Panchayat
Cast: Jitendra Kumar, Neena Gupta, Raghubir Yadav, Faisal Malik, Chandan Roy, Biswapati Sarkar, Pooja Singh
Release date: April 3, 2020
Written by: Chandan Kumar
Director: Deepak Kumar Mishra
To be very honest, at first, it’s a little difficult to watch such a slow-paced web series, but Panchayat set in a rural milieu grows on you with its endearing characters, solid performances, uncomplicated structure and old-world charm. Its simplicity makes it a must watch.
Plot Pointers
The protagonist of the series Abhishek Tripathi played by Jeetandar Kumar fails to grab a fancy job like his other classmates. Out of sheer desperation, he convinces himself to pick a lesser paid job in the secretariat of a village panchayat office. While his parameters for success remain the same like passing the SSC exam and getting a better job, he gradually keeps growing as a person through the situations he faces in his current job.
All the episodes of Panchayat revolve around simple yet important matters like the installation of the street light in the village, who will hoist the flag on Republic Day, use of the secretarial office for hosting the guests of a local wedding, theft of the office monitor and how a chair with the wheels can become an ego issue among small hierarchies.
Casting delight
What a novel idea to cast Neena Gupta and Raghubir Yadav as husband and wife. Both of them can actually carry the entire series on their shoulders, by just entertaining the audience with their effortless acting skills. I’m sure the idea of casting Neena Gupta with Gajraj Rao must have come to the minds of the casting directors, but it was a much required break as both of them have already been paired twice as husband wife, first in Badhai Ho and then in Shubh Mangal Zyada Savdhan.
The height difference between Neena and Raghubir is a subtle indicator of how marriages used to happen 10-20 years ago, irrespective of such immaterial flaws. Why can’t a wife be taller than her husband? The director has not just dealt with this question with respect to the physical appearance of his characters but also in realistic terms, of why can’t a wife be smarter and the bread winner of the family.
So, this is actually a satire about the unmarried boys and girls, who stay single for a long time in search of an imaginary perfect partner and keep judging and finding flaws in each and every prospective alliance they meet. This has in fact become the usual outcome of the so called shaadi-meets in the metropolitan cities.
The Upapanchayat played by Faisal Malik looked way too realistic and effortless. Some actors don’t really act on screen, they just have to be themselves, very much the way they are in their real lives. And Faisal surely looks like one such actor.
Jitendra Kumar is getting meaty roles but for no good reason. At times it becomes highly impossible to look at his constipated and sulking face. Be it Shubh Mangal Zyada Savdhan or Panchayat. I would not call it a directorial flaw, where the protagonist is consistently keeping the same looks and giving no variations from the beginning until the end of the series.
Shreekant as the father of the village bride is a seasoned actor from the Sri Ram Centre Repertory. He was a bit too irritating for our dear protagonist, to the extent that you may even start hating him for his poking behavior in the series. From the Delhi theatre circuit, he is one of the lucky actors who has consistently been getting meaty roles as a character actor.
Theatrical acting sells
The scene of hosting the bride, groom (Asif Khan) and his friends at the Panchayat office, entertained the audiences enough and Asif Khan as a sulking Dulha performed the scene with theatrical subtlety and that is what actually entertains the audiences, the theatrics and the drama.
New faces bring charm
It is a delight to see Sandeep Shikher, a Bangalore-based playwright and a theatre director to be in one of the episodes, playing the role of a young father who comes to the Panchayat office to get the birth certificate of his new born son.
With his entry into the screen world, it’s a good sign that a lot of brilliant theatre practitioners (I believe including me) will start thinking of acting for screen and not just for stage.
Chandan Roy played by Vikas Shukla, as the assistant of the protagonist Abhishek Tripathi (Jitendra Kumar) keeps the audiences engaged with his light-hearted problem solving skills. He is a good find. As an actor, he could be seen doing variety of roles in the upcoming series.
While he was initially auditioned for the role of an electrician, he ended up landing such a meaty role only by the virtue of being active in the theatre industry. So, this message is for all those upcoming actors who want to jump the ladder and want to become overnight stars.
Instead of paying to learn at the fancy acting schools, young actors must invest their time, money and energies in working with small theatre companies and learning the art from the acting gurus. Chandan has been struggling in Mumbai since 2017 and also spending his time constructively in the theatre scene, which paid him off.
Simple writing of Panchayat makes sense
The episodic stories of Panchayat are not necessarily connected with each other and are an excellent example of simple writing, which is perhaps left only in Doordarshan serials now. Simple formula of a problem and a solution with an appropriate beginning, middle and an end ensure right skeleton to the whole story. The series reminds you of the Premchand or Tagore stories broadcasted by the national channel DD.
In fact, DD Bharti, DD News, DD National and the latest addition DD Retro have regained their popularity because of the programs having simple concepts, which are relatable and are always liked by the audiences.
Watch Panchayat for its sheer simplicity!
Panchayat is available on Amazon Prime Video and started streaming April 3, 2020 onwards
Kamal Pruthi aka Kabuliwala is a character actor with 21 years of stage experience. With more than 300 stage shows to his credit, he is an aspiring Bollywood actor. A multi linguist, Kamal has so far acted in 9 languages and directed 6 plays as a Theatre director. Apart from acting in short and corporate films, Kamal is writing web series these days. Kamal can be contacted on 91-8861907362.