Gram
Chikitsalay
uses
the
same
template
as
Panchayat
but
with
a
fraction
of
its
humour
or
charm,
observes
Deepa
Gahlot.
A
clueless
young
man
from
the
city
lands
up
in
a
village
to
take
up
a
new
work
assignment,
meets
a
bunch
of
eccentrics
and
oddballs,
and
learns
how
the
other
half
lives.
It
could
be
the
one-line
for
Panchayat,
but
it
is
TVF’s
new
show,
Gram
Chikitsalay,
that
uses
the
same
template
but
with
a
fraction
of
its
humour
or
charm.
Dr
Prabhat
Sinha
(Amol
Parashar),
son
of
a
wealthy
doctor,
who
could
have
stayed
in
Delhi
and
made
his
fortune,
chooses
to
take
up
a
job
as
the
medical
officer
at
the
primary
health
centre
(PHC)
in
a
remote
village
called
Bhatkandi
in
Chhattisgarh.
With
idealism
as
his
calling
card,
he
sets
out
to
make
a
difference.
The
show,
directed
by
Rahul
Pandey,
opens
with
the
now-familiar
three-on-a-bike
scene,
of
a
village
elder
being
taken
to
a
quack.
The
old
man
expires,
and
as
it
happens
in
village
communities,
everybody
is
at
the
funeral
when
a
flustered
Prabhat
arrives
in
an
autorickshaw,
the
driver
of
which
predictably
rips
him
off.
The
heath
centre’s
lungi-clad
compounder
Phutani
(Anandeshwar
Dwivedi)
and
ward
boy
Gobind
(Akash
Makhija)
never
expected
a
medical
officer
to
actually
land
up,
so
are
caught
unprepared.
Prabhat
may
have
expected
the
PHC
to
be
badly
run,
in
the
absence
of
a
doctor,
but
even
he
is
taken
aback
to
see
that
it
is
totally
nonfunctional.
A
cranky
farmer
Ram
Avtar
(Akhileshwar
Prasad
Sinha)
has
planted
crops
on
the
land
around
the
clinic’s
small
building,
and
belligerently
refuses
to
allow
them
to
cut
a
pathway
to
the
PHC.
When
that
is
done
with
the
reluctant
intervention
of
a
sleepy,
punishment-posting
cop
(‘why
not
wait
till
harvest
time?’),
Prabhat
looks
in
dismay
at
the
decrepit
clinic,
which
has
obviously
not
been
used
in
years,
if
at
all,
because
no
doctor
stayed
long
enough
to
make
it
work.
Phutani
has
been
selling
the
allotted
medicines
on
the
sly.
The
only
one
who
seems
to
have
some
sincerity
towards
her
job
is
Indu,
the
nurse
(Garima
Vikrant
Singh),
whose
responsibility
is
the
dispensing
of
vaccines.
In
the
absence
of
a
proper
healthcare
system,
which
exists
only
on
paper,
the
villagers
depend
on
the
hit-and-miss
diagnoses
by
the
fake
medico,
Chetak
Kumar
(Vinay
Pathak).
He
cannot
even
administer
an
injection
but
instinctively
knows
how
to
deal
with
his
patients.
Prabhat
has
a
brusque
‘gold
medallist
doctor
from
a
top
college’
manner
and
needless
vanity
—
a
suitcase
full
of
fancy
shoes
that
are
impractical
in
the
mud
of
the
village.
Still,
the
show
(created
by
Deepak
Kumar
Mishra
and
Arunabh
Kumar,
scripted
by
Shreya
Srivastava
and
Vaibhav
Suman)
opens
well
enough.
The
comedy,
insipid
though
it
is,
comes
from
the
dysfunctionality
of
the
chikitsalay,
the
indifference
of
the
staff
as
well
as
the
villagers,
and
Prabhat’s
futile
attempts
to
repair
the
broken
rural
healthcare
structure.
The
glow
of
his
noble
intentions
starts
getting
dim
gradually.
Gargi
(Akansha
Ranjan
Kapoor),
a
doctor
in
another
village,
has
acquired
the
degree
of
cynicism
required
to
survive
in
a
dead
end
job.
‘If
a
place
doesn’t
accept
you,
you
accept
it,’
she
tells
Prabhat.
(There
may
be
a
budding
romance
here
hopefully,
it
moves
faster
than
that
of
Panchayat‘s
Abhishek-Rinky.)
Sure,
there
is
some
truth
here
and
scope
for
dark
humour
plus
a
social
message.
But
the
well
of
rural
wit
was
used
up
by
Panchayat,
leaving
the
muddy
dregs
for
Gram
Chikitsalay.
The
warring
politicians
—
a
comedy
staple
—
are
eventually
pulled
out
when
all
else
fails,
to
no
avail.
There
are
two
songs
introduced
into
the
proceedings,
and
they
don’t
add
anything
to
the
general
torpor
into
which
the
show
sinks.
The
casting
of
villagers
is
so
authentic
that
the
actors
stand
out
like
the
outsiders
they
are.
By
the
fifth
—
and
last
of
this
season
—
episode,
Prabhat
has
acquired
some
humility
and
one
patient,
but
the
show
does
an
abrupt
turn
into
melodrama
and
Indu’s
domestic
tragedy.
There
is
obviously
more
to
the
story
and
to
the
real
education
of
Dr
Prabhat.
Even
though
this
season
of
Gram
Chikitsalay
is
way
short
of
expectations
from
a
TVF
production,
Amol
Parashar’s
earnestness
makes
one
care
enough
for
him
to
see
where
his
journey
takes
him.
Gram
Chikitsalay
streams
on
Amazon
Prime
Video.
Gram
Chikitsalay
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