Kohrra is a crime drama that follows two Punjab Police officials in Jagrana, investigating the murder of an NRI from the UK. The deceased is discovered in a field just days before his wedding, turning family members and friends into suspects. It is not long before buried secrets come to light.
Plot summary
Kohrra opens with Paul Dhillon’s body being discovered in a field in Jagrana, Punjab. Police officers Balbir Singh and Amarpal Garundi get on the case, but the media arrives on the scene before them, and the news leaks to the public.
They discover that Paul was a British national and had his face beaten in and throat slit. They also find his car nearby which had met with an accident a while ago. As they convey the news of Paul’s death to his family, Balbir, and Garundi discover that he had come to India to get married.
His British friend, Liam, was also staying with them. Unfortunately, he is missing as well. Liam’s mother Clara also shows up for the celebrations and is shocked at the development.
At the Dhillon residence, they notice Paul’s mother Jaswinder losing it and blaming his uncle Maninder for the murder. Balbir notices this and makes a mental note of the situation.
The cops then visit Paul’s betrothed Veera and give her the news. They ask her a few routine questions and leave. The next people to be questioned are Veera’s college friends.
It is then revealed that Veera had a musician boyfriend named Saakar and the two broke up just a month ago because she was arranged to marry Paul. This didn’t sit well with Saakar who released a track demeaning Veera. Balbir and Garundi see motive and head to find this ex-boyfriend.
Saakar is defensive initially but reveals that he was bitter about the breakup but there was nothing more to it. Unfortunately, he lost his phone two days ago on the night of the murder which isn’t favorable for his situation as he claims he was in his studio.
The cops order him to find his phone lest he be arrested for murder. He then calls Veera and asks her to handle her own mess. They subtly discuss something happening two days ago, hinting that they haven’t been entirely honest with the authorities.
Balbir and Garundi go through Paul’s social media and realize that his watch and ring were missing from his body.
The next clue comes from a petrol pump worker who reveals that Paul and Liam came to refuel their car on the night of the murder and the two were extremely drunk. They asked for directions to the nearest alcohol shop and he guided them.
Garundi interrogates the owner of the alcohol store and after some police-style persuasion, he confirms that the two British nationals wanted cocaine so he gave them the contact information of a dealer named Kulli.
Paul’s post-mortem reveals that he had saliva on his penis, confirming that he had oral sex with someone. Balbir takes a female constable and questions Veera about her whereabouts on the night of the murder. She is uncomfortable and leaves. However, the constable manages to discreetly extract some of her hair for DNA testing.
The cops also look at CCTV footage of the accident that had earlier damaged Paul’s car and realize that the driver had banged into him intentionally.
They find the identity of the bus driver from the transport manager but are unable to locate him. As Balbir thinks about the next step, Garundi gets a call that Paul’s stolen watch has turned on and they have a location.
Their hunt leads them to the home of a small-time heroin dealer Satish, who they know very well. Out of fear of getting arrested, Satish tells them that he got the watch from a guy who works at a pizza place with a yellow uniform and drives a yellow scooter.
Further probes confirm that this man in question is also Kulli, the dealer. They reach the place where Kulli lives and don’t find him there.
Kohrra ending explained in detail:
What is Veera and Saakar’s truth?
Forensics confirm that Veera’s DNA matches the one on Paul’s penis and she is arrested.
In actuality, she met with Saakar that evening and slept with him one last time. Then she went to hang out with Paul and told him all about her past before starting their lives together.
There, they engaged in oral sex, and Saakar, who was tailing her, saw this and was left heartbroken.
Garundi manages to get CCTV footage from a club that is often mentioned in Saakar’s raps and chances on something shocking.
The footage from the night of the murder shows Saakar later confronting Paul and Liam in the club. They fight and Saakar cuts Paul’s arm with a blade. That blade is eerily like the weapon used to slash Paul’s throat.
Also, his last known location from his old phone is shown to be the murder sight. Saakar is arrested and brutally beaten for information but he sticks to his statement that he did not kill anyone.
What is the Dhillon family connection?
Balbir questions Maninder Dhillon, a local big shot, about a property dispute that has been going on between him and his brother and Paul’s father, Satwinder aka Steve.
Maninder reveals that the brothers had a younger sister, Charuno, who was diagnosed with cancer. Steve kept sending them money but never visited them. This irked Maninder and when they lost their sister, he refused to let Steve have any share of their ancestral land.
This development was a possible motive but not a strong one.
Later, we discover that Maninder’s son Happy was the one who bribed a bus driver to kill Paul in an accident. He was always jealous of his cousin as his father always loved and praised him more.
Furthermore, Maninder always berated Happy for being foolish and troublesome. He wanted Paul out of the picture and to get the land so that his father would be proud of him for once.
The bus driver was unable to finish the job but started blackmailing Happy when his cousin was actually murdered.
After Happy is unable to handle the situation and comes under the police’s radar, Maninder steps in and gets rid of the driver. He is finally kind to his son and asks him to watch his back.
Furthermore, he meets with Steve and tells him the truth about Happy’s actions. Steve is perplexed as to why Maninder is telling him this and he responds by saying that his attitude towards his own son almost destroyed the family.
He doesn’t want more animosity among them and is therefore taking back the land dispute case.
How is Kulli involved?
Kulli is found in the hospital due to a drug overdose. As he gets slightly better, Balbir and Garundi take him to the police station and lock him up.
As he recovers enough to talk, he tells his side of the story. He met with Liam and Paul on the night of the incident to sell them heroin. Unfortunately, they wanted cocaine so they shoved him and drove off.
Kulli wanted to get money out of them and followed them on his scooter. Due to a fault in his vehicle, he fell back a little but found the car parked near a field.
