get their own lives in order. It’s one of the rarer shows where the pace continues to be steady until the climax, leaving viewers with ample closure.
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