Panchayat
Season
4
is
watchable,
mainly
because
of
the
wonderful
actors,
who,
over
the
seasons
have
developed
a
warm
rapport,
notes
Deepa
Gahlot.
It
couldn’t
last.
The
rural
paradise
that
is
Phulera,
in
Uttar
Pradesh,
*had*
to
encounter
violence
and
wickedness,
and
that
happened
by
the
end
of
Season
3.
The
popularity
of
this
TVF
show
is
such
that
Season
4
drops
earlier
than
scheduled,
without
a
recap.
So
anyone
who
has
not
watched
the
earlier
seasons
might
want
to
binge
before
diving
into
the
new
episodes.
The
TVF
team
that
created
the
original
and
utterly
charming
show
—
Writer
Chandan
Kumar
and
Director
Deepak
Kumar
Mishra
—
return
to
this
one.
Panchayat
started
with
the
entry
of
city-bred
Abhishek
Tripathi
(Jitendra
Kumar)
into
Phulera.
The
engineering
graduate
had
accepted
a
job
as
the
panchayat
secretary
in
the
village
to
get
some
work
experience
as
he
prepared
for
the
MBA
entrance
exam.
The
village
sarpanch
is
Manju
Devi
(Neena
Gupta),
but
as
it
usually
happens
in
patriarchal
societies,
her
husband
Brij
Bhushan
Dubey
(Raghubir
Yadav)
tales
on
the
title
and
the
duties
of
the
Pradhan.
With
his
office
assistant,
the
always
beaming
Vikas
(Chandan
Roy),
and
deputy
Pradhan,
Prahlad
(Faisal
Malik),
the
reluctant
‘sachivji’
sets
out
to
administer
the
village,
encountering
problems
they
don’t
teach
at
any
business
school
—
a
groom
refusing
to
proceed
with
the
wedding
with
a
girl
from
the
village
till
he
gets
the
revolving
office
chair
belonging
to
Abhishek;
the
villager
who
wants
the
newly-installed
CCTV
cameras
to
help
find
his
missing
goat,
a
man
stealing
a
computer
monitor
believing
it
to
be
a
TV,
villagers
objecting
to
family
planning
slogans
and
so
on.
The
genius
was
in
creating
humour
out
of
ordinary
situations.
Abhishek
gets
absorbed
into
the
Dubey
family,
finds
loyal
pals
in
Vikas
and
Prahlad,
and
a
tentative
romance
with
their
daughter
Rinki
(Sanvikaa).
There
is
also
a
rivalry
with
Bhushan
(Durgesh
Kumar)
and
his
shrewish
wife,
Kranti
(Sunita
Rajwar).
The
power-hungry
MLA,
Chandrakishore
Singh
(Pankaj
Jha),
whom
the
Phulera
team
rubbed
the
wrong
way
in
Season
3,
is
seething
with
anger
now.
Pradhan
is
recovering
from
a
gunshot
wound,
Prahlad
is
still
haunted
by
the
tragedy
of
losing
his
soldier
son,
Abhishek
is
still
struggling
with
his
CAT
exam
preparations,
his
feelings
for
Rinki
and
his
confusion
about
the
future.
The
village
with
walls,
painted
with
cute
and
funny
slogans,
is
now
infected
with
politics
and
violence
(Chandrakishore
is
seen
whipping
a
man!).
In
the
years
since
the
series
first
came
out,
some
more
structures
are
visible
from
the
Panchayat
office,
which
overlooks
the
water
tank,
where
Abhishek
and
Rinki
have
their
chai
dates.
Cleanliness
is
an
issue
now,
and
a
hilarious
episode
has
Pradhan
and
his
allies
competing
with
Bhushan
and
his
men
Vinod
(Ashok
Pathak)
and
Madhav
(Buloo
Kumar)
to
clean
the
dirtiest
spot
in
Phulera.
Bhushan
and
Kranti
plan
to
oppose
Manju
and
Pradhan
in
the
upcoming
panchayat
elections,
and
pull
out
as
many
arrows
as
they
can
from
their
quiver
of
dirty
tricks,
including
an
anti-corruption
raid
on
the
Dubeys,
Abhishek
and
Vikas,
and
questioning
the
character
of
Vikas’
pregnant
wife
(Tripti
Sahu).
The
episode,
that
goes
on
for
too
long
(or
just
seems
that
way
because
the
eight
episodes
run
less
than
40
minutes),
brings
out
the
kind
of
viciousness
that
had
been
absent
in
Phulera
before.
The
effect
of
politics
is
detrimental
to
the
placidity
of
a
village
that
seems
untouched
by
the
caste-religion-gender
complications
of
north
India.
Manju’s
poll
symbol
is
a
lauki
(gourd),
which
has
been
a
running
gag
in
the
series,
and
Kranti’s
is
a
pressure
cooker.
The
slogans
that
can
arise
from
these
can
be
imagined.
This
time
round,
there
is
a
downplaying
of
the
usually
lively
humour,
perhaps
because
society
has
little
to
laugh
about.
There
also
seems
to
be
a
slight
paucity
of
ideas.
For
instance,
the
visit
of
Manju’s
elderly
father
(Ram
Gopal
Bajaj)
does
not
go
anywhere.
The
comic
potential
of
the
power
outage
fizzles
out
too.
Panchayat
Season
4
is
watchable,
mainly
because
of
the
wonderful
actors,
who,
over
the
seasons
have
developed
a
warm
rapport.
Still,
it
suffers
in
comparison
to
the
previous
seasons,
particularly
a
superb
Season
2.
It
is
possible
that
some
degree
of
déjà
vu
has
crept
in
because
of
the
Panchayat
wannabes,
including
TVF’s
own
Gram
Chikitsalay.
Still,
there
are
very
few
Web
shows
in
which
the
actors
simply
own
the
characters
they
play.
There
is
a
Season
5
built
into
the
finale
of
this
one,
and
it
does
look
like
sachivji
will
have
to
look
sharp
and
keep
his
wits
around
him.
Panchayat
Season
4
streams
on
Amazon
Prime
Video.
Panchayat
Season
4
Review
Rediff
Rating:
