Kohrra Review: Violence Is In The Idea & That Idea Wraps You In Its Melancholy Till The Very End

Cast: Barun Sobti, Suvinder Vicky, Harleen Sethi, Varun Badola, Manish Chaudhari, Vishal Handa, and ensemble.

Creator: Sudeep Sharma, Gunjit Chopra, & Diggi Sisodia.

Director: Randeep Jha

Streaming On: Netflix.

Language: Hindi (with subtitles).

Runtime: 6 Episodes, Over 45 Minutes Each.

Kohrra Review: What’s It About:

One foggy morning on a farm in Punjab, police find a dead body of a 20-something boy. Investigation reveals he was an NRI visiting India to get married in a couple of days, and now even his white best man is also missing. Begins the quest for the missing friend and the killers of the groom.

Kohrra Review: What Works:

Before we dive deep into the haunting yet lucrative fog that Kohrra has to offer, let’s take a closer look at the people involved in shaping this unsettling watch. It is like majority of filmmakers with filmographies of exploring violence assembling like the Avengers of the dark world. The main man being Sudeep Sharma (Paatal Lok, Udta Punjab) increasing the audiences’ capacity to consume violence. His constant partners in crime are Gunjit Sharma (Paatal Lok, Udta Punjab) and Diggi Sisodia. Add to this director Randeep Jha, who was an AD on Ugly, Raman Raghav, and Shanghai. So you are now aware of the level of madness you are getting into.

So technically every single person involved in making this show has a unique perspective towards violence, and that reflects because the violence majorly in Kohrra is in the idea more than visuals. The idea that a man is now dead and the entire world around him was, at some point, unfair to him. The idea is that everyone is walking with egos and loaded guns in their pockets. A man is falling in love with a woman whose husband he killed, a daughter who saw her mother community suicide and is now walking the same path. Kohrra makes its characters vulnerable only to break them and not really offer a breezy redemption.

While an investigation unfolds, it layers the world with plots that leave no character, just black or white. Everyone is grey with either blood stains on bad deeds on their hands. They are aware of moral compass, but theirs is broken. In this arises the inferiority complex that runs the show in Kohrra as everyone wants to be above the other. Like Sudeep with Paatal Lok tried to tell you what happens when have nots get to take their revenge from the haves, here he shows you what the haves-nots are within themselves killing each other with. The conflict over ancestral wealth, comparisons, and unacceptance of s*ualities. And it all hits the goal.

The layering of this world that doesn’t over explain itself is well done. These are NRI people who have spent decades in the foreign country where the pressure has made them change their names to the ones palatable to the place they now called home. The show never oversimplifies by explaining why two Punjabi-speaking men are named Steve and Paul, which shows the maturity of the writing.

But what stands out in Kohrra amid all of the intriguing and intense thriller is the heart that two men at the centre walk with. They are evil in their own ways, but they are two men at different ages of life craving love, affection, a place to pause, a person in front of whom they don’t have to be robust. They never say it out loud, but their actions speak louder.

DOP Saurabh Monga is busy telling his own tale. The darkness of this world comes alive through his frames and the costumes that take away the last iota of vanity from the otherwise immaculate actors. Kohrra comes close to Tabbar with the visual and ideological tension, and that is supposed to be a great compliment considering how brilliant the Ajitpal Singh directorial was. It is haunting but also delicate because the handling is such.

Kohrra Review: Star Performance:

Barun Sobti is a performer and chooses the right show to showcase why the filmmakers must trust him. The actor who was brilliant in Tu Hi Mera Sunday, breaks his elite handsome boy image completely and becomes a shabby cop whose beard is never done neatly until the very day of his engagement. The little details that go into making his Garundi and the way he uses them to perform brilliantly is a highlight. Yes, emotional scene need more finesse, but he knows the drill.

Suvinder Vicky is a chameleon. Stalk him on Instagram, and you will know. The actor is so natural as Balbir Singh. A man who has seen only trauma and continues to do so. When a ray of light from the fire he ignited years ago shines on him, he contemplates but walks towards it. Most of the melancholy in Kohrra comes from his storyline, and Vicky does justice to the heavy role he has in hands.

Harleen Sethi finally gets to play a meaty part. While a lot about her is left for the last, and you want to know more, she plays a woman who never had agency over herself. Men around her dictated everything in her life. So when she walks out of a marriage, even when the husband is a very good man, you first hate her, but soon realise marriage is not just about two good people; it is about the love that needs to exist. Sethi certainly has got the calibre, and you can see it here.

Everyone else gets characters with substantial storylines and one that is much more than just serving the main plot, and they all do well.

Kohrra Review: What Doesn’t Work:

Kohrra, by the end, seems like it had a lot to say, but the time crunch was real. The finale is spine-chilling but also has too much to process. You don’t exactly know what to be more traumatised about. Could be a device used by the makers to leave the audience in state of shock, but it could have been more distributed.

Kohrra Review: Last Words:

Kohrra is not for the faint-hearted. Watch it without any preconceived notions and surrender; you will come out haunted.

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