Panchayat (Season 1)

Panchayat (Season 1) Web Series Details:

Country	India
Language	Hindi
Dubbed in	Tamil, Telugu
Genre	Comedy, Drama
Season	1
Episodes	8
Release date	April 3, 2020
Running time	20–45 minutes
Age rating	TV-MA
Starring	Jitendra Kumar Raghubir Yadav Neena Gupta Chandan Roy Faisal Malik
Directed by	Deepak Kumar Mishra
Written by	Chandan Kumar
Produced by	Arunabh Kumar
Executive Producer	Sameer Saxena
Cinematography by	Amitabha Singh
Edited by	Amit Kulkarni
Music by	Anurag Saikia
Production Company	The Viral Fever (TVF)
Distributor	Amazon Prime Video

Panchayat (Season 1) Web Series Cast & Character:

• Jitendra Kumar as Abhishek Tripathi, Secretary of Gram Panchayat
• Neena Gupta as Manju Devi Dubey, Pradhan
• Raghubir Yadav as Brij Bhushan Dubey, Manju Devi’s Husband, Pradhan-Pati
• Faisal Malik as Prahladchand “Prahlad” Pandey, Upa-Pradhan
• Chandan Roy as Vikas, Office Assistant of Gram Panchayat
• Sanvikaa as Rinki, daughter of Manju Devi
• Durgesh Kumar as Bhushan
• Biswapati Sarkar as Prateek – Abhishek’s Friend

Storyline:

The series deals with the experiences of an urban engineering graduate, unfamiliar with village cultures, who on completing his degree gets a low-salary position as a secretary of a Gram panchayat in a remote village called Phulera in Uttar Pradesh.

About Panchayat (Season 1) Web Series:

Panchayat is an Indian Hindi-language streaming television series created by The Viral Fever for Amazon Prime Video. It chronicles the life of an engineering graduate who joins as a Panchayat secretary in a remote fictional village of Phulera of Uttar Pradesh due to lack of better job options.

The series was shot in a real panchayat office located in village Mahodiya of district Sehore Madhya Pradesh. Sehore is about 40 kilometres from Bhopal, the capital city of Madhya Pradesh. Mahodiya is about 10 kilometres from Sehore district headquarters.

This series is Mishra’s full-fledged attempt at direction after directing the respective second seasons of Permanent Roommates and Humorously Yours!

Amazon Prime Video announced the release of eight new Indian originals in January 2020, with Panchayat being one of them. The official trailer of Panchayat was released on 29 March 2020. Panchayat was premiered with the eight-episode series on Amazon Prime Video on 3 April 2020. In May 2020, the makers released the Tamil and Telugu dubbed versions of the series after fans requested.

The series received mostly positive response from critics, with the performances of the leading actors, scripting, direction, and major technical aspects praised, critics also appreciated TVF, and its producers for coming up with a rural village setting as compared to the previous projects, which is mostly based on the urban atmosphere.

At the inaugural ceremony of the Filmfare OTT Awards, the series won all the nominations under the Comedy Series category, except for Best Actress. The series was also nominated for Best Original Story, Screenplay, and Dialogues for Chandan Kumar, although it did not receive a win.

In an interview with Hindustan Times, Jitendra stated “My initial understanding of a panchayat was a big tree with five PANCH or sarpanch and other people sitting in its shade. They are usually fighting over a land dispute and come up with a solution right there. But actually, a Panchayat is like an office and every panchayat follows a process. The show talks about the problems of villagers which appear to be very funny for us.”

Panchayat (Season 1) Episodes List:

Panchayat S1, Episode 1: Gram Panchayat Phulera

Abhishek Tripathi is a fresh engineering graduate who has not been placed in his final year. With only a job offer of a panchayat secretary, he tries to give it a shot as there is no other option left after graduating. He reaches Phulera and meets the former village sarpanch (husband of the current village sarpanch), the deputy sarpanch and his assistant. When Abhishek reaches Phulera, the doors of the panchayat office are locked and the keys missing. By the time the doors are opened (blown from the frame), the situation inside the office room turns him down. Abhishek decides that he needs to switch his job at the earliest and the only way to do so is by cracking the CAT (Common Admission Test) and taking admission in one of the IIMs.

Panchayat S1, Episode 2: Bhootha Ped

Abhishek, working as panchayat secretary, is also preparing for CAT after office hours. He has arranged for emergency lights as there is a power shutdown in the village every night. He plans to install a solar-powered light in the panchayat office from the total lights allotted. His plan is thwarted when one of the panchayat members suggests installing the light at a place called Bhootha Ped (haunted tree) which will help the sarpanch garner votes in the upcoming election. Abhishek now undertakes the mission to uncover the truth.