When he searched for the two, Kulli found Paul lying on the ground with a slit throat. He saw this opportunity to steal his ring and watch but Paul, who still had some life left in him, grabbed Kulli’s hand.
In a desperate attempt to escape, the dealer bashed Paul’s head in with a rock. The cops realize that Kulli did kill Paul but wasn’t the one to slit his throat.
Where is Liam?
During the story, we often cut to a truck driver named Shinda traveling around with his companion Toti and the two seem to be worried about something.
There are blood stains in front of their truck and Toti is quite disturbed by it. Unable to take the stress of whatever they’re hiding, Toti runs away, but Shinda finds him after a lot of effort.
Unfortunately, the driver is not willing to risk Toti’s elusive behavior and tries to kill him. Luckily, the young man escapes him and jumps into a canal.
Toti wakes up in a hospital and hallucinates about Liam, screaming that the foreigner is dead. Balbir finds him and confirms that Shinda is a key suspect in the case.
The cops manage to track him down by manipulating his mistress and arrest him. Shinda confesses that he ran over Liam with his truck on the night of Paul’s murder and it was an accident.
There was a lot of fog (Kohrra) that night and a drunk Liam suddenly walked in front of his truck. He tried to brake but was unable to. He drowned the body in a nearby well and tried to kill Toti because he did not want to get caught.
How is Balbir’s private life affected?
Balbir has a very dark past and a stressful life. He shared a traumatic relationship with his wife, often indulging in domestic violence, mentally scarring his daughter Nimrat in the process.
His wife committed suicide and he had to face a lawsuit from his in-laws, which he got out of with the help of a minister. In the present, Nimrat takes her son Golu and leaves her husband Raman.
She moves back in with Balbir and starts seeing an old college boyfriend, Karan Gill. Balbir physically and mentally abuses Nimrat for her decisions that go against his ideas of being socially acceptable.
Meanwhile, he often spends time with Indira, the widow of one of his deceased informers. She is one of the few people that give him respite. They finally share an intimate moment, but he leaves before it can escalate.
The tension at home causes Golu to feel the trauma and his school teachers mention that the child is disturbed. One night Balbir gets home and sees Karan and Nimrat talking.
He locks his daughter in a room and beats Karan to the verge of death. Nimrat responds by trying to commit suicide. She survives but finally confronts her dad.
She wanted to study and not get married. Even after marriage, Nimrat was not ready for a kid but Raman emotionally pressurised her into having Golu. She claims that her life is everyone’s except hers.
Balbir realizes his mistake and accepts that his toxic patriarchal ways have always been the problem. They led to his wife’s death and almost killed his daughter.
He visits Indira and tells her a devastating truth. After the minister got him out of the lawsuit, Balbir killed Indira’s husband to repay the debt he owed. He spent time with her and gave her money out of guilt for his actions. As expected, Indira is devastated.
What are Garundi’s problems?
Even though Balbir is the central character of the story, Garundi is equally important. He shares a secretly intimate relationship with his sister-in-law Rajji and is hesitant about marriage.
Finally, when he agrees to marry a girl, Rajji gets jealous. It is revealed that his brother and Rajji wanted their ancestral land for themselves and thus, used seduction to get Garundi’s share.
When he realizes this, he willingly agrees to give up his share, but Rajji admits to falling in love with him. At Garundi’s engagement, she willingly makes a cylinder explode which is met with resentment from her husband.
Unphased by these events, Garundi goes ahead and marries the girl, and Rajji has no choice but to accept his decision.
Who killed Paul?
After Liam’s body is found in the well, the autopsy confirms a twisting fact. Paul’s saliva is found on Liam’s penis. Before Balbir can break this news, he is kidnapped by Karan’s grandfather, a powerful industrialist, for beating him up.
Garundi manages to track him, kills all the goons, and rescues Balbir. The senior Gill speaks to Balbir and the two come to a silent agreement that whatever they did, they did for the sake of their families. Now, they are even.
Balbir finally visits the Dhillons and tells them the truth. Steve is outraged and accuses Balbir of spreading misinformation. Fortunately, Clara comes to the rescue and confirms that she knew Paul and Liam were gay and secretly in a relationship.
Paul agreed to the wedding because he was scared of Steve. We see flashbacks of an uptight and narrow-minded Steve beating a young Paul for getting his hair cut, confirming that Steve has always been a controlling and toxic man.
Steve requests Balbir to not let info about Paul’s sexuality leak in public. Finally, Clara tells Balbir that Liam tried to call her when she was on her flight to India and it went to voicemail.
As the voicemail plays, the events become clear. After Veera went home, Paul met Liam and they got into a tussle with Saakar. After the club, the two got drinks, shoved Kulli, and came to a halt in the field.
There, Paul told Liam that he can’t tell Veera his truth. Liam was heartbroken and Paul tried to calm him down by going down on him. Unfortunately, Liam pushed him and started to walk away.
Paul tried to stop him but Liam, who still had Saakar’s blade on him, slashed Paul’s throat. Distraught at what he had done, Liam called his mom and walked into the path of Shinda’s truck.
How does the story end?
Saakar is released from prison and is visibly disturbed by his experience. He asks Veera out again but she refuses. She is set to marry another man from Canada and wants to focus on her future away from India.
Balbir sends Golu with Raman and lets Nimrat go out with Karan. Paul and Liam’s mother share their grief and feel that they failed their sons.
Steve finally understands how his toxicity and patriarchal mindset were the root cause of his son’s death as Paul never felt he could come out to his father.
Finally, Balbir still spends his free time sitting in his vehicle outside Indira’s house. In the last scene, she finally steps out, opens the gate for him, and walks back in.
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