Panchayat Season 3 Review: Star Rating:
Cast: Jitendra Kumar, Neena Gupta, Raghubir Yadav, Faisal Malik, Chandan Roy, Sanvikaa & ensemble
Creator: Deepak Kumar Mishra, Chandan Kumar, Arunabh Kumar
Director: Deepak Kumar Mishra
Streaming On: Amazon Prime Video
Language: Hindi
Runtime: 8 episodes of 40 minutes each
Panchayat Season 3 Review: What’s It About:
“Samay se pehle koi kahin nahi jaana chahiye!” That is how this season of Panchayat begins, and it hits you hard. It strikes a note somewhere deep down, and it just tears you apart. That is how intense the show begins. Just like how it ended on the highest emotional quotient when a whole village came together as a family after Up-pradhan, Prahlad, loses his son on the battlefield. A son who becomes the pride of Phulera village. When slogans of Prahlad’s son are heard, followed by ‘Amar Rahe,’ Panchayat doesn’t make you cry, but it does make you feel numb.
But grief is more personal than sorrow. Grief makes a home in your heart, while sorrow helps you ease down, probably after a stressful moment. Panchayat season 3 starts by dealing with grief and makes you learn how a community is helpful and how the needs of society are so basic and essential.
Panchayat Season 3 Review: Script Analysis:
The P in Panchayat, starts with P-hulera village and ends with P-olitics. Everything that happens in between is so simplistic yet endearing that you would regret missing a dialogue, a moment, a scene, or simply a background note! This season starts with Sachiv Ji’s transfer order being issued and canceled. While this takes up to 15 – 20 minutes to set the premise, the story kickstarts as soon as he re-enters Phulera. But what happens in those first 20 minutes is also a whistle-worthy performance, and the setup just grabs you in.
The entire season is a makeshift season, taking the simple rooted community’s progress and entering into the complexities of politics. And while Jitendra Kumar’s Abhishek Tripathi, a CAT aspirant dreaming of IIMs and corporates, is getting entangled in these complexities, he has started loving them, owning them as if he is a part of Phulera. This is what love does to you. Not the ‘Ishq Wala Love’ but the ‘Parivaar Wala Pyaar’ that makes you go to any length, even if it means gathering courage and facing a bunch of goons for your people!
The Politics of Panchayat Season 3 comes much later into the series, despite hinting at a political gear in the last season itself. The third season can be simply divided into two parts. The first part focuses more on the emotional front, while the second part speeds up, accelerating and taking a leap of faith from emotions to planning, plotting, and fighting. But do they win? Do they lose? Does the political shift change the dynamics of the show? You’ll have to watch the season to decode that, and we promise you will not regret any minute of it! Kudos to director Deepak Kumar Mishra for pulling such a tight script with so many elements and holding it together for eight long episodes!
Panchayat Season 3 Review: Star Performance:
The star of Panchayat is definitely the script of the show, beautifully written by Chandan Kumar. When it comes to the performances of the actors it would be truly unfair to credit only a few. The entire ensemble of Panchayat needs a standing ovation for pulling their parts so effortlessly that in your mind you are already roaming into a village called Phulera while you see their daily mundane lives.
Jitendra Kumar is an actor par excellence, and in some parallel worlds, he definitely is a secretary of some gram Panchayat. Neena Gupta doesn’t need applause; she is a legend, and so is Raghubir Yadav. Sanvikaa and Chandan Roy are nailing their act a little better than the last time you saw them, and they deserve accolades for this leap. Durgesh Kumar as Bhushan and Sunita Rajwar as Kranti Devi are the perfect antagonists.
However, this appraisal talk cannot be completed without mentioning the gem of this season – Faisal Malik. And not because he lost his son. It is a common perception that grief generally hits hard, but Faisal Malik’s Prahlad doesn’t invoke any sympathy or empathy. You just want to be around him, give him a tight hug, and probably tell him – I know how it feels. His eyes perform more than anything else.
There is so much more about the characters of Panchayat but we will talk about them in detail some other time.
Panchayat Season 3 Review: What Works
If someone asks me what I love in Panchayat, it would be the most difficult question to answer. Was it the arcs of these characters, beautifully written by Chandan Kumar and so brilliantly put together by director Deepak Kumar Mishra, that all of them look like a part of a family? Everyone is a hero in their world, and none of them is the main lead, despite Jitendra Kumar leading the clan. Was it the background score by Ishan Das? Or the entire sound team is making Phulera more lively. Even the slightest whistle while Sachiv Ji and Rinki try to sit beside each other in a car or Amma is trying to get a home in Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojna with the naughtiest BGM ever!
The details in Panchayat Season 3 are so endearing that you might not want to but still fall for it. Be it the characters wearing the oldest shirts and T shirts. In fact, one of them is wearing a T-shirt where the R of HILFIGER has worn off, and the little holes in the T-shirt are visible with bare eyes as well. Karishma Vyas’s costume design definitely needs a thunderous round of cheers!
Panchayat Season 3 Review: What Doesn’t Work
Ideally there is nothing that would turn a sore moment. However, there are times when the show starts to lag and one would wish Amit Kulkarni’s editing could help pick pace but still there are so many moments the next very second that you will forget about the complaints!
Panchayat Season 3 Review: Last Words:
While Panchayat Season 3 starts on an emotional note, it ends with a surprise cameo of Saansad Ji, who gives the biggest lesson on Politics – “Rajneeti Pahalwaani ki tarah nahi Shatranj ki tarah khela jaata hai.” And with this, the show enters the game of chess, which doesn’t offer a hint about who has finally called for checkmate!
Deepak Kumar Mishra, Chandan Kumar, Arunabh Kumar have created a masterpiece in Panchayat and by the time you reach the grand finale of this season, it will make you forget the most iconic cinematic question ever – Katappa Ne Baahubali Ko Kyun Maara!? Watch it for yourself, and you’ll be eager to decode the mystery in the end.
4.5 stars!