Kohrra 2 Review: Mona Singh Plays 'Mother' Of All Roles, Barun Sobti Excellent In Netflix Series

Staying true to its name and acclaim, Kohrra season two unfolds on a foggy winter morning and rewards the viewers waiting for the new season with yet another gruesome murder in the interiors of Punjab. Gritty, grimy, and messy, the new chapter of the Netflix police procedural thriller uses the inside-out approach to make a dent on macro themes of bonded labour, regional discrimination, Stockholm Syndrome, and patriarchy.

Kohrra season two sees Barun Sobti return as Assistant Sub-Inspector Amarpal Garundi and he is joined by Mona Singh's Sub-Inspector Dhanwant Kaur who try to solve a murder in a small town of Punjab while they fight their personal demons.

In the new season, Garundi has left his troubling past back in his hometown Jagrana and is happy in the new life he has created with his spirited, beautician wife Silky, who is excited to start her nail bar in Dalerpura, another fictional town in Punjab.

While Kohrra season one had two male cops, differing in age, experience, and rank, the follow-up season gives us one male and one female protagonist each. There is an initial frustration on Garundi's part about being ordered around by women, both at home and work, but Dhanwant earns her respect well over the duration of the murder case.

An NRI named Preet Bajwa, a social media influencer famous for her dance reels, is found murdered at dawn at a barn in her brother's house. Preet was a complicated figure who took several questionable decisions in life, just like any other real human being. She wasn't on good terms with her family and even her husband. Suspects are many, but the questions are who really killed Preet and why.

Meanwhile, there's a migrant worker from Jharkhand searching for his father who went missing over 20 years ago. He was just a baby when he went to Punjab for work. This 20-something scrawny labourer works by scraping at a Chinese food stall while battling discrimination as a 'bhaiya'. You'd think this is Udta Punjab happening once again but it is nothing like that. This worker, who is frustrated and homesick, just wants closure about his father: Is he alive? Did he remarry? Is he dead?

Investigation starts becoming more difficult as bodies start mounting in the Preet murder case. Four labourers from North India who had come to Punjab years ago seeking employment are burnt to death in Preet's brother Baljinder Atwal's poultry farm. The remains of the migrant workers were found in chains. They were literally the victims of bonded labour, a key detail which is not a side plot point for Kohrra season two.

Then, a woman named Mahi Verma, who has an affair with Preet's brother Baljinder, is assaulted by an unknown man.

But through the six episodes of Kohrra season two, we see the protagonists ease up around each other. If Garundi learns the importance of doing things by the book from Dhanwant, she feels secure enough in his presence to show her vulnerable side to him and even accept help, something which doesn't come easily to her.

Every day, her haunted eyes wait for someone at the bus stop. But the one she's waiting for never appears. Her son died in a road accident. She is chasing a ghost of the past, her heart is heavy with the loss she has been carrying for years now. Mona Singh yet again plays a mother but she is unlike any other mom she has played. Best part: she's not just a mother in the show; motherhood is an aspect of her life.

The baggage of that irreparable loss weighs on her relationship with her husband, Jagdish Sood too. Jagdish, who owns a cloth and tailoring centre in town, is an alcoholic who keeps himself inebriated to barely awake and face the brutal reality of life that doesn't let him sleep. He also feels emasculated by his wife who tries to use her authority as a cop to get her way. Dhanwant often picks up her alcoholic husband from roadside shacks, doesn't even glance at him or speak a word, and takes him home. Not like a wife, but a cop doing her duty.

Garundi feels he has escaped his past after moving to Dalerpura but some things are difficult to get rid of. His life gets more complicated when his wife Silky brings his pregnant sister-in-law to stay at their house while his elder brother Jung is away.

From season one, we know Garundi was in a relationship with sister-in-law. On their honeymoon, Silky came 'clean' about her past, but Garundi chose silence. The guilt and shame of his affair with his sister-in-law is clearly visible in his eyes whenever he is in the same room as her and Silky, and Barun Sobti does a fine job at it.

Cop dramas usually come with the whole shenanigans of going all guns blazing and stylish entries of the heroes with meticulously planned murders. But once again, Kohrra lifts the veil from this long-held perception of making cops into superheroes.

These police officers are real people with messy lives and serious personal issues who cut and bleed and are left limping after being hit by goons in a dark street at night. But their dedication and sense of duty makes them return to work the very next day. And, not all murders are planned, some of them are simply crimes of passion.

If Kohrra season one touched upon the drug menace in Punjab, season two also trains its lens on another issue that still haunts the state: the period of militancy in the early 1990s. It doesn't delve much into it but uses it as a device to explain why people become the people they are.

Like season one, this new chapter of Kohrra also ends on a hopeful note for both Dhanwant and Garundi. Here's looking forward to watching another gripping season of this Netflix whodunnit.

Also Read | Kohrra 2 Trailer: Mona Singh And Barun Sobti Team Up To Solve A Foggy Murder Mystery