The burden of hype, hoopla and expectations: Panchayat Season 4

If you remember Season 1 of the supremely popular web series, and in the opening sequence of episode 1, there were a few petha (a variety of sweet meat from Agra) placed and a glass of water welcoming the new appointee in the gram panchayat, Sachiv Ji (the popular avatar from the TVF factory, Jitendra Kumar). The scene was worth remembering for primarily few reasons. One it captured the rustic essence of part of India which is often left to entertaining guests with petha and water. Second, Petha is a very dry and drab looking sweet meat with no inherent character (Unlike a ladoo or rasgulla) of its own. Third, it looks dry and rugged from outside and a bite into it, helps gets ushered in extreme sweet and syrupy taste, very unlike the perception one makes from the outside.

The series starts off on a dry note and as you bite more of the petha (read watch more episodes and season) an unseen world and unseen character with a different dialect got gradually unfolded in front of our eyes. Now its 4^th season and the show has picked up a cult status with some of the characters now don a god like avatar through the OTT web series. It also somehow was able to resurrect and build career of unseen and unknown faces (the likes of Faisal Malik, Chandan Roy, Durgesh Kumar, Ashok Pathak, Sunita Rajwar to name a few).

But with popularity comes its own baggage and challenge. And Panchayat Season 4 perhaps caves to the pressure. Season 1-3 exposes the audience to a sleepy hamlet, Phulera, were life apparently looks simple and much like the bottle gourd (gradually becoming the election symbol too) is more about swallowing leaving no after taste. Incidentally, petha is made from a certain type of the gourd family.

For instance, Season 1 started with the plot of a Panchayat in the fictional village Phulera, where walks in the Panchayat Sachiv (secretary) an office bearer position with his own baggage. And somewhere in the process the protagonist is silently trying to crack the coveted CAT examination for pursuing MBA. The setting of the village, people, rituals and customs all add to the drama and the desired twists and turns to the plot. Alongside the story of Sachiv, there are other three characters around whom the story revolves. The gram Pradhan (that’s what he thinks he is, but the position belongs to his wife actually and he is actually Pradhan Pati), played by the brilliant Ragubir Yadav; the deputy secretary (Prahlad Cha as he is fondly called in the series), the office boy Vikas and finally gram Pradhan, Manju Devi (Neena Gupta and finally she finds her moment under the sun after a long hiatus). Around these three characters of Sachiv, Pradhan (along with his wife), and उप-प्रधान revolves the central storyline. Hell breaks loose with the advent of a character Bhushan (a native of the same village and nursing his own ambitions with private agenda. He along with his wife, Kranti Devi (a very feisty Sunita Rajwar, fresh from the success of Gullak), Binod (a very rustic and authentic Ashok Pathak) and finally the mole in the hole, Madhav Jasoos (Bulloo Kumar). The quadruplet are a riot and frame after frame their scheming and trying to unravel the opposition (the panch (5) member team of Pradhan, Pradhan Pati, Sachiv, deputy chief and office assistant Vikas).

The first 3 seasons builds up enough drama and gets its audience into the dreamy, lazy and yet politically surcharged environment of Phulera, the village. The added entry of the MLA (played by Pankaj Jha) further adds to the tension and turmoil. Yet, season 4 loses the steam and the character building being done in the first three seasons fails to develop further. The central character of Sachiv somewhere loses the plot as he gets immersed in the village politics. Moments within the screen time are unbelievable as played out by the TVF favourite, Jitendra Kumar and particularly his limitation (in acting) in scenes are visible and do not conform to a given scenario in which it is set. It’s the smaller roles which in the initial season did not have much to manoeuvre around. Characters of Bhushan, Bipin, Kranti Devi and Madhav Jasoos literally came from behind and stole the scenes from right under Jitendra Kumar’s feet. The hype and popularity perhaps get added with the meme fest of these characters and the pressure of the meme adds to the writer’s burden, who are unable to etch the characters out firmly. The challenge with long format shows and extended season often has a trap and hype, were the character building which starts off well, initially but veers off in the later part of the seasons. Panchayat S4 falls in the same trap and newer characters being introduced ride the wave leaving the way for the old hats. As the old and new characters typically complement each other, Panchayat S4 goes reverse. We do have hope though much like the Petha, welcoming us into the show. As we dig deeper, the sweetness and the syrupy feel of the show will overwhelm us as we brace for season 5.