That was the time of Corona. Lockdown has started. Housebound people watch the outside world through cell phones, laptops, and TVs. All over the world, there is a demand for clean air. Meanwhile, Phulera Village appeared on Amazon Prime on 3rd April 2020 with purity, clarity and simplicity. Bengalis are only familiar with Rabindranath Tagore’s ‘Postmaster’ story. Rabindranath compared the postmaster, a city boy who goes from town to village to work, to a “fish caught in the air”. ‘Postmaster’ could not survive in the village in Tagore’s story. The beginning of the ‘Panchayat’ series is much like this.
City boy Abhishek tries for a job and gets the job of panchayat secretary. The boy, who has grown up in the city all his life, takes the job as a break for a few days of life and reaches the village of Phulera. But here he starts differing from Tagore’s character who was a fish out of water, a city boy who could barely adjust in the village.
Our Panchayat secretary and the audience are completely tied with Phulera, with the people of Phulera. For the audience of Panchayat first season, it was a time of house arrest due to Corona, so we virtually, vicariously roamed around Phullera. Then season two came in 2022. As soon as it arrived, it won the audience’s hearts. Now people’s love for the second even surpassed the first season. The secretary gradually became one with the village. Village problems and their solutions are met with pure humor.
Almost the entire two series became meme material, you think of a frame from Panchayat and in your mind, a meme pops up. The simplicity of the village people, the dirty politics of the MLA, and the emotional melodrama of rural life make people laugh and cry.
That race of tears with countless questions had to be carried on for another two years while waiting for the third season. Seeing the smiling face of the deputy chieftain of the village who lost his son, the viewers breathed a sigh of relief. Here lies the success of the Panchayat series. Each character has become the audience’s own.
May 28, 2024. Ending the long wait, the third season of the Panchayat web series arrived on Amazon Prime. Is it able to touch the mercury of human expectations? Phulera’s roads did not look any better this time, Rinki and Abhishek’s love did not take root this time, but six or seven hours of watchtime passed as a stream flows effortlessly looking at the screen of Prime video.
Prahladji, the deputy chieftain played by Faizal Malik will steal the light of this season. Prahlad and the elderly granny’s conversation will twist the heart of every audience whoever lost their loved ones when an elderly rural lady resorts to a fake family quarrel in the hope of getting a house under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana.
This season, the secretary will return to Phulera busting the MLA’s ploy to oust him, but it will be known at the outset that it will not be for long. Panchayat polls are round the corner. Each character will manifest itself in different ways like opening the pages of a book. MLA is a villain but he cries for his horse. Bum Bahadur might be a village bumpkin but outshines like a hero. Bhushan aka Banrakas is the comic antagonist but his deep concern for the village is revealed to be genuine. Manju Devi a full-time housewife was only a titular chieftain so far, but now she reveals some statesmanship.
These epiphanies are serious spectacles in this drama, but they tickle our funny bones sometimes.
While Manju Devi becomes very alert in her sense of political judgment, it contrasts with the biased behavior of her husband, the de facto chieftain, good old Pradhanji.
Characters are multi-faceted here. Is the apparently bad Bhushan really bad? In his staunch opposition to Pradhanji, the interest of the village became bigger than his own interest. Amending bad roads, proper distribution of PM Awas Yojana houses and development of the village become the key concerns of this comic antagonist. People in Panchayat are portrayals of common people like you and me, they are a mixed lot, with good and bad traits. It is not the story of an idealistic good vs bad. Characters are flawed, humane, comic, and above all, lovable.
Durgesh Kumar, who played the role of Bhushan, caught our attention uniquely. The makers of the ‘Panchayat’ series have juxtaposed brand newcomers with veteran actors. And their joint symphony is a spectacle to behold.
For some actors, this series was the first acting job of their life. But in acting skills, the identity of the newcomer has been forged in the vicinity of the veterans like Neena Gupta and Raghuveer Yadav. Noteworthy is Ashok Pathak in the role of Vinod and Chandan Roy in the role of Bikash.
Background score stands out, and takes the story forward dexterously.
In addition to simplicity in the Panchayat series, another major asset is love. A safe and beautiful love. The screenplay opens the book of love between Sachivji and Rinki very sincerely. A little carelessness in this rural, subtle love affair can cause disaster because, in the eyes of the village people, a romantic affair in a boy-meets-girl love story is still taboo. Keeping all that in mind, the makers of Panchayat exhibit a slow love story that progresses unnoticed, effortlessly representing thousands of lovers in rural India.
Some may criticize the series on the grounds that Phulera’s development was nowhere to be seen. It remained what it was in the first two seasons. Like a closed reservoir of a time loop, trapped at and standstill is this village. Actually, the timeframe remains unchanged. Although the third season is seen two years after the second season, the story begins exactly where the second season ends.
This season sometimes lacks the overt humor of the second season, and what replaces that is a tone of seriousness. Panchayat is a series from the production house of TVF that never ceases to inspire. They bestow hope upon the audience to sit in front of the screen. What is happening on the screen is often more important than why it is happening.
This season of Panchayat is like the preparatory phase before the start of the Mahabharata war. Just a prelude before telling the actual story of a glorious battleground. This time, as soon as each warrior of the Great War was introduced, the preparations for the war were made, and the curtains fell on the third season. The end of Panchayat season three marks the hopeful beginning of another tenure of waiting by the audience.
Waiting for Panchayat season four.
Written by Rituparna Koley
