Panchayat Web Series Review

Web-series are here to stay and have almost replaced films as the primary source of entertainment. When we are talking about web series there are lots of them coming up and we are here to watch them for you and tell you which one is better among them. Lets start this series with Panchayat on Amazon Prime Video.

Plot: A young graduate, Abhishek (Jeetendra Kumar) gets selected for Gram Sachiv job and even though he is studious and talented, he doesn’t a job that pays him high. He decides to take this job, so that he doesn’t have to waste his time at home. He has plans to do MBA next. So, he decides to work at Phulera village as Sachiv and show it has his work experience as well.

Rest of the story introduces us to Sarpanch (Neena Gupta), her husband (Raghubir Yadav), who is the de facto Sarpanch, his vice and helper of Sachiv, Vikas (Chandan Roy) and tackles his issues with the job and lifestyle in the village.

Performances: This series is blessed with brilliant actors and each one of them look and act like the characters, they are playing. The rapport between them is the major USP of this simple show. They understand the show premise very well and land each joke. Special kudos to Neena Gupta and Jeetendra Kumar should be given for understanding their characters to the Tee. Raghubir Yadav, Chandan Roy and Faisal Malik shine too.

Analysis: The director, who is also writer of the show along with Chandan Kumar, Deepak Kumar Mishra gets the tone of the series right. He doesn’t try to go over emotional with the content he has and doesn’t slip into preachy monologues as well. He brings an unique likeability to the proceedings and Chandan’s dialogues are captive to the core.

When your premise is simple, you tend to go overboard with it, in trying to find that great emotional depth to everything that is happening. This shows works as a satire and also as a pure entertainer too. It took its inspiration from films like Swades but keeps it real all the time. The village shown here has problems and issues but they are not regular.

Sarpanch here wants to do the right thing without worrying about political mileage and he doesn’t have too high hopes as a politician too. Every character tries to be themselves on screen than try to give you some kind of words to make you like them. That attracts you and keeps you engaged as the justifications for character behaviors are given by presenting them as well-realised characters than people who need monologues to justify what they are doing. It feels very realistic and authentic as well.

Amazon Prime Video seems to have backed the content not looking at the stars but the value an young team wants to bring to the series with their script. Kudos to them for believing in the content and promoting it as well.

Rating: 4/5