Panchayat Season 1 Review : A delightful, slice of life series capturing the essence of rural India

Story: When a city-bred youth Abhishek Tripathi is forced to take up a job in a village called Phulera because he has no other option in hand, life forces him to confront some uncanny situations and a mix of oddball folks, who are now his colleagues.

Review: “This is your chance to be Mohan Bhargava from Swades, see the real India,” words of advice from a friend that Abhishek Tripathi (Jitendra Kumar) has to contend with before convincing himself to take up a job as the secretary of the village Panchayat office in rural Uttar Pradesh. Phulera, as he soon finds out turns out to be a sum of the people he meets and his day to day ordinary existence. Yet, there is enough to surprise him and often exasperate him. Like an entire day spent in the fields looking for the office keys, an office which also doubles up as his home. Or how a chair with cushion and wheels becomes an object of a power tussle and a night of drinking means having to deal with a stolen computer monitor the next morning. The situations that present themselves are multiple and often astonishing. But not so much for the people of Phulera who meticulously plan how to place the ‘petha’ on the plate before serving it or earnestly discuss the types of buffalos when milk is to be purchased. Much like how he finds out upon landing there that it’s Brij Bhushan (Raghubir Yadav) who has taken up the office as the ‘Panchayat Pradhan’ instead of his wife Manju Devi (Neena Gupta) who actually won the seat in the elections. Abhishek’s office assistant Vikas (Chandan Roy) adds to this milieu.

In Abhishek’s mind Phulera is a stop gap option till he manages to crack his CAT exams to secure an IIM admission. But before that, he must figure out how to ensure he has light to study in the evenings and cook his own dinner. We see life in Phulera through his eyes – rustic, monotonous and sprinkled with simplicity.

What keeps Panchayat ticking are the well-timed dialogues and situations that keep you chuckling all along. There are no big dramatic moments but it’s the slice of life treatment interjected with humor and its background tracks that score big. And ultimately it’s the performances by a stellar cast and the writing (Chandan Kumar) which aptly captures the essence of rural life that are the trump cards here. The characters with their quirks balance each other well while being realistic and thankfully not one dimensional.

Jitendra Kumar as Abhishek Tripathi is effortlessly convincing as the city boy trying to wade his way through a village life. His expressions and eyes convey Abhishek’s multitude of emotions wonderfully – from his loneliness to his boredom to his moments of frustration. Raghubir Yadav is a delight to watch as the ‘Pradhan Pati’. Neena Gupta, despite the short screen time meted out to her delivers a sparkling performance and Chandan Roy aces it as Vikas, Abhishek’s able assistant with his one liners.

Each episode in this Amazon series can be enjoyed as a stand-alone and yet it’s totally binge-worthy to say the least. This feel good show has a warm glow enveloping it much like the endearing, heartwarming characters that inhabit it.