Kohrra: Navigating the turmoil of love and family in a crime drama

A still from the Netflix series ‘Kohrra’.
| Photo Credit: PTI

‘Love is pain’ says the lead protagonist in the acclaimed web series on Netflix, Kohrra directed by Randeep Jha. At the outset, the series pretends to be a crime-investigation drama that revolves around a murder case, situated in a small town of Punjab. However, the viewers soon witness the magic of storytelling-weaving together the threads of love, desire, and family ties. While the mystery around the murder is resolved after a deep and hazardous investigation process, the trauma and tragedies produced by love remain to haunt the characters.

Earlier, series like Paatallok and Delhi Crime explored crimes while showcasing the gritty and emotional side of the police officers and their alibis. Though Kohrra adopts a similar track, its focus is divided. The story, while engaging the audience in crime and investigation, parallelly opens new windows to showcase the uncouth sides of human nature, responsible for making life corrupt, precarious and terrible. Beyond the investigation, Kohrra fearlessly examines the unsettling impact of everyday vices and societal biases on the human condition.

Kohrra is a deep story of emotional bonds and the quest to find love. The leading protagonist Balbir Singh (Suvinder Vicky) is an about-to-retire police officer who looks after his married but separated daughter and her school-going son. His assistant Amarpal (Barun Sobti) is a young policeman who is having an affair with his sister-in-law but is also desperate to start his own family. These two emotionally crippled officers are entrusted with solving a murder case and finding a missing person. The journey takes them into the dark alleys of human affairs only to reveal various obstacles and diversions that one has to cross to discover truths of banal life.

The director’s efforts in crafting the crime’s backdrop are evident throughout the series. We see that Paul (Vishal Handa), the murdered person, is an NRI from Punjab and has come to his hometown with his British friend Liam (Ivantiy Novak) for his marriage ceremony. The bride however had an affair with a rapper and her heartbroken lover is unhappy with her decision. On the other side, Paul’s uncle (Varun Badola) is a struggling businessman and his son is jealous of Paul. These people have motives to kill Paul and in the initial investigation, the police charge them with the crime only to understand their mistake later. In the end, we witness a heart-breaking revelation about queer love and the tragedies it encompasses.

Kohrra, the mist, is a metaphor here to suggest that our vision to detect the truth is obscured by nature itself. We are condemned to operate with fear, jealousy and distrust hindering the possibility to build human affairs on freedom, fairness and love. The characters here are mostly innocent and powerless, yet their desires, lust and infatuations lead them to fall into sinful traps, building an unending circle of sadness and guilt. The lead character, Balbir Singh is distressed because of his daughter’s decision to separate from her husband and to date her ex-lover. His patriarchal values disallow him to understand from the heart of his own daughter and make their own relationship utterly traumatic.

The male-female binary of love relationships also allows the man to take charge, relegating the woman to a powerless position. Kohrra shows the precarious and marginalised position of women in human affairs. The female characters are mostly meek, unable to quench their emotional desires and lack control over situations. Interestingly, their male counterparts appear strong and free but they too are burdened with social and institutional rules, creating a hellish condition. The background story of Paul and his bride illustrates how gender-performative roles perpetually give rise to distress and tragedy.

Showcasing characters with vivid emotional layers is not a groomed practice in Indian dramas. Balbir Singh’s character in this case is the most well-crafted piece in the story. He is old, professionally unsuccessful and ridden with guilt and failures. However, his longing for care, trust and love makes him a good soul. The actor, Survinder Vicky, performs the role with remarkable sensitivity and firmness and showcases the emotional traits of the character very well. We see in the climax that behind Balbir Singh’s despicable patriarchal attitude lies a lovable and genuine heart, allowing the story to end on a heartwarming note.

On the critical side, the story is overtly dark and depressing. It ruptures the popular fiction about Punjab’s prosperity, the myth about its always-happy people and the fascination with the Punjabi NRI diaspora (often fashioned in mainstream Bollywood flicks). Instead, here we witness the abject poverty, crimes and drug abuse, domination of social elites and the failure of state institutions to protect the innocents. Alongside, the jealous and fearful nature of humans, the coercive social rules that control our sexuality and freedom force the inhabitant to survive under tragic and sinful experiences.

Kohraa is a must-watch social drama and crime mystery. The story begins with a murder and police investigation, it hardly remains the leading attribute of the drama. It is a slow burn that unravels the bitter bonds of our family and social drama without being too preachy. It pushes the audience into the narrow alleys of human affairs to see the darker side of our unquenched emotions and raw desires. It offers a moral outlook at the end, suggesting how to escape from such a man-made dungeon. By divorcing the power to dominate others and by allowing space to trust and freedom, a cordial and fair social order can be established. Kohrra is a brave story.

(Harish S. Wankhede is Assistant Professor, Centre for Political Studies, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi)