Cracking the inner core of Kohrra 2…

Mona Singh and Barun Sobti in a still from the second season of Kohrra. PIC/NETFLIX

There's a casual moment in the calmly captivating Kohrra 2 (Netflix), where the lead character, cop Garundi (superb Barun Sobti), returns home after a few drinks, and his newly-wed wife can sense him in the room from his smell, first.

Why doesn't he drink vodka that leaves no stench, unlike rum - Garundi's wife tells him. To which, he says, vodka gets him gassy; he'd much rather prefer rum.

This is in the interiors of Punjab that's traditionally viewed as the land where whisky flows.

Likewise, a boy (Prayrak Mehta) in the series, specifically from village Badauria, Hazaribagh, Jharkhand, looking for his long-lost father in the Punjabi hamlet, named Dalerpura, finds a waiter's job at an eatery called Chaapein Hi Chaapein!

That's where the characters often gather to order, "Reshmi chaap, Afghani chaap…"

Sudip Sharma, the creator, writer. and director of the crime-drama series

It's a packed, popular "100 per cent vegetarian" joint, while one widely associates Punjabis with kukkad/chicken, etc. It's these minor asides, subtly breaking stereotypes that, foremost, enwraps you into the core world of Kohrra 2.

"How do you inhale a setting?" I ask the Assam-born Sudip Sharma, writer-creator-director of Kohrra 2.

Also, because, if you glance through Sudip's past works as screenwriter - NH10 (set in Haryana's boondocks), Udta Punjab, Sonchiriya (ravines of Chambal), Paatal Lok (East Delhi's Jamnapaar), Paatal Lok 2 (Nagaland), indeed, Kohrra - you notice that rare touch of a quality travel-writer, offering such unique observations/insights, that you can almost smell the places from the screen!

Sudip says, "Earlier, this involved travelling, conventional reading, research. That's the easy part. But if a place itself is a character in a story, you have to soak in the life around it, rather than be cocooned with a crew, during a recce. You've to go beyond what's existed as pop-culture reference points."

Twice over, as it turns out (as with Paatal Lok 2), Sudip's Kohrra 2 ably defies the usual curse of the second season.

It's of course still a murder-mystery/police-procedural, set between two indefatigable cops, dealing with their own personal losses/issues, alongside.

Only, the second officer, senior inspector Balbir, played by the gentle giant, Suvinder Vicky, easily the star of Kohrra (2023), isn't there in its 2026 sequel.

Sudip says he and his writers "had run out of stories, with that character; didn't know what else to do [with him]." So, they thought, "Why not introduce a female cop to explore a fresh dynamic."

Hence, Mona Singh, as the strikingly solid sub-inspector Dhanwant Kaur, opposite Garundi - very much in the mould of buddy-cops, still. Which is such a time-tested genre, isn't it? Only, as Sudip points out, "The construct of an American/Hollywood buddy-cop is around two beat-partners, serving as equals. It's different in India, where there's usually a boss, and a subordinate."

Consider the younger, yet senior, because he's IPS, Imran Ansari, and inspector Hathi Ram Chaudhary, in Paatal Lok. Or Mona as the boss-lady in Kohrra 2.

"I like respecting tropes of genre filmmaking - buddy-cop, in this case - that you can then twist around," Sudip reasons. Couldn't agree more.

I remember Sudip once suggesting the iconic American series The Wire was, in a sense, the north-star for Paatal Lok. With the first Kohrra, he reveals, "I was looking at British, ‘plotty', moody crime-dramas like Shetland and Broadchurch, or Happy Valleys of the world. Or take something in the direction of [Bong Joon Ho's] Memories of Murder."

With the sequel, he feels, "It was a more personal space; delving into the lives of Dhanwant and Garundi."

That's without taking away anything from the actual murder, of a visiting NRI, being investigated, throughout the six-part series, intricately woven as a semi-jigsaw puzzle. Which is also how Sudip plots his mysteries, I briefly noticed at his work-station once, with lines, connections, notes on the white-board, softboard, post-its… "After the writing [is done], when you pull back your chair, and look at them, it's beautiful how [the picture] emerges," he says.

Surely, it's equally gratifying, as you can tell, when the characters match the actors - with such nailed precision, that you can't tell between the two.

Whether from the families of Garundi, Dhanwant, or the victim's, in Kohrra 2. Several actors are locals from Punjab, picked by Nikita Grover, coached by Nitin Goel. "I'm not a fan of ‘Versova' casting," Sudip says.

An MBA from IIM-Ahmedabad, Sudip quit corporate jobs with Asian Paints, Coca Cola, before he took up screenwriting, full-time. Kohrra 2 also marks his debut as director; a pivot, he confesses, came from the need to "feel challenged."

Actor Jaideep Ahlawat (Hathi Ram) was aware of Sudip's move. For solidarity's sake, he once landed up, unannounced, during the shoot in Amritsar.

"What're you doing here?" Sudip asked. "Whatever you're shooting tomorrow," Jaideep said. He plays a random bloke, for a hot minute, operating CCTV cameras at a railway phatak/crossing, in Kohrra 2.

Usually, a popular cameo must bend the needle of suspicion in a murder mystery. Of course, I'm not gonna tell you if Jaideep's walk-on part is a red herring, instead. You must watch the show!

Mayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass culture. He tweets @mayankw14
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