'Panchayat' Season 4 review: Charming rural life fades as politics takes spotlight
"Sir, hum dono ko bhi naukri-vaukri chhod ke politics join kar leni chahiye," quips Vikas (Chandan Roy) to Sachivji (Jitendra Kumar). This pretty much sums up Panchayat Season 4, which is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video. Written by Chandan Kumar and directed by Deepak Kumar Mishra, the series has long charmed the audience with its disarming simplicity, dry humour, and instantly likeable characters, all gently peeling back the hidden quirks of the mundane rural life. In Season 4, however, Phulera village, where everyone sleeps by 9 pm, isn't sleepy anymore as the race for the village panchayat heats up and politics take centre-stage.
It's Manju Devi's (Neena Gupta) lauki (bottle gourd) versus Kranti Devi's (Sunita Rajwar) pressure cooker – their election symbols. And everything is on the cards – From violence and income tax raid to luring political opponents and the intervention by "high command" – the member of Parliament (Swanand Kirkire), for larger politics.
Panchayat's ambition has grown big since its 2020 debut when the story centred largely on Abhishek, the city-bred engineering graduate and Gram Panchayat secretary, or Sachivji, and how he adapts, rather reluctantly, to the simple rural life, where time crawls and urban comforts are nowhere to be seen. While the show's political tilt was evident in previous seasons, in the latest, it assumes the spotlight as the story of Abhishek, who is now way more engaged in Phulera than he would care to admit, takes a back seat.
Elections in India are never uninteresting and this one, while keeping the focus on politics in Phulera, showcases its reverberations on the larger politics. It unfolds rather subtly but keeps you hooked.
There is ample character-driven humour that Panchayat is known for and the focus on the mundane, but Season 4 pales compared to its previous instalments. It lacks the character arcs, and the story often appears to be going nowhere, feeling like a mishmash of everything, rather than a tale that flows smoothly. While it had introduced newer characters in successive seasons, their storylines remain stalled, the lack of exploration of depth quite visible.
The biggest disappointment is the treatment of the female characters, who end up playing the second fiddle, letting men assume the spotlight. The argument that this simply reflects the realities of a patriarchal society might have held weight — if we hadn’t already seen the practical outlook of Manju Devi and the unapologetic fierceness of Kranti Devi, who display better political acumen than their politician husbands — Brij Bhushan, or Pradhanji (Raghubir Yadav) and Bhushan (Durgesh Kumar), respectively. The character of Rinki (Sanvikaa), Pradhanji's daughter, is more on the sidelines in the latest season.
However, some moments stand out, such as Binod's (Ashok Pathak) unflinching loyalty towards Bhushan. When Pradhanji invites him to dine at his home and nudges him to change camps, the sheer disappointment in his eyes instantly humanises the character. Then there’s the romance between Abhishek and Rinki — subtle and slow-burning, which resists the usual tropes and comes off as rather mature.
Having said that, while there were multiple elements to the previous seasons that won hearts, this one largely stands on its actors' weight, who are all exceptional both individually and when brought together. And it's the actors who make Panchayat Season 4 a worthwhile one-time-watch.
Series: Panchayat Season 4
Director: Deepak Kumar Mishra
Cast: Jitendra Kumar, Neena Gupta, Raghubir Yadav, Faisal Malik, Chandan Roy, Sanvikaa, Durgesh Kumar, Sunita Rajwar, and Pankaj Jha
Rating: 2.5/5
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