Jitendra Kumar, Neena Gupta's Panchayat Season 3 Review: For brilliant performances you don’t need stars

Language: Hindi

Director: Deepak Kumar Mishra

Cast: Jitendra Kumar, Raghubir Yadav, Neena Gupta, Sanvikaa, Chandan Roy, Faisal Malik, Durgesh Kumar, Sunita Rajwar, Pankaj Jha

Panchayat Season 3 on Amazon Prime is as gripping as the previous ones. Here politics take the center stage. It picks up well from where they left it at. Not to forget we all Panchayat lovers had our doubts as to whether Season 3 will be as good as the previous ones. But the makers didn’t let us down. The best thing about this TVF show is it’s amusing, crafty dialogues yet retaining it’s simplicity.

The magic of Panchayat 3    is like it’s previous seasons, the show deals with serious issues in a hilarious manner. Everything looks authentic from the setting to the performances of each and every actor. Everybody is true to their characters. The series gives time for the characters to evolve and the makers have done justice to each and every role by allowing it to grow and not lose its essence.

Amazon Prime Video India Original show follows Abhishek Tripathi’s (Jitendra Kumar) journey. He is back in Phulera after his sudden transfer. Panchayat Season 3 opens with the newly appointed Sachiv trying to break open a lock to take over Abhishek Tripathi’s (Jitendra Kumar) position. But alas this doesn’t work out as the Vidhayak gets arrested on the charges of killing a dog and eating it too. So, Abhishek Tripathi (Jitendra Kumar) is back in action and back in Phulera with the same enthusiasm. The dialogues, the performances and the plot are unique and that’s what makes Panchayat special.

It’s good to see that the show remains true to the essence of the village life with typical village characters and their unique issues whether it is dealing with the bad roads or giving pakka houses to the poor. The second season ended with the tragic death of Rahul, an army man and son of Phulera Panchayat’s deputy chief Prahlad (Faisal Malik). Panchayat Sesaon 3 shows how Prahlad (Faisal Malik) is dealing with his loss. Every human being has a way of dealing with grief and Prahlad too has one.

We see the character of Manju Devi played by Neena Gupta has evolved a lot. She understands politics and is involved in Panchayat matters.  She is no longer letting her husband take the shots and is way more involved in village politics. The story telling is crisp and engaging and there is not a moment of drudgery. The location, the dialect, the characters don’t look like they are playing their parts rather you start identifying them with their roles. There is humour in little bit of violence that is shown in the show. But the romance between Rinki and Abhishek just didn’t work. It lacked the charm and felt very forced.

Written by Chandan Kumar, the show is able to bring about the nuances of village life with their quirky characters and their unique problems. Each and every character in the show has an important role to play including characters like Bhusan (Durgesh Kumar) and his chamchaas Vinod and Madhav.

The best thing about Panchyat 3 is that even if you have missed the previous two seasons, you will be able to follow it. There are references to the back story, which makes it easy to follow as to why Prahlad hits the bottle every now and then. And why Bhushan continues his rivalry with the village Sachiv. The rivalry with the Phulera residents and the local MLA is at its peak and they go to the extent of waging a war and it looks like there is a fourth season coming up too. And as Panchayat doesn’t get boring at any point we are willing to go with the flow.

Rating: 3 out of 5

WATCH the trailer of Panchayat Season 3 here: