The Other Punjab:
The first season of Kohraa (2023), an intense police procedural, was set in Punjab, the dark side of which is not usually seen on screen, making it one of the top shows of the year, with a masterful performance by Suvinder Vicky.
The second season returns to small town Punjab, where wealth has not necessarily brought progressive thinking. The lead is a weary female cop in Dalerpura, Dhanwant Kaur (Mona Singh), who has enough problems of her own, when a murder investigation falls on to her plate. She has returned from a year-long suspension, is having trouble conceiving and coping with her alcoholic husband (Pradhuman Singh Mall).
A young woman, Preet Bajwa (Pooja Bhamrah), is found murdered in a barn on her family’s farm. The one to find the body is her traumatized mother. As Dhanwant and last season’s Amarpal Garundi (Barun Sobti), along with an overeager junior Aujla (Devinderingh) land up, they feel there’s a lot to be suspicious about.
As Dhanwant starts asking questions, there is a hint of judgement in what people tell her. Preet had left her husband Tarsem (Rannvijay Singha) and children in America and moved to her cash-strapped brother’s Baljinder (Anuraag Arora) farm. She was having an affair with a dance instructor, Johnny Malang (Vikhyat Gulati).
A quest by Jharkhandi migrant Arun (Prayrak Mehta) to find his missing father Rakesh (Satyakam Anand) is a separate sub-plot, but builds the brooding backdrop for the procedural.
Directed by Sudip Sharma, Faisal Rahman and Randeep Jha, the show is darker than the last season; more about capturing the social problems of a town and its people, rather than concentrating on the investigation. Under Dhanwant, that is efficient too—phone records, CC TV footage, and female empathy that brings out clues from Preet’s friend, who was unable to speak in the presence of her husband.
The performances are the high point – Sobti leads with his complex and somewhat combative Garundi; Mona Singh is perfectly cast as the stoic Dhanwant. Some of the supporting actors, like Preet’s grieving mother, her quiet sister-in-law, Garundi’s newly married wife and the sister-in-law he had an affair with. They all seem real and relatable.
There is constant tension in the air – between the characters, members of the family, the demands of a tough job. It is as if light and happiness has been sucked out of Dalerpura. There is an occasional burst of humour, but the mood is mostly grim. Kohraa 2 may not provide the high of justice or the neatness of a tied-in-a-bow resolution; what it offers is social insight, and a plot that is consistently engaging.
(This piece first appeared in seniorstoday.in)