Kijiye Meeting Kheliye Karte | Office Meme | 4K Quality
Kijiye Meeting Kheliye Karte | Office Meme | 4K Quality
The first few episodes of the new season of Panchayat are so dull that
I had to leave my show midway and watch the more entertaining Malaika Legal Hai,
which alternates between the self-reflectiveness of old comedies and the sharp insights of new comedies.
Ever since Panchayat first delighted us four years ago, it has lost its momentum
and the third season, released this week, has made one thing very clear: Panchayat is no longer a comedy.
Written by Chandan Kumar and directed by Deepak Kumar Mishra, the first season —
about MBA aspirant Abhishek Tripathi who takes up the post of secretary in a village panchayat — was refreshingly light.
“Tripathi’s nervousness can be linked to the wide-eyed confusion of IAS young
Agastya Sen in Upamanyu Chatterjee’s extremely clever 1988 novel, English, August,
and the grounded beginnings of the show’s protagonist are reminiscent of Shah Rukh Khan’s struggles in Swades,” I wrote then, during the pandemic.
“Yet Tripathi is deeply illiterate, much to Sen’s dismay, and far removed from worldly wisdom like Khan’s NASA-returned scientist.
Office Meme | 4K Quality
Here, simply, is an underachieving youth who wants to do better but doesn’t know how. This could be more Newton than Swades.”
That first season, slow as an old ceiling fan, had a lot to say — about masculinity, self-esteem, empathy, and, perhaps most importantly, first impressions.
Panchayat set itself apart from most streaming shows.
The cast excelled: Jitendra Kumar, Neena Gupta, Raghubir Yadav, Faisal Malik, and Chandan Roy starred.
It was a gang worth loving.
A few years later, the gang began to behave erratically.
Kijiye Meeting Kheliye Karte | Office Meme | 4K Quality
“This season we see them throwing their weight around,” I wrote in 2022.
A disliked critic calls them complicit and selfish, making a valid point.
They bend rules for their needs, then threaten when challenged.
Destroying incriminating evidence and assaulting the complainant’s wife with a chappal.
They act as bullies.”
I was late to the ‘Panchayat’ party.
In fact, I watched it almost a year after its release in May 2021,
specifically at the peak of the second wave of Covid.
Undoubtedly, I am sure it must have resonated with many others as well.
However, the problem is that we all collectively now think that ‘Panchayat’ is a gift that keeps on giving.
Unfortunately, we are wrong.”