‘Panchayat’ : The Wholesome Web-Series Which Made 2020 Less Crappy
In April 2020, The Viral Fever released ‘Panchayat’ on Amazon Prime, which proved to be a blessing for me in the lockdown.
The magic of good old TVF :
This is year is full of depression – death, illness, riots, unemployment. And everyone is locked in their homes, trying to make sense of all this, while consuming a variety of boring ‘entertainment’ and lame media-content.
OTT platforms are full of mediocre, tasteless content which is forcibly made to look dark. Zero entertainment value and lots of nudity. If television is trash, OTT is trash in a bikini, in sepia mode.
Among all this nonsense, TVF shines, its the metaphorical purple cow. Their content is meaningful, their storytelling is seamless, there is always pleasant music.
After ‘Yeh Meri Family’ and ‘Kota Factory’, Panchayat is another such gem.
You can watch it alone, you can watch it with your family, you can watch it a hundred times.
Here is a plot overview without spoilers.
The Panchayat, the people and the outsider :
We meet Abhishek Tripathi (Jitendra Kumar), who lands a job as a Panchayat secretary in a quaint, lazy village. He does not want to be there, he wants a high-level, urbane job. Reluctantly, he decides to join, but prepares for CAT along the way.
Abhishek discovers that the pradhaan (head) is a woman called Manju Devi (Neena Gupta) but the position is occupied by her husband (Raghubir Yadav) instead. His wife, clever and sharp-tongued rules the household.
As the Panchayat sachiv, city-boy Abhishek runs into unexpected challenges every day. He deals with the poor infrastructure of the village, the social norms, jobless goons, the unusual requests of villagers. All this while he drags the dull lifestyle of a maggi-eating bachelor.
The comedic conflict, and poignant peace-making :
Abhishek realizes that being a resident of the village and working for the village Panchayat isn’t the same as working in an office. He cannot go home and detach himself by hanging up the id card. He is now a part of the village, and must abide by the rules, much to his annoyance. Annoyed Jitendra Kumar is a mood. See :
A wedding takes place in the village, and poor Abhishek is forced to play the role of a gharaati and please the groom and his guests. He is forced to settle petty disputes. He faces the ire of villagers who are not pleased with his work, and refuse to have a conversation. He just can’t keep low-key.
But, he ultimately accepts that the village is a world of its own, and expecting it to function differently is foolish. As an equal and opposite reaction from the universe, the village accepts him as its own. And he smiles, as the camera zooms out and music takes over. Classic TVF.
Meanwhile, he Pradhaan ji starts wondering if smarty-pants city-boy Abhishek would make a good son-in-law, but is disappointed when Abhishek fails to ‘prove himself’.
Manju devi taunts him about his ‘failure’, and he gives it back to her in kind, underlining her failure to hold the rightful post of pradhaan. Things get tense, and Manju Devi decides to become pro-active and asks him for help. Once again, Abhishek is caught up in a mess but he accepts it, showing a change in his attitude.
Slowly, he wonders, if the feeling of acceptance can blossom into love?
Summary :
If you are looking for a feel-good show to watch, go for this this one. It is worth every minute. Show this to your parents.
Rating :
