Never Ending Movie Carnival
Never Ending Movie Carnival
Kohrra Season 2 review: A slow burn thriller that gets under your skin and refuses to leave.
A woman separated from her NRI husband is found brutally murdered under mysterious circumstances in her brother’s home ticking off an arduous police investigation in the sleepy town of Dalerpura. The case brings together the recently transferred Amarpal Garundi (Barun Sobti) and his new no-nonsense boss, Dhanwant Kaur (Mona Singh), while taking a toll on their already fractured lives as it entangles them into the complex vortex of escalating crimes and blurred motives.
Dhanwant and Garundi tread a very murky terrain where each character seems to be a suspect – from the victim’s philandering husband (Rannvijay Singha) to her dance tutor BF Johnny Malang to her financially broke brother, Baljinder Atwal (Anuraag Arora), resonating strongly with the dilemmas in their own personal space and destroying the decorum due to mounting bureaucratic pressure.
The OTT is floundered with myriad crime thrillers and a plethora of police procedurals that sees the pivotal characters as damaged souls battling ghosts from the past. Helmed by Sudip Sharma (creator Pataal Lok and also the co-writer of the first season) and Faisal Rehman, ‘Kohrra season 2’, like its antecedent, inhabits a similar world that is conjured with characters saddled with thriving grief and throbbing guilt, manifesting to an overwhelming catharsis of deep emotions and expressions.
As Dhanwant, Mona Singh renders an intense and restrained performance navigating a very palpable space with a personal loss, misogyny and a mentally disturbed spouse (a brilliant Pradhuman Singh of ‘Tere Bin Laden’ fame).
Plot thickens and the mystery deepens as we navigate the flabby episodes of ‘Kohrra’ that tackles larger themes of familial fracas, troubled relationships, domestic abuse, infidelity and bonded labour with simmering authenticity and a non-judgemental view. With a terrific Prayrak Mehta who plays an immigrant from Jharkhand in search of his father missing since 20 years, Kohrra ‘s stupendous writers’ team (Gunjit Chopra, Diggi Sisodia and Sharma) merges a sordid history with the suspense that results in a devastating disposal.
The show doesn’t offer any easy answers. It’s a deep and chilling exploration of human frailties arising out of societal failure – which makes Barun Sobti’s character more pertinent as he closely views the intricacies in the case and his own life, deriving how similarly natured are those complications. It leaves you shaken and morally haunted. At the end, I was craving for some sunlight that the show deliberately avoids with its wonderful atmospherics.
Going with 4 out of 5 stars.
Ahwaan Padhee, is an IT Techie/Business Consultant by profession and a film critic/cinephile by passion, is also associated with Radio Playback as well, loves writing and conducting movie quizzes. More By Ahwaan Padhee