Panchayat Season 3 Review

Rahul Desai

Is Phulera Turning into Mirzapur?

This mainstreaming of Panchayat has a two-fold effect. On one hand, the compromises are too visible. A subplot featuring the government housing scheme is fine; it feeds the show’s idea of rural kinship as a welcome contrast to urban loneliness.

Aged to In-between Adulthood

The slice-of-life linearity is challenged by broader narrative strokes: A proper villain, a brewing civil war, a budding romance, upcoming elections, and an escalating Gaul-village-versus-Romans battle of egos. 

Morphing Into Adultness

The change is a little disorienting, because it’s like watching your favourite person slowly lose their innocence. The flaws of de facto council leader Dubey (Raghubir Yadav), for instance, are more apparent: His regional bias is exposed in a housing scheme racket.

The Best Parts

The best parts of the season involve Prahlad’s shape-shifting grief – and by extension, the caregiving cocoon around him. Vikas and the Dubey household quietly make sure he’s fed and rested every day, regardless of how drunk he is.

Reflects the Unchoreographed Whims of Life

I like that some of the chaos reflects the unchoreographed whims of life. A ‘gang war’ outside a hospital is anything but slick; grown men grab sugarcane sticks and slap and scratch and drag and air-punch each other in a gloriously messy battle.

Nostalgia Makes Us See the Past as Beautiful

As a franchise, however, it’s still worth acknowledging that the quality of the first two seasons upends that immortal quote from The Office: The way they unfolded, you knew you were in the good old days before you actually left them.

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