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Panchayat Season 3 Review: Still Interesting, But More Politically Contextual

TVF seems to have a secret magic formula for creating shows that feel like a warm hug. The same vague feeling is present in the third season of Panchayat, TVF’s social comedy series that began airing in 2020. The new season features excellent writing, nuanced acting and, to my surprise, a more realistic portrayal of rural India, surpassing the already high bar set in the previous two seasons. It will make you smile, cry, laugh, reflect and maybe Google the government’s Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana!

What’s different about this season is that this time the rose-colored glasses are off. The main characters still share a warm friendship, but we can discover their tumultuous individual arcs, as well as their emotional baggage and crises, making room for a paradigm shift. Political rivalry is intensifying, and its consequences are becoming more threatening. To put it bluntly, the third season of Panchayat bursts some of the glossy bubbles of utopian fantasy and provides a compelling reality check.

Sanvikaa’s storyline received more screen time compared to previous seasons.

We see Prahalad Chacha (Faisal Malik) turning to alcoholism to cope with grief, Vikas (Chandan Roy) silently bearing the fear of financial burden, Abhishek (Jitendra Kumar) trying to brush off his obvious affection for Phulera, and Brij Bhushan Dubey ( Raghubir) Yadav) faces humiliation from all enemies on the political front and fights at home.

At various points throughout the season, you’ll feel sorry for each of them, but most of all for Prahlad, who is clearly crushed by the pain of losing his son. Something has changed inside him forever, and Malick’s brilliant performance embodies that loss. There’s a scene in episode three where he shows someone the disastrous state of his home – riddled with dirt, empty bottles and scattered dreams – to make them understand the importance of having a family, and then they both shed tears in complete silence. . The scene is delicately written and will surely leave you with tears in your eyes. In an equally inspiring episode, he offers a large sum for the construction of a road in Phulera so that Pradhanji wins the election, and also simply because “what can a man who has no goal do with so much money?”

As the episodes progress, you’ll really miss the quartet’s “baitak” sessions, when life seemed so much simpler after a couple of drinks. The emotional rhythm of the story makes just a few of these light-hearted yet intense scenes even more impactful than in previous seasons. Through the interpersonal relationships of the characters, the series made me think about friends with whom I had unwittingly lost touch.

This season, we see more of the slowly brewing romance between Rinki (Sanvikaa) and Abhishek. There’s a lot of eye talking, shy smiling, wordplay and awkwardness. Thankfully, both Jeetendra and Sanvikaa gave good performances without resorting to typical Bollywood melodrama, cheesy dialogues, violins and flowing chiffon sarees.

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Raghubir Yadav and Neena Gupta have also given excellent performances this season.

Apart from the expected stellar performances from the main cast, I was drawn to Jagmohan’s grandmother, played by Abha Sharma. Such a fragrant performance! Every time she appears on screen, she brings a little refreshment. From her precise accent and playful facial expressions to her mischievous body language, Sharma has pulled off the role perfectly and has managed to capture the essence of the typical ‘dadis’ of Uttar Pradesh.

Over the course of eight episodes, we meet many such colorful characters. Some familiar faces, including the groom from season one and his boorish friend, also make brief appearances. Despite so many storylines, the series doesn’t feel overwhelming, and each episode unfolds in the show’s signature slow-paced style.

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The creators have done an impressive job with the set design, props and costumes.

What I especially liked was the production design of the setting. It is relatively rare for Indian cinema and television to portray rural regions authentically. Conventional depictions are often marred by a romanticized vision of villages, replete with factual inaccuracies in the name of creative freedom. And yet, Panchayat not only managed to do this, but even surpassed its previous two seasons in context. The showrunners managed to bridge the huge gap between commercial and feature films. From real households and everyday items to real local brands and snacks served at festivals, Phulera’s portrayal is simply impressive. Clearly, painstaking work must have been done to achieve an accurate depiction of India’s interior.

If you watch the series closely, you’ll even find a lot of visual metaphors and jokes. For example, when accusations are made against Pradhanji, you will find him losing control of his otherwise friendly buffalo. And Abhishek always spills the tea just when things are about to take an unexpected turn. Or Vidhayak, who is accused of killing and then eating a dog (yes, we know it’s disgusting!), discreetly placed paintings and artifacts of camels in his living room.

The best of these is the scene where two angry groups confront each other, ready to fight the other with clubs, guns or whatever else they can get their hands on. The official tries to pacify the agitated crowd. Just as everything is about to explode, a loud phone call with “Sara Jahan Se Achcha” as its ringtone interrupts the proceedings.

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Bhushan is trying to take advantage of the feud between Pradhan Ji and Vidhayak this season.

While I enjoyed the rest of the series, I am a little concerned about the slight change in the overall tone of the series as more political banality will be the focus this time around. We meet other elected members of the Panchayat; a lot of pre-election banter, official meetings and other things. Even the notorious gun culture in Uttar Pradesh has achieved success.

While this shift isn’t overly dramatic or overshadows the narrative, future seasons could also bring more political drama to the forefront, as hinted at in the cliffhanger finale. I hope that even if the show takes on a more political tone, the raw emotional appeal and genuine portrayal of subtle interpersonal relationships – Panchayat’s biggest strength since it was first launched – will not suffer.

All eight episodes of Panchayat are now available to stream on Prime Video.


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