Cracking the inner core of Kohrra 2…

Therersquos 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 newlywed wife can sense him in the room from his smell firstWhy doesnrsquot he drink vodka that leaves no stench unlike rum mdash Garundirsquos wife tells him To which he says vodka gets him gassy hersquod much rather prefer rumThis is in the interiors of Punjab thatrsquos traditionally viewed as the land where whisky flowsLikewise a boy Prayrak Mehta in the series specifically from village Badauria Hazaribagh Jharkhand looking for his longlost father in the Punjabi hamlet named Dalerpura finds a waiterrsquos job at an eatery called Chaapein Hi ChaapeinThatrsquos where the characters often gather to order ldquoReshmi chaap Afghani chaaphelliprdquoSudip Sharma the creator writer and director of the crimedrama seriesItrsquos a packed popular ldquo100 per cent vegetarianrdquo joint while one widely associates Punjabis with kukkadchicken etc Itrsquos these minor asides subtly breaking stereotypes that foremost enwraps you into the core world of Kohrra 2ldquoHow do you inhale a settingrdquo I ask the Assamborn Sudip Sharma writercreatordirector of Kohrra 2Also because if you glance through Sudiprsquos past works as screenwriter mdash NH10 set in Haryanarsquos boondocks Udta Punjab Sonchiriya ravines of Chambal Paatal Lok East Delhirsquos Jamnapaar Paatal Lok 2 Nagaland indeed Kohrra mdash you notice that rare touch of a quality travelwriter offering such unique observationsinsights that you can almost smell the places from the screenSudip says ldquoEarlier this involved travelling conventional reading research Thatrsquos 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 Yoursquove to go beyond whatrsquos existed as popculture reference pointsrdquoTwice over as it turns out as with Paatal Lok 2 Sudiprsquos Kohrra 2 ably defies the usual curse of the second seasonItrsquos of course still a murdermysterypoliceprocedural set between two indefatigable cops dealing with their own personal lossesissues alongsideOnly the second officer senior inspector Balbir played by the gentle giant Suvinder Vicky easily the star of Kohrra 2023 isnrsquot there in its 2026 sequelSudip says he and his writers ldquohad run out of stories with that character didnrsquot know what else to do with himrdquo So they thought ldquoWhy not introduce a female cop to explore a fresh dynamicrdquoHence Mona Singh as the strikingly solid subinspector Dhanwant Kaur opposite Garundi mdash very much in the mould of buddycops still Which is such a timetested genre isnrsquot it Only as Sudip points out ldquoThe construct of an AmericanHollywood buddycop is around two beatpartners serving as equals Itrsquos different in India where therersquos usually a boss and a subordinaterdquoConsider the younger yet senior because hersquos IPS Imran Ansari and inspector Hathi Ram Chaudhary in Paatal Lok Or Mona as the bosslady in Kohrra 2ldquoI like respecting tropes of genre filmmaking mdash buddycop in this case mdash that you can then twist aroundrdquo Sudip reasons Couldnrsquot agree moreI remember Sudip once suggesting the iconic American series The Wire was in a sense the northstar for Paatal Lok With the first Kohrra he reveals ldquoI was looking at British lsquoplottyrsquo moody crimedramas like Shetland and Broadchurch or Happy Valleys of the world Or take something in the direction of Bong Joon Horsquos Memories of MurderrdquoWith the sequel he feels ldquoIt was a more personal space delving into the lives of Dhanwant and GarundirdquoThatrsquos without taking away anything from the actual murder of a visiting NRI being investigated throughout the sixpart series intricately woven as a semijigsaw puzzle Which is also how Sudip plots his mysteries I briefly noticed at his workstation once with lines connections notes on the whiteboard softboard postitshellip ldquoAfter the writing is done when you pull back your chair and look at them itrsquos beautiful how the picture emergesrdquo he saysSurely itrsquos equally gratifying as you can tell when the characters match the actors mdash with such nailed precision that you canrsquot tell between the twoWhether from the families of Garundi Dhanwant or the victimrsquos in Kohrra 2 Several actors are locals from Punjab picked by Nikita Grover coached by Nitin Goel ldquoIrsquom not a fan of lsquoVersovarsquo castingrdquo Sudip saysAn MBA from IIMAhmedabad Sudip quit corporate jobs with Asian Paints Coca Cola before he took up screenwriting fulltime Kohrra 2 also marks his debut as director a pivot he confesses came from the need to ldquofeel challengedrdquoActor Jaideep Ahlawat Hathi Ram was aware of Sudiprsquos move For solidarityrsquos sake he once landed up unannounced during the shoot in AmritsarldquoWhatrsquore you doing hererdquo Sudip asked ldquoWhatever yoursquore shooting tomorrowrdquo Jaideep said He plays a random bloke for a hot minute operating CCTV cameras at a railway phatakcrossing in Kohrra 2Usually a popular cameo must bend the needle of suspicion in a murder mystery Of course Irsquom not gonna tell you if Jaideeprsquos walkon part is a red herring instead You must watch the showMayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass culture He tweets mayankw14Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper