Panchayat Season 4: Stellar Cast Can’t Save Missed Opportunity

Panchayat Season 4 Review: Strong Cast, Weak Storyline Disappoints Fans

panchayat season 4 review In three seasons, the show Panchayat has been wrapping charm around viewers with its natural comedy, relatable characters, and heartbreaking journey to tell the story of rural Indian life. Nevertheless, Season 4, despite the fact that it is not a complete failure in every respect, to a large extent appears to be a lost opportunity that rides off the previously established goodwill and the excellent work by the cast members, rather than providing a new set of compelling stories.

The new season goes deeper into murky waters of local politics at Phulera, as the much-anticipated gram panchayat election occupies the centre stage. The competition between Manju Devi (Neena Gupta) and Kranti Devi (Sunita Rajwar): which are stirred by their respective husbands, Pradhan-Pati Brij Bhushan Dubey (Raghubir Yadav) and Bhushan (Durgesh Kumar), is the main line of the movie. Although this political tension brings along with it a certain amount of heft to the drama, it tends to outweigh the slice-of-life goodness that characterized recent seasons.

Jitendra Kumar as Abhishek Tripathi (Sachiv Ji) is yet again playing a subtle role and is showing us the struggle with self of an urban dreamer trapped in rural realities. His frustration, silent resignation, and slow conformity to Phulera remains adorable, but his character journey is sort of stale this season. The titllating “will he or won’t he” leave Phulera to pursue is CAT exams and the promise of a bright future are made out to be more teasing than anything consequently the would-be romance with Rinki (Sanvikaa) plods along at snail pace too with no real zest or upheavals, this is one flare that is nowhere in the book.

Again, as is ever the case, the real shining stars are the supporting cast. The positive change is seen in Neena Gupta as Manju Devi who is gaining some assertiveness and participation in the game of politics. Raghubir Yadav in perfect character transformation portrays the good natured yet always flustered Pradhan-Patii to a tee; who often has to turn to his trademark interjection of sasur. The depiction of Prahlad by Faisal Malik is still the focal point in terms of emotions in the series, and his reserved sorrow is still touching.

Durgesh Kumar, as Bhushan, and Sunita Rajwar, as Kranti Devi, are also fantastic, building out their villains and making them more than just caricatures.
All of the performances, however, are simply insufficient for the shortcomings of the narrative. Oftentimes the season feels too long, with too many subplots which go nowhere (like the subplot with Manju Devi’s aging father), or fizzle with no impact.

The humor, which was one of the hallmarks of “Panchayat,” is less frequent than previously, and for the most part feels forced – foregoing some of that subtlety you might associate with political comedy for some more overt political drama. Some have even noted the lack of what they called the “free-flowing happenings of village life” which made previous seasons so pleasurable to watch, and which were certainly dwarfed in this season by a near-exclusive focus on the election.

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Season 4 tries, and sometimes even succeeds, in examining the entwined nature of grassroots politics and its effect on the rose-colored veneer of village life in Phulera, but it largely suffers from pacing and a lack of fresh material. You are often given a glimpse into something that might become significant, but nothing turns into anything lasting or meaningful, which can be frustrating. In the end, “Panchayat Season 4” has a lot of interesting moments mostly due to the chemistry and talent of the ensemble cast. Yet it also leaves one with a strong feeling that a real opportunity to grow its narrative and beloved characters was missed.

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