By Vishnu Mahesh Sharma
Character A (a daughter) says to Character B (a father) “Thodi to sharamkar lo. Tussi kaddiapanigaltinahimannoge.” (You have no shame left in you and would never accept your mistakes). For the moment it appears that the daughter is referring to the father’s carelessness about forgetting his grandson’s birthday. But a few episodes later, this minor confrontational conversation culminates with Character B, maybe for the first time in his life, accepting his mistake and confessing his crime. The moment before this confession is also a closure of a troubled relationship. There is an old saying that a woman looks for her father’s image in her future husband. This saying echoes here in a very twisted and complicated relationship.
The above two sequences may hint that I am writing about a relationship drama, however, I am talking about Kohrra (directed by Randeep Jha and produced by Clean Slate Production) which is a slow burn investigation thriller at its heart. But within this heart the beats range from sibling rivalry to dysfunctional family to relationships to revenge to collateral damages to actual investigation. This is an astonishing achievement that without losing an iota of focus from the main thread the screenplay dexterously and cleverly weaves in fine threads of minor characters and their issues such that it surprises us not only with the crime related reveals but also with these kinds of tender, heartwarming and heart-breaking character to character conversations.
Like any other noir, the big reveals are less about mysteries of the crime committed but more about mysteries of human psyche and human behavior. A character says “Pyaar badigaanduchijhotihai” (Love is a bitch). The moment this dialogue is delivered everything starts making sense. The seeming quirks of the opening scene, in which a couple (making love in open fields) discover a dead body, no longer remain quirks. The scene gets its motive after love is proven as bitch and we understand why the dead body had to witnessed first by lovers. Here onwards we see people who do bizarre things in love. They are wrong and are wronged in love. The nature of love is also diverse. In the small town of Jagrana in Punjab, the universe of love accommodates native-foreigner, male-male, male-transgender, father-daughter, brother-in-law-sister-in-law, father-son, and criminal-victim’s family.
In one of the sequences a father asks his son to prepare a drink for him (father). While preparing the drink, the son not only pours in alcohol but also pours his (son’s) bitterness in it. A few episodes later we see that in a reconciliation scene, the father prepares a drink for the son, and he pours in his love, affection, attention, respect and sense of security along with alcohol. The very ordinary scene is elevated to have very profound emotional impact. The very next moment also breathes in the same vein. This time the father becomes a brother, and he confesses to his elder brother how he always longed for their sister’s love and attention who always loved the elder the most. Now we know that it is the same affection and respect which he never got from his sister that he poured into his son’s drink. The scene very subtly comments that craving and longing for love drives the father on a path where he took good care of his sister but the same drives the son on a criminal pursuit. Sourcing from the same emotion, they both take opposing measures to get validation from their loved ones.
It is very interesting that in this dark atmosphere also, we get to see a Love-Aaj-Kal kind of scene where a man is there outside a woman’s home. No dialogues exchanged; his presence is acknowledged by the woman by switching the lights on and she offers the man tea as well. Though the world of this web show and that of Love-Aaj-Kal is poles apart but this lovely sequence never feels out of place and for that matter none of these moving scenes either.
The narrative progression not only finds time for drama but also sneaks in humor very smartly in the most mundane and driest of situations. The humor also ranges from being dark to laughing out loud moments. Consider a sequence for instance in which a doctor summarizes a postmortem report. This summary, literally, is very bloody and the very next moment we see “I Love (love in heart shape) Jagrana” flashing on a road. The heart of this love of this flashing is lit up in bloody red color indicating that in this world “Love” would lead to blood. This colorful dark humor is there in another scene where a witness testified against a suspect who drives a yellow scooter wearing a yellow jersey. This moment cuts to a rap song being played on a laptop with lyrics playing out in yellow fonts. Apart from these darkish chuckles there are moments which bring laughter as well. Garundi (Barun Sobti) asking a victim’s fiancé whether she knows the passcode of the victim’s phone is one such moment.
In a murder mystery all these may come as hindrances but in Kohrra, the world, atmosphere and characters are established with such perfection that along with the central murder investigation we are able to follow these people, their trauma, their guilt, their crime and motifs as well. The cast ensemble helps the purpose tremendously. Barun Sobti here is not the Sobti of Asur. He has more shades of the Sobti of Halahal (only in comic timings though). Suvinder Vicky casts a spell with his performance where we are possessed by him. We love him when he wants us to love him; we empathize with him when he wants us to empathize; we hate him when he wants us to hate him. It is that immersive performance. After witnessing him as a cop in Punjab Police in CAT, I was sceptic if this is going to be a repeat of similar performance for here also drug and police informer kind of sequences are there. However, his acting prowess, combined with stellar writing, is a testament that a cop may be very similar to another cop, but an actor makes it a human who is different from the other human.
The screenplay of the show is gutsy enough to find moments of mainstream heroism where the hero, single-handedly, saves the day. At the same time, it is creative enough to reinvent guilt driven dream sequence. In a wonderfully imagined scene a character takes walk through memory lanes but here, in his memories, he literally walks into different lanes. These lanes, in his mind, get mixed and intertwined with so many other lanes. This psychological chaos is very much in line with the physical state in which different voices of different people echo hauntingly to produce a moment of confusion and indecisiveness.
At times it feels as if the screenplay was operated instead of written; it was materialized in an operation theatre instead of on sets and locations. The reason behind this sense is the surgical accuracy with which it juggles artistic expression, noir elements, murder mystery and twisted love stories and does justice to each of them. Though in this surgery a few scars remain unattended. The imperfections are there, like Steve’s character (played by Manish Chaudhary) whom we are told is a formidable patriarch, but we never see enough of that shade. The other weak part is the character of Golu, the kid, who is there from screen time perspective but neither his absence nor his presence creates the impact that should have been created. The same can be said about Garundi’s relationship with his brother and sister-in-law whose intensity of love doesn’t match up with her horrible action in love.
Nonetheless, the screenplay, that eventually might have come out of the operation theatre, is so hale and hearty that it has all elements of noir with its rustic Indian soul intact to make us marvel at its skill and feel for the world and its bloody messed up people. The show proves what it set out to prove that “Love can be a bitch” irrespective of its gender and type of relationship it handles.