Netflix’s Kohrra review: No big star cast but intense storytelling makes the show interesting

Language: Hindi and Punjabi

Director: Randeep Jha

Cast: Suvinder Vicky , Barun Sobti , Manish Chaudhari , Harleen Sethi , Varun Badola

Sudip Sharma’s murder mystery is a true depiction of Punjab and understanding the sentiments and emotions of the people.  Kohrra has yet again shown that you don’t need a big star cast to make it successful. It’s a unique blend of emotion, vulnerability and suspense. Created by Sudip Sharma and Randeep Jha, the show is about two Punjabi cops who investigate the death of a young NRI in a town in Punjab. In the process of solving the murder mystery, the cops are fighting their own battles.

The show had to be good and close to reality because it is co-created by Sudip Sharma (Paatal Lok, NH10) and directed by Randeep Jha (Halahal) showing all layers of the society along with the equally layered characters. The story starts with two Punjabi cops investigating the murder of an NRI. Gradually the story picks up and goes into the personal life of the cops and how it has been messed up by circumstances.

Kohrra deals in detail with all things Punjabi, talking about its rich NRI population, migration, drugs, sex, clash of classes, flowing drug consumption and more. The most amusing part is how a village in Punjab is depicted with its NRI population and all things foreign including the names of the characters. When Satwinder becomes Steve Dhillon and his dead son is named Paul.

The story goes this way, the victim is Paul (Vishal Handa), who has arrived with his childhood friend Liam (Ivanty Novak) in a village of Punjab to wed Veera (Anand Priya). It’s an arranged match and Veera agrees to it thinking about her own future and lavish life in the UK. Veera’s boyfriend Saakar (Saurav Khurana) is unhappy and is unable to get over the situation that the love of her life will be getting married to a rich NRI and migrating to some other country. The story opens with Paul’s dead body being found in the fields.

We get an answer to the death of Paul who came for an arranged marriage to India as the six gripping episodes of Kohrra unfolds. The narrative is unique and very close to reality and most importantly it just doesn’t deal with the murder mystery, but touches upon the other side stories including the lives of all the characters. I guess that is the beauty of Kohrra and the writing skills of Sudip Sharma.