Panchayat: When Love Was Slow, Problems Relatable And Holidays Meant Grandmother’s Place

The Season 4 of everyone’s most-loved Indian series, Panchayat, has dropped on and we are totally invested in the antics of Phulera. In this season, the village is gripped by the election fever as Manju Devi and Kranti Devi battle it out to be the next pradhan of the village as Sachivji and Rinki find romance.

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While the fans have been waiting for the new season with bated breath, the first reviews have been mixed with some calling out the show for not moving the story ahead or having a tonal shift. While a critical discussion of the technical aspect of the show can be had at length, Panchayat is one of those rare pieces of content that transcends beyond didactic analyses.

Shot against the serene backdrop of a living-breathing village in Madhya Pradesh’s Sehore District, the show has always prioritised authenticity at its core. The winding lanes, the rolling farmlands, the rusty water tank, the slightly unkempt mess of rural existence of the houses – they are all reminiscent of those childhood summer holidays spent in ancestral villages. For those of us longing for the simple, everyday pleasures of yore when the pace and pollution of the city life catches up with us, the show serves as a tactile reminder of the afternoons spent in shade of the huge mango tree in nani’s backyard while snacking on a freshly -plucked mango from the said tree. 

The plot points in the show include laukis and kukkars, the romantic pair takes a season to finally become a ‘thing’, the big hurdles are a badly constructed road, and aspirations include passing MBA entrance exam – these are all experiences that are not only relatable to most but are also intrinsically Indian. In a way,  Panchayat seems like a spiritual descendant of old favorites like Malgudi Days or the Rishikesh Mukherjee films where problems were relatable, the solution achievable, romance was slow, and what touched our hearts was a faith in the inherent goodness of people.

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In a world where movies and series are all about international drug cartels, complicated urban relationships, blood-thirsty criminals and everything in between, all highlighted with deafening background music and snazzy VFX, Panchayat finds beauty in the mundane and that alone is a win.

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Directed by Deepak Kumar Mishra, Panchayat features Jitendra Kumar, Sanvikaa, Neena Gupta, Raghubir Yadav, Chandan Roy, and Faisal Malik in lead roles and streams on Prime Video.