Panchayat Season 2 Review — Sucharita Tyagi
Why am I watching comedy, and properly openly crying these days?
Last week Jayeshbhai Jordaar, abhi yeh, Panchayat.
Hey y’all, welcome back! Aaj ka review is technically “Not A Movie Review” kyunki hum series ke baare mein baat kar rahey hain, Panchayat: Season 2, streaming now on Amazon Prime Video.
Waapas chalo doston gaaon Phulera where abhi bhi Abhishek Tiwary is a gram panchayat sachiv, aur abhi bhi baahar nikalne ki ummeed mein MBA ki tayyari kar rahe hain. Lekin, picking up from last season’s cliffhanger, perhaps there is a love interest brewing, Pradhan ji ki beti Rinki ke saath.
Around him are the usual suspects, Mr and Mrs gaanv Pradhan, up Pradhan, office sahayak, and the malgudi days like village ke rehwaasi, har ek ki personality solid and fascinating.
I’d been waiting for this season to drop kyunki pehla season felt like desert rain. Lockdown mein the sab, nayi film aani band thi kuch pata nahi tha kya hona hai, meri poori profession ka point kya hai iss hi soch mein baithi rehti thi. Watching the antics of Phullera-waasis was an ointment for a hurting soul.
Toh going in this time, expectations zaahir si baat hai, are super high, and when the first episode didn’t land for me as well as I would have liked, I was nearly heartbroken.
Dekhiye first season ki khoobi thi world building. Opening credits mein poora gaaon drone shots se dikhaya jaata hai, aur phir sachiv ji ke maadhyam se zoom kar ke, ek-ek ghar mein ghus ke, saarey gaanv waalon ke rehen-sehen ka dhang explore kiya jaata hai, which lent itself to some incredible slice-of-life storytelling by writer Chandan Kumar, brought to screen by director Deepak Kumar Mishra.
The first episode of the new season didn't feel like a new season had begun, more like I stopped watching the last season for some reason, and this is the next episode. This “picking it up where you left off” was a little too casual for me initially, but listen, you stick with it through the first episode, which isn’t a bad episode, just didn't feel like a series open, but by the time you're in episode 2, you never want this series to end.
2 episodes in, I realized the fact the writing didn’t feel as pacy as last time was probably deliberate. Sachiv ji has settled into this life, he’s slowed down, and has made peace with his fate, beginning to enjoy the slow speed of time, the show is just mirroring his heart and mind.
Harr episode mein kisi gaanv waale ko koi pareshani hoti hai, which would have made Abhishek smash his head into a wall, in the previous season, but now those problems are his problems and he’s fully stepped up as the problem solver. CCTV camera par agar khoyi hui bakri aur churaayi hui chappal hi khojni hai, toh wohi sahi uss hi poori shiddat se karenge, bina jaldbaazi ke. Kyun? Kyunki audience ki tarah Abhishek samajh gaya hai phullera ki permanence ko.
Technological advances joh baahar huye, 10 saal late yahaan pohonchtey hain, aur aatey jaatey rahenge, lekin yeh gaanv aur iske log, inki kahaaniyan, inke conflicts aur unke solutions, jiss system se chalte hain, woh system bhi chalta hai. Kamre mein saanp ghusega toh aapko baahar se hi dekhna padega ki kaise gaaon waaley uss se niptey, chaahey saanp ki prajati kya hai who aapko pata ho, uss se deal karna aapko phullera-waasiyon se seekhna padega, tedha-medha jaisa bhi kartey hain. Jaana abhi bhi fakauli bazaar hi hai cake khareedne, par kabhi cake, kabhi samose khareed raha hai Abhishek ab, kyunki swad aane laga hai usko bhi.
It is a testament to the writing that all the mini detours of all the episodes are still nestled within a larger arc of the season. There’s a love story developing which refreshingly doesn’t immediately become the central plotline, incredible restraint. Kyunki there is also a local political rivalry taking shape, Madam Pradhan played by the world-best Neena Gupta also has WAY more agency this time, which she’s unafraid to display. Up Pradhan Prahlad gets a WHOLE sub-plot which eventually becomes the actual frikkin series finale jismein ro di main, its all extremely secure and robust storytelling.
This season also goes one step further in making the city dweller viewing it, zara more uncomfortable at our lack of understanding of what the India where our fathers and mothers came from, still looks like, the hardest hitting being a sub-plot about Prahlad’s son being in the army.
“20–30 hazaar mein jaan dene waaley aur kahaan milenge”, says a TV reporter wondering why so many gaanv walaey young lads go to the army. Another moment where the DM magistrate walks through the khets to make sure no one is defecating in the open, as her subordinate tries to figure if the pile of shit in front of her is human or bhains ka gobar, is hilarious and thought-provoking, when you think about what it TAKES to declare an area open defecation free.
What happens when you stand up for yourself in front of the local vidhayak. And yet every time the tone shifts and takes the show’s intensity a few notches higher, it doesn’t feel off, because every beat of this show remains loyal to the rules of the universe it's set in.
Writing aur direction chaahey kitni badhiya ho, aise show ke liye agar actors sahi nahi ikkhatey huye, toh koi faayda nahi. Casting by Casting Bay is as precise as it can potentially get in our Hindi entertainment space right now. Aap sochein, ek show jismein jitna screen time protagonist ka hai, bilkul utna hi baraabar Raghubir Yadav ka, aur iss naye season mein toh there is a whole lot more of the AMAZING Chandan Roy, Neena Gupta, Faisal Malik, Saanvika, and SO MANY others, it’s stupendous.
Aur suno, Hindi cinema is sleeping on Jeetendra Kumar, ek “Shubh Mangal” se kuch nahi hona and don’t talk to me about “Chaman Bahar” kyunki galati sabse hoti hai. Give Jeetendra the roles, let him lose, unleash him onto us, we are ready!
Last week’s release, “Jayeshbhai Jordaar” needed the light-handed ness of Panchayat for its message to translate better and should have made a stronger attempt to not wind itself so tightly around Ranveer Singh. Every character here in Panchayat, every notice board in the village, every turn of every corner, every exposed drain, is an unapologetically real and alive part of our country, all coming together to contribute to the larger conversation the show is having, about the many India’s within one India.
Watch Panchayat Season 2 on Amazon Prime Video, poora season aa gaya hai. And subscribe to my channel, aaj we’re also talking about, Bhool Bhulaiyya 2!
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