Kohrra 2 & the Rise of Panjabi Noir

A new image of Panjab is emerging and giving birth to a new genre in cinema—Panjabi Noir. Challenging the traditional images of Panjab—phulkari (traditional hand embroidery), parande (hair ornament), and swaying mustard fields—seen in Hindi cinema, the new image of Panjab dives deeper into its darkness. Kohrra 1 (2023) did not refrain from being overt in its approach about exposing the underbelly of Panjab. Kohrra 2 (2026), set in the fictional Panjabi town of Dalerpura, is the latest among burgeoning stories that began with Maachis (1996), Punjab 1984 (2014), and Udta Punjab (2016). Recent shows like Paatal Lok (2020), Tabbar (2021), Masoom (2022), CAT (2022), Chamak (2023), and Kohrra series, all highlight a rising need to be true to the problems that plague Panjab’s present and expose our past. Independent cinema emerging from the state too managed to twist the dagger with films like Kabir Singh Chowdhry’s Mehsampur (2018), Anmol Sidhu’s Jaggi (2021), and Gurvinder Singh’s Anhe Ghore Da Daan (2011), Chauthi Koot (2015), and Adh Chanani Raat (2022). Noir is a strange, shapeless genre. It is tied more to atmosphere than narrative. Panjab is being re-written in the visual cultural imagination. Even, Lohri, the harvest festival of joy, that Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge and Veer-Zaara used to stage not just a carnival of color, in the hands of Kohrra’s creator-director Sudip Sharma becomes a site of family rupture—incest and infertility coming to the surface. Emotional disturbance and physical violence that children face within their homes is the central theme of the show as it explores parental guilt, and ignorance. Ideally, one’s home should be their safe space but almost every young character in this show is struggling to survive in a house where questionable decisions made by the parents are inflicting serious scars upon the children. The French critic Nino Frank who coined the term ‘noir’ in 1946 referred to something beyond plot and action in the films around and after World War II, a psychological scaffolding that unmasks something sinister in contemporary society. These stories, decidedly political, borrow their bleakness from a place in poisonous churn. Historical residue is, thus, essential to Panjabi noir (earlier coverage).