With the OTT universe broadening its horizon, stories of all genres and geographies are coming to the fore.
It’s not just teen troubles, hill station mysteries and small town woes that have found a voice in the world of streaming but rural India is increasingly finding itself represented as well.
With the hugely popular Panchayat‘s third season ready to drop this week, we look at all the rural themed shows available on OTT.
Panchayat
Where to watch? Amazon Prime Video
In the absence of lucrative job offers in the city, an average engineering graduate must contend with a secretarial post in a panchayat office of Phulera village where he begrudgingly befriends its curious denizens and becomes a part of their grassroot reality to amusing results.
The wide urban-village gap is thoughtfully addressed in Panchayat’s bittersweet developments.
Nirmal Pathak Ki Ghar Wapsi
Where to watch? SonyLIV
Nirmal Pathak Ki Ghar Wapsi’s exploration of a India within India kickstarts when its titular character returns to his native village in Bihar only to learn things haven’t changed one bit.
Caught in a socio-political climate thriving on rampant patriarchy, casteism and misogyny, both his struggle to make sense of the chaos as well as challenge the status quo fuels the narrative.
Mirzapur
Where to watch? Amazon Prime Video
Running a carpet business as a front for his illicit empire, a gangster’s shady tactics while contending with a son desperate to dethrone him and the devious inner workings of the heartland underworld after confronted by a conscientious lawyer and his sons form the many plot threads of Mirzapur’s profane crime saga.
Dahaad
Where to watch? Amazon Prime Video
A police procedural set within rustic Rajasthan explores the brutal mindset of a serial killer as he bumps off young women as well as the deep-rooted gender and caste-based politics engulfing these parts.
More than the identity of the offender, it’s the socially wanting environment that enables such evil in the first place that colours Dahaad’s objective.
Jamtara Sabka Number Aayega
Where to watch? Amazon Prime Video
In the absence of career opportunities, a bunch of youngsters of a remote village of Jamtara in Jharkhand engage in a phishing scam.
Things are going well until their shenanigans come in media and political eye.
Its popular two season run has led to star turns for its leads like Sparsh Shrivastav in Laapataa Ladies and Monika Panwar in Mast Mast Rehne Ka.
Kohrra
Where to watch? Netflix
One of the best homegrown series to drop on Netflix,
A NRI to-be-bridegroom returns to him father’s hometown Jagrana in Punjab only to show up dead and dumped in a field prompting a slow-burn investigation by the local cops.
Between the sprawling interpersonal stories and the murky secrets revealed in the dark, disturbing course of finding out the murderer, Kohrra is as haunting as it gets.
Saas Bahu Aur Flamingo
Where to watch? Disney+Hotstar
Homi Adajania shrugs off his urban film-maker imagery to depict the raw, rural, lawless face of a fictional Rajasthan-Gujarat space in all style and substance (of the high kind) to highlight Saas Bahu Aur Flamingo‘s sex, violence and drugs heavy premise.
Led by Dimple Kapadia’s badass matriarch, its sassy pack of girls with guns is strictly acquired taste.