Netflix recently debuted the first trailer for its upcoming noir thriller series Kohrra, starring Suvinder Vicky and Barun Sobti as police officers investigating a murder in the heartland of India. Kohrra is mainly set in the state of Punjab, which remains largely unrepresented in mainstream Indian cinema. Described as a “masterful exploration of human nature” where the search for justice “becomes intertwined with the politics of interpersonal relationships,” Kohrra, which translates to “fog” in Hindi, is set for release later this month.
The trailer opens with a young couple discovering a dead body in a field. The police are summoned, and immediately begin questioning the victim’s family members. They discover the victim was an N.R.I. — a non-resident Indian — who’d just returned home from abroad to get married. Suspicion falls on his fiancé, of course, but also on her ex-boyfriend, with whom she is still in contact. The cops also contemplate the involvement of a gang, but everybody is left scratching their heads over one aspect of the case: the victim’s friend, a British national named Liam, who went missing on the same day as the murder.
“Love blurs the lines between right and wrong,” reads the text on screen, as the trailer implies that the victim was murdered by somebody close to them. “We spend our entire lives without really understanding our own family,” one of the cops — our veteran protagonist’s younger partner — says over a glass of alcohol one evening, as the trailer cuts to dramatic action beats and ominous revelations.
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The series hails from Clean Slate Filmz, the production banner founded by Bollywood actor Anushka Sharma and her brother, Karnesh Ssharma. Clean Slate previously garnered widespread acclaim for another crime drama series, Prime Video’s Paatal Lok, which debuted in 2020 and turned Jaideep Ahlawat into an overnight star. Vicky, who plays the grizzled cop in Kohrra, delivered an acclaimed performance in Netflix’s own drama film Meel Patthar a couple of years ago. Sobti is a well-known actor who works predominantly on Indian television, and has gained further fame in recent years thanks to his starring role in the crime drama series Asur. While Punjabi-language programming remains unusual on mainstream Indian streaming, Netflix debuted the spy series CAT recently, to middling response. This year, the streamer has also produced high-profile Indian remakes of major international hits — Class, a remake of Élite, and Rana Naidu, adapted from Ray Donovan.
Kohrra is co-created by Paatal Lok’s Sudip Sharma, along with Gunjit Chopra and Diggi Sisodia. The six-episode series is directed by Randeep Jha, and also stars Harleen Sethi, Manish Chaudhari, Varun Badola and Rachel Shelley, who viewers might remember as Elizabeth from the Oscar-nominated Hindi film Lagaan. You can watch the trailer here, and watch Kohrra on Netflix on July 15.
