Panchayat Season 3 (2024) ‘Prime Video’ Web Series Review: Back when TVF’s “Panchayat” hit the streaming service amidst the COVID lockdown, it took us into the instinctively charming rural hinterland. Its success stemmed equally from the craft behind the writing as it did by allowing us to vicariously fill the sense of space and community we had been longing for. Phulera, then, became a place that had way too many nuts to crack in, all with their own specific ensemble of problems.
An angsty CAT aspirant’s unspoken frustration slowly gets smothered by a life of simple pleasures. With his coming-of-age, we’ve now watched the show evolve over three seasons. On the semblance of it, life for most people of Phulera may still seem the same, but the third season’s progression makes us ponder just how much they’ve evolved in life as much as it asks them to see how much they can run away from.
With the altercation with a local MLA Chandra Kishore (Pankaj Jha), the second season ended with our beloved sachiv ji Abhishek being transferred to another town. It had seemed like with the choice, series creator Deepak Kumar Mishra, along with writer Chandan Kumar, had put themselves in a box. Abhishek’s return to the gram life early on in the new season then becomes a function of the season’s most simulative subplots. The slice-of-life element loses its inherent charm because of the manufactured urgency. It stems not just from seeing Abhishek come back when he could have left, but in how passive he becomes to the actions that go far beyond his former existentialist undercurrents.
The first two seasons worked supremely well, as they never turned Abhishek into the selfless figure at the center of the story. The show could’ve never worked had it submitted to that conventional trope, which is why the beating heart of this season instead comes from Prahlad’s (Faisal Malik) dynamic with the grief of his late son’s death. By making him the angelic figure, the season makes the village’s inhabitants his surrogate family. While it provides a solid anchor to various characters throughout the eight episodes, it concurrently also robs away some sense of gleeful realism the show had once excelled at.
Vikas (Chandan Roy), too, goes through a similar coming-of-age arc through the new developments in his family. Prahlad’s extension into his life kindles the little joys the world of Phulera has always simmered with. Undoubtedly, the effort is to make the characters a bit heftier, and the decision to go with this particular storyline makes sense as it takes the plot in an untethered direction. Ditto for Pradhan Pati’s (Raghubir Yadav) and the real Pradhan Ji (Neena Gupta), who remain endearing as ever. This time around, the makers also remain unafraid to expose the cracks in Pradhan Ji’s leadership; there are long shots of pensive contemplation that go to show how remarkable the casting of Yadav remains for the show. What becomes the focal point this time around, then, is the political play by the MLA and how his subordinates respond to that.
On a broader level, it was inevitable for a show called “Panchayat” to eventually lose some of its innocent charm and morph into the more sinister undercurrents brimming within its systemic configuration. In some way or the other, all the events hitherto were building toward the general idea of rural kinship dwarfed by expansive urban politics. Season 3 explores this clash between traditional rural kinship and the complexities of urban politics through a dramatic lens, revealing the weaknesses within the Phulera community. These elements, however, come across as overdrawn and manufactured rather than serving as an overarching continuation of the tonal lingo the show had stood on earlier.
There is light-hearted, humorous grammar in the setting and events of the TVF framework, which especially found its footing with this show. That’s the main reason why even overstretched episodes this time around always make this a relaxed affair to watch with compelling characters and story beats. The world-building always had an inherent company of realist humor. The mature and melancholic appeal left looming over the finale of its sophomore season loses its charm by the end of season 3. For now, the rhythm and idiosyncrasies we’ve come to like “Panchayat” remain intact. But the gamble the showrunner eventually makes does leave the question regarding how far it’d be able to maintain the spirit of the show in the upcoming season.
