General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20266 min read

Tabbar

Tabbar (Punjabi for "family") is a 2021 Indian Hindi-language crime drama thriller web series created by Harman Wadala, directed by Ajitpal Singh, and streamed on SonyLIV. Its eight episodes follow a retired police constable in Punjab who crosses every line to protect his family after his son kills the brother of Jalandhar's most powerful crime lord.¹^•²

Key fact	Detail
Premiere	15 October 2021 on SonyLIV; one season of 8 episodes¹
Title meaning	Tabbar means "family" in Punjabi²
Premise	A retired police constable pushes boundaries to save his family from the consequences of an unfortunate incident³
Lead cast	Pavan Malhotra (Omkar Singh), Supriya Pathak (Sargun), Ranvir Shorey (Ajeet Sodhi), Gagan Arora (Happy), Sahil Mehta (Tegi)³
Key crew	Director Ajitpal Singh; creator and writer Harman Wadala; music Sneha Khanwalkar; production JAR Pictures¹
Format	About 39 minutes per episode; rated A (18+) in India⁴
Reception	IMDb user rating of 8.2 from about 5,000 votes³
Availability	Streaming on SonyLIV and VI movies and tv in India; not available for streaming in the United States³

Spoilers

Premise and plot

The series is set in Jalandhar, Punjab. Omkar Singh (Pavan Malhotra) is a retired police officer who runs a small kinara shop and lives with his wife Sargun (Supriya Pathak) and two grown sons: Harpreet, known as Happy (Gagan Arora), who is preparing for the post of an IPS officer in Delhi, and Tegi (Sahil Mehta), a college student who aspires to be a social media influencer. During a break at home, Happy shoots an intruder in a state of panic; the intruder turns out to be the brother of Ajeet Sodhi (Ranvir Shorey), a powerful crime lord in Jalandhar. Omkar takes it upon himself to safeguard his family at all costs, setting off a series of difficult choices, moral conflicts, and fear.¹

SonyLIV's own synopsis frames the show as a family thriller that pits an ordinary middle-class family against the most powerful man of Jalandhar, in which the battle for survival brings out the best and worst of each character and the family learns there is a price to pay.⁵ The first episode, "Karam Din", opens with the family dinner interrupted by the gun-toting brother of Jalandhar's most powerful man, who believes the family has stolen his drugs; the scuffle sets up the transformative journey for every family member.⁵

Episodes and release

The first season consists of eight episodes released on 15 October 2021, with the final episodes titled "Ishq" (1x06), "Hanera" (1x07), and "Birha" (1x08).¹^•¹² Each episode runs about 39 minutes.⁴ The series carries an A (adults only, 18+) certificate in India.⁴

SonyLIV offers the series in UHD with Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision, with audio in Hindi plus dubs in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Bengali, and Marathi.⁵ In India it streams on SonyLIV and VI movies and tv, or free with ads on SonyLIV; as of the most recent checks it was not available for streaming in the United States.⁴^•³

Production and creative background

Origins of the story. Creator Harman Wadala began working on the concept in 2018, and the idea grew stronger during the COVID-19 lockdown, when his family ran out of OTT content they could watch together. He said he wanted to create something relatable and fresh that could appeal to every family, noting a shortage of family-appropriate content on streaming platforms.⁶ Writer Sandeep Jain, previously known for Kota Factory, joined when Wadala brought him the pilot episode in September 2020; the show was written during the lockdown, with the co-writers discussing possible emotions and situations over calls.⁷ The writing credits are Harman Wadala, Sandeep Jain, and Mr. Roy.¹

Wadala drew the characters from his own family: Omkar Singh is inspired by his father, Sargun by his mother, Tegi by his younger brother, and Happy by himself. He said he wanted to break the caricaturist portrayal of Punjabis in film, and pointed to Angrej as the last time he felt Punjabis were shown realistically on screen.⁶

Direction. Ajitpal Singh was not initially involved with the project; when producer Ajay Rai consulted him on the script, Singh decided he wanted to direct it, seeing his own parents in the couple played by Malhotra and Pathak.⁸ Singh's first feature, Fire in the Mountains, had premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in February 2021, and Tabbar released the same year on SonyLIV.⁸ Although the drug menace in Punjab underlies the story, Singh said he did not want to make a documentary about it: the underlying issue ties the characters together without taking them over, and the job of a director is to incite discussion, not lead it to a conclusion. He credited Wadala and Jain with balancing the core story against the drug problem.⁹ Singh's earlier experience on more than 15 international documentaries informed the visual research behind the show's realism.⁹

Title and music. The team of SonyLIV, Ajay G Rai, Ajitpal Singh, and Wadala held a long discussion before finalizing the title Tabbar, the Punjabi word for family.² The music is by Sneha Khanwalkar, with cinematography by Arun Kumar Pandey and editing by Parikshhit Jha; the series is a JAR Pictures production produced by Ajay G Rai and Samir Khurana.¹^•¹⁰ The trailer released on 1 October 2021 drew about 14.9 million views on YouTube, and the promotion featured Daler Mehndi's rendition of Baba Farid's "Tureya Tureya".¹¹^•¹⁰

Reception

The series holds an IMDb user rating of 8.2 from roughly 5,000 votes.³ Many viewers compared Tabbar with the Tamil film Drishyam and found similarities between the two stories, a comparison Wadala said he could understand.⁶ The Mint noted that the relatively small number of episodes forces the plot to move quickly through its many twists.⁸

Context in Punjabi-language streaming

Tabbar and Kohhra are set in Punjab with largely Punjabi actors and makers, but use a mix of Hindi and Punjabi to widen their audience reach, at a time when Punjabi cinema's move to streaming platforms was still several years away according to industry figures.¹³ SonyLIV lists Tabbar among its exclusive LIV Originals premieres, alongside series such as Scam 1992, Gullak, Maharani, and Rocket Boys.¹⁴

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › Unscripted, reality, and web-native series › Web-native and streaming-original series › Indian and South Asian web series

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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