Kohrrais an Indian Punjabi-language crime thriller police procedural television series on Netflix created by Sudip Sharma, Gunjit Chopra, Diggi Sisodia and directed by Randeep Jha[1][2] Produced under Karnesh Sharma's Clean Slate Films in collaboration with Netflix, the series stars Survinder Vicky, Barun Sobti, Harleen Sethi, Saurav Khurana, Rachel Shelley and Manish Chaudhary in lead roles.[3][4] The series premiered on 15 July 2023 on Netflix.[5]
A couple having sex in a field stumble upon a body next to a car. The body is found to be Tejinder "Paul" Singh, an NRI from the United Kingdom, who is in India to be wedded in an arranged marriage to Veera Soni. His best friend, Liam Murphy, who was with him the previous night is missing. SI Balbir Singh and his asst. Garundi are assigned the case. The car seems to have visible damage to one side and they find out that Paul was involved in an accident with a truck.While interrogating Pauls family, Balbir and Garundi find out that there is land dispute between Paul's father, Satwinder "Steve" Dhillon and his uncle Maninder "Manna" Dhillon. Manna's son Happy is seen to be nervous around the policemen. They also come to know that Veera had an obsessive ex boyfriend, Saakar who had trouble with their break-up.
Balbir has a contentious relationship with his daughter, Nimrat who blames him for her mothers suicide and herself has left her husband Raman and is living with Balbir with her son, Golu. Garundi lives with his brother Jung and his sister in law Rajji, with whom he is shown to be having physical relations. Balbir also supports his former informant Nopi's wife, Indira and there seems to be a mutual attraction between the two. He is often seen to be waiting in his jeep outside her house having a drink.Seeing damage on Paul's car, Balbir and Garundi check CCTV footage and see a truck deliberately trying to run Paul off the road.
A flashback shows Steve assaulting Paul at Liam's house after he cuts his hair as Liam watches and Clara threatens to call the police on Steve. Truck driver Shinda and his cleaner Toti seem to have a secret. Garundi leans on the liquor shop owner and finds out that Paul and Liam were directed to the local drug dealer, Kulli. The coroner, Dr Johal, tells Balbir and Garundi that Paul's throat was slashed but cause of death was blunt force trauma and he also had a cut on his arm from the same weapon used to cut his throat but the wound was made hours earlier. In addition, he informs that someone fellated Paul a few hours before. Truck driver Pramod is seen to blackmail Happy. Balbir and Garundi trace the bus involved in Paul's accident and find that the driver was Pramod who gives them the slip.
A flashback shows Manna praising Paul while he criticises Happy in front of Liam.The cops take Saakar into custody. On pretext of a flat tire, Shinda tries to kill Toti who escapes. Happy tries to threaten Pramod who beats hims up and then doubles his blackmail ask while taking Happy's gun.Balbir goes to meet Nimrat's ex flame, Karan Gill and asks him to leave her alone.Manna comes home to find Happy beaten up.Kulli comes out of his overdose state to tell the cops what happened that night. When Paul and Liam rejected his heroin offer because they wanted cocaine, an angry Kulli starts to chase them but falls behind. When he catches up he find Paul lying in the field next to his car with his throat slashed. While trying to steal his smartwatch, Paul regains consciousness and a scared Kulli repeatedly hits him with a rock to escape.Toti comes to in a hospital screaming about the white mans blood. The hospital call the police and Toti identifies Liam as the white man. Balbir almost gets intimate with Indira but they are interrupted by Nopi's mother.
A flashback shows Balbir picking up Nopi from his gym and shooting him dead in a desolate area.Balbir tries to interrogate Happy about Pramod but Manna interrupts them. When Manna asks Happy why he tried to hurt Paul, Happy expressed his unhappiness at being dismissed by his father in favour of Paul stunning Manna. Balbir finds Karan at his house, locks Nimrat and Golu in their room and beats him up as Nimrat screams. Garundi uses Shinda's favourite hooker to capture him.Shinda tells them that they ran over Liam as he walked out on the road suddenly in bad visibility. Liam's body is retrieved from the well where Shinda dumped it. Manna returns Happy's gun to him and asks him to careful in the future. Balbir goes to Garundi's engagement party with Golu while Nimrat stays home. Garundi tells Balbir that Pramod's beaten up body was found in a canal. Nimrat tries to commit suicide. Balbir confesses to Indira that he killed Nopi because he owed a politician who got him out the case filed by his in-laws after Taran's suicide.
