Panchayat Season 2: The Story
By the end of season one, Abhishek Tripathi (Jitendra), who took a job in a village in Heartland India out of necessity, had begun to try to make the place his home. Season 2 begins exactly two months after he climbed up the tank, and he has nearly completely fit in with his surroundings. Abhishek, less agitated, more productive, and progressively embracing his life (with frequent self-doubts), tries his hardest to give Phulera everything he can.
Getting into the Panchayat Season 2:
Panchayat's eight-episode second season, which is now available on Amazon Prime Video, confirms and grows on the previous season's great reputation. Young Abhishek Tripathi's (Kumar) dreams, aspirations, and life lessons are as captivating as ever, as is his chemistry with Brij Bhushan Dubey (Yadav), Phulera's de facto pradhan. Neena Gupta is as good as Dubey's wife Manju Devi, the on-paper pradhan who takes on a more hands-on role in village administration this season (while also attempting to marry her daughter Rinky to a decent boy from Delhi). This time, the second season offers her more to do, and the results are fantastically entertaining.
One of Panchayat's great strengths is its ability (and willingness, for this, is a delicate operation) to make humour out of what are essentially scarcity studies — for example, one stellar episode here (the third in the season) focuses on Phulera's precarious status as an ODF (open-defecation-free) village. This episode is truly a masterpiece-in-miniature, and in just 30 minutes, it does far more justice to this intricate and intersecting topic than Bollywood's big-budget presentation of the same, Toilet: Ek Prem Katha. Despite the village's ODF designation, some residents, like Dubey, still perform their business in the fields in the morning. Abhishek refers to them as 'shauqiya', or those who do this out of habit and/or whimsy rather than a lack of indoor plumbing.
Watch the "Panchayat season 2" Official trailer below:
When a political adversary of Dubey informs the District Magistrate about this, Phulera's ODF status is jeopardised, and Abhishek and company are forced to warn the entire village not to defecate in the fields the next morning. This episode contains a wide range of humour — physical comedy, farce, satire — and Panchayat effortlessly navigates across them all.
As in the first season, most of the narrative tension stems from men's pettiness and egocentrism. When a Phulera citizen feels cheated by the pradhan's office, a rival for Dubey's post cashes in. Dubey's daughter Rinky (her name permits the writers to utilise the classic Bhojpuri song 'Rinkiya Ke Papa' as Dubey's ringtone) is talking to her would-be-husband, a Delhi city slicker who gently implies she is a country bumpkin. Abhishek hasn't completely let go of some of his preconceived views about rural life, though he has learned to cope better with it. All of them are essentially 'less is more' setpieces in which the dramatis personae are highly aware of, and even refer to, the small-canvas nature of their concerns.
Gullak's line perfectly captures this attitude: “Chhota sheher sirf naam ka chhota hota hai. Par ego? Ego bohot bada hota hai. Itna bada ki nikat bhavishya mein agar United Nations Ego Index naamak koi cheez banaaye, toh hamaara desh ajeevan top pe rahe!” (A little town is only small in the name. Around here, egos are huge. Big enough that if the United Nations created an 'Ego Index,' our country would always be at the top of the list.)
In another amusing episode, Abhishek is in charge of a public awareness campaign about the dangers of alcohol, with a jeep outfitted with loudspeakers doing the rounds of Phulera. The only problem is that the piss-drunk driver passes out after his latest drink, and no amount of incentives or threats (or sprayed water) will wake him up. This episode, in my opinion, is the best of the season, and it brilliantly showcases Panchayat's naturally funny kind of banter.
Conclusion:
'Panchayat Season 2' is exactly what you need to watch at this time of global instability. It allows you to forget about your worries and enjoy and appreciate the little things in life. It's a show that will make you laugh, weep, and possibly feel content. And anything that makes you feel appreciated should not be overlooked. 'Panchayat 2' is now available on Prime Video.
My Rating: 8/10
