Review: Panchayat 2

The same setting, the same actors, and the same theme music, but nothing that feels mundane — that’s the beauty of Panchayat 2. Now streaming on Amazon Prime Video, this TVF production will get you as emotionally invested in the lives of the village of Phulera and its residents as you were in the first season.

The second season, a continuation of the first, is not your regular slice of life comedy. Apart from delivering the laughs, the show challenges you to think, introspect, and by the end, hold back your tears too as it slowly steers its way into nationalism and patriotism.

The creators of Panchayat 2 have projected the rural Indian village in the middle of nowhere, like nothing we are accustomed to seeing on screen. The village does not have guns and gangs like Mirzapur, nor does it have starry-eyed lovers dancing in the middle of vast fields of sunflower. Instead, it’s a village dealing with relevant issues like open defecation, alcohol addiction, and installation of CCTVs – all this with a dash and sprinkle of humor.

The season opens as we witness the Panchayat Sachiv, or secretary Abhishek Tripathi (Jitendra Kumar), who is now acclimatized to his role in Phulera. He looks into the development of the village while sharing a special bond with the locals - the village’s former Pradhan (Raghubir Yadav), his wife and the actual Pradhan (Neena Gupta), and the other two office-bearers, Prahlad and Vikas (played by Faisal Malik and Chandan Roy).

A still from Panchayat 2

While working as the Sachiv, he is also preparing for his MBA examinations, which we are told are in less than five months.

If you’ve seen enough TVF shows, the core premise for a majority of them are about Indian students aspiring to ace the rat race – Think of something like an Aspirants, or Gullak, or a Kota Factory – each of these shows deals with a competitive exam at hand and how Indian students aim to get into the ranks. Abhishek, who treats his rural stint as “work experience” is perfectly convincing in this scenario. He is not where he wants to be. He just wants to do his time and move on, as he prepares for his examinations.

Interestingly, Kumar plays the reverse of his character in TVF’s Kota Factory - serving as a faculty member, and preparing students for their examinations.

Panchayat 2 reclaims the identity of its setting. While the first season looked at trivial issues through the lens of Abhishek, the second looks at issues at a more macro level. It delved into issues that show that life is bigger than Abhishek and his evolving perspective. It also puts into perspective several ideas about the meaning of friendship. There is also a love story brewing, but it does not become a part of the central plot of the show.

A still from Panchayat 2

In one sequence in the show, Abhishek’s friend, Siddharth (Satish Ray) comes to the village from the city. His perspective on village life is typical – he gets fascinated with women drawing water from the well, takes selfies with cows, and even wants to sleep outside on the cot as he doesn’t know when he would see a clear sky again. However, his overall experience doesn’t turn out as expected — a nice commentary on us as city dwellers and our lack of understanding of the India where our fathers and mothers grew up.

In another sequence, the Pradhan asks Siddharth’s last name. He replies he doesn’t have any. The Pradhan finding it difficult to locate the person based on caste identity, asks his father’s last name and smiles (“Gupta”). This framing implies Siddharth’s ignorance — his ‘caste blindness’ — as a progressive sign in the show.

Writer Chandan Kumar introduces such characters just to put into context the stark differences between village and urban life in a subtle manner, and it works. The storytelling is economical.

Neena Gupta and Raghubir Yadav play the Pradhan and real Pradhan of the village of Phulera in Panchayat 2.

As compared to Season 1, the characters in Panchayat 2 now follow more of an inward journey. We get to understand them better and are forced to accept them as they are. The characters of Vikas and Prahlad for instance, are also given more screen time. Neena Gupta as the real Pradhan and Raghubir Yadav as the acting Pradhan are fantastic as always, and so is Jitendra Kumar.

Comedy in the show is more situational now – the installation of a CCTV camera wherein a villager searches through three hours just to look for his lost goat – only puts into perspective the trivialities of village life as compared to our lives.

In the last episode, the show seemed to stumble a little, when it brought in the patriotism and nationalism angle. Despite its difficult design, it was hard not to be moved. However, that is the magic about a show like Panchayat. It may sway away and falter at times, but it sure knows how to make you feel.

You can watch Panchayat 2 on Amazon Prime Video.