HOW KOHRRA ACED IT

You think of a sprawling field in Punjab and if you are a '90s kid, chances are you will visualise Shah Rukh Khan's Raj standing in the middle of it with arms open and Simran running towards him. Kohrra begins with a similar premise, of two lovers meeting amid the fields, but this is 2023. And this is no YRF world. We take a deep dive into the show with its creator and writers

- Ananya Ghosh

As the morning sun drags away the veil of fog from the sprawling village field, a body is revealed. It is of an NRI who had come down to his ancestral house in Punjab for his wedding with a local girl. What follows is an attempt by two local police officers to solve the murder. Would the duo be able to lift the fog that shrouds this high-profile case?

But Netflix's Kohrra is far more than just a dark crime thriller or a gritty police procedural. Created by Sudip Sharma, directed by Randeep Jha, and written by Sharma, Gunjit Chopra, and Diggi Sisodia, the layered and taut web series is also a stark commentary on present-day Punjab with its societal prejudices and patriarchy among other things. In a freewheeling chat with the director and the team of writers, we try to get into the core of Kohrra. Excerpts:

One of Hindi cinema's all-time favourite love stories is set in Punjab. It talks about an NRI family, led by a patriarch, returning to the homeland in search of marital bliss for the next generation, and Gennext's romantic interest following them, becoming part of the family, and eventually claiming the love of their life. But DDLJ and Kohrra stand at opposite ends of the spectrum, not only showing how society has changed but also how cinema has become more real, thanks probably to OTT to a certain degree. How do you see the romantic idea of Punjab shifting?

Gunjit: Punjabi literature has explored all aspects of Punjabi society. Bollywood chose to ignore those and reduced Punjabis to caricatures and sold a vision of Punjab that was far from reality.