Garundi searches for Balbir whose empty damaged jeep is found. Assuming that Manna has something to do with Balbir's disappearance, he shakes down Happy. Manna calls Garundi and tells him that abducting cops is not his style and hints that only powerful people like builders are capable of this. Garundi figures out that Karan's grandfather, Shamsher is behind the abduction. He traces Balbir to a farmhouse where Shamsher's strongman, Bawana , has held him and after a shootout with Bawana and his gang, manages to free Balbir. Finding Shamsher waiting as they exit the farmhouse, Balbir has a heart to heart with him and they agree to let their children follow their hearts.Balbir informs Steve, Jassi and Clara about Dr Johal's findings which sends Steve into a rage. Clara tells Steve that Paul and Liam loved each other but Paul could never tell Steve because he would have flown into one of his rages. Steve and Jassi are shocked at the news. Saakar is released and he tries to reconnect with Veera who tells him that he needs to move on as she is now engaged to another man now. Balbir gives Karan and Nimrat his blessing. On the way back home. Clara tells Balbir that on the night of the murder Liam left her a voicemail which she got later. After listening to the voice mail, Balbir reconstructs the final moments of Paul and Liam. In the bar the fight with Saakar results in the cut in Paul's arm and Liam picks up Saakar's blade.Paul meets up with Veera after and she fellates him in the car. After dropping her home he meets up with Liam and they find themselves in the field where the two fight. Paul tells Liam he loves him and fellates him but an angry Liam slashes Paul with Saakar's blade. Finding Paul dying from his wound, Liam calls Clara, leaves her a tearful voice message and then walks out on the road in front of Shinda's truck
In a post credits scene, Garundi gets married, Raman takes care of Golu as Nimrat unites with Karan. Veera is seen getting ready for her wedding as Saakar comes to grips with his heartbreak. Steve cries bitterly while holding Paul's wedding sherwani.
Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV praised the acting performance, screenplay and direction of the show and gave 3.5 stars out of 5. He said: "The series pierces through the haze and darkness that surround a bereaved family as well as the two cops who are charged with getting to the bottom of the truth."[13]
Shubhra Gupta of The Indian Express wrote in her review "In Sudip Sharma's dramatic, masterfully executed drama "Kohrra," which is both a murder mystery and a sharp examination of contemporary Punjab and the Punjabi psyche, location and history play significant roles".[14]
Shilajit Mitra of The Hindu wrote in his review, "Like Memories of Murder (2003), Kohrra opens on a vast, verdant field. A body is discovered by the wayside. We get an exchange between a stunned young boy and a small-town cop. "[16]
But for me, at any rate, all that labyrinthine plotting is incidental to the local colour: the dilapidated squalor in which poorer Indians live (basically a mattress in a dingy room), the extravagant domestic violence, the routine chai-drinking and that fantastically delicious-looking samosa (so much crispier-looking than you get over here), the attitudes to sex, the junior police girl with her addiction to her iPhone and rich puddings, the Mahindra truck drivers, the small-business owners, the casual anti-white racism, the snobbery and aspirations, the care and perfectionism that go into putting on a turban.
Created by a well-established team, Gunjit Chopra, Sudip Sharma and Diggi Sisodia, arrestingly shot with a grimy, in-your-face immediacy, well acted and authentic (the lead characters are based on real-life cops observed by Chopra), this series has been a number-one hit in India. But it really deserves a much bigger circulation than that.
More than 75 years ago, a young artist named Jacob Lawrence set to work on an ambitious 60-panel series portraying the Great Migration, the flight of over a million African Americans from the rural South to the industrial North following the outbreak of World War I. By Lawrence's own admission, this was a broad and complex subject to tackle in paint, one never before attempted in the visual arts. Yet, Lawrence had spent the past three years addressing similar themes of struggle, hope, triumph, and adversity in his narrative portraits on the lives of Harriet Tubman, leader of the Underground Railroad (1940), Frederick Douglass, abolitionist (1939), and Toussaint L'Ouverture, liberator of Haiti (1938).
Lawrence found a way to tell his own story through the power and vibrancy of the painted image, weaving together 60 same-sized panels into one grand epic statement. Before painting the series, Lawrence researched the subject and wrote captions to accompany each panel. Like the storyboards of a film, he saw the panels as one unit, painting all 60 simultaneously, color by color, to ensure their overall visual unity. The poetry of Lawrence's epic statement emerges from its staccato-like rhythms and repetitive symbols of movement: the train, the station, ladders, stairs, windows, and the surge of people on the move carrying bags and luggage.
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