Panchayat S1, Episode 3: Chakke Wali Kursi

Abhishek buys a comfy revolving chair since working and studying in the crude plastic chairs proved quite uncomfortable. This chair soon becomes a bone of contention between him and the Pradhan, who feels diminished in the eyes of the people compared to Abhishek since he does not possess a fancy chair. The Pradhan hatches an elaborate plan to spirit the chair away from Abhishek, which culminates in Abhishek having to give away his chair to a disgruntled bridegroom to placate him for swearing at him.

Panchayat S1, Episode 4: Hamara Neta Kaisa Ho?

Abhishek is instructed by the BDO to put up family planning slogans. Since this is a pet project of the DM, he threatens him with disciplinary action if the work is not done on time. Abhishek gets the slogans painted and then walks around with Pradhan, Prahlad and Vikas to check on the work. The second slogan, “Do bacche meethi Kheer, do se jyaada bawaseer” compares children born, after the first two, to a case of piles which provokes a strong reaction among villagers who have more than 2 kids. This puts Pradhan in a tough position since they all threaten to vote against him at the next election and he has the slogan removed. Manju Devi calls out the Pradhan on his weak leadership. Pradhan sees a picture of Sardar Patel and gets inspired. He has Abhishek call a meeting of the ward and tells the gathering that he stands by the slogan. Prahlad and Vikas also support the Pradhan. Abhishek tells the Panchayat that they should tell anyone offended by the slogan that it is like a warning on a cigarette packet that is meant to offend and scare. Pradhan instructs Vikas to put the slogan back. After the meeting, the BDO calls Abhishek to tell him that the piles’ slogan was not mandatory after a father of 6 in another village, offended by the slogan, burnt down the Panchayat office. Abhishek asks Pradhan if he wants to reconsider his decision but the Pradhan, inspired by Sardar Patel says that his decision is final.

Panchayat S1, Episode 5: Computer Nahi Monitor

Frustrated by the lack of nightlife in the village, Abhishek decides to drink beer but forgets to lock the door of his room and finds his monitor stolen from the panchayat office the next morning. A furious Pradhan reprimands Abhishek for being careless and asks him to find new accommodation. Abhishek and Prahlad lodge an FIR at the local police station. A police officer arrives later at the panchayat office and suspects Abhishek of stealing the monitor for money. The officer along with Pradhan and others interrogates an irritated Abhishek who then explains his frustration because of his village routine and lonely life. Abhishek’s outburst convinces Pradhan of his innocence. That night, Pradhan arranges a party along with Prahlad and Vikas to cheer Abhishek up. The next morning, Abhishek finds his stolen monitor returned, with a note saying the monitor was mistaken for a  television.

Panchayat S1, Episode 6: Bahot Hua Samman

Abhishek is having his photograph taken for the exam and Vikas gets into a verbal altercation with two men trying to sit on Abhishek’s bike. The men threaten to “fix” him when he shows up to get his photos the next day. Vikas wants to involve Pradhan in this but Abhishek stops him. The next day when he goes to pick up his photos, the photographer says that since he got into a tussle with men from his village, he is supporting them and he has deleted his pics. The men call him at night to taunt him. Now Abhishek has to take Pradhan’s help to resolve the matter.

Panchayat S1, Episode 7: Ladka Tez Hai Lekin..

Pradhanji fixed his daughter’s marriage to a guy whose family demanded 20 lakh rupees as dowry. When Pradhanji asked Abhishek about the situation he told him he won’t take dowry from anyone even if he would get a good salary which impresses Pradhanji. Then he started testing Abhishek’s ability whether he’ll crack the CAT examination or not, meanwhile a couple is fighting over their son’s name which Abhishek suggested. Finally, Pradhanji decided to ask Abhishek about marriage by letting her daughter choose any finger between the two, The same way the arguing couple decides their son’s name. But, on the day of the examination, Pradhanji and Vikas found that Abhishek’s exam had not gone well. So he has no option but to change his decision.

Panchayat S1, Episode 8: Jab Jaago Tabhi Savera

Abhishek is not in a good mood even after 2 months of his CAT examination, Vikas tries to cheer him up. Abhishek vents out all his frustrations on him and later apologizes. Somedays before Republic Day Manju Devi taunts Abhishek for not clearing the CAT examination, where he taunts back as Manju Devi is the actual Sarpanch but, every year Pradhanji hosted the flag ceremony. This prompted Manju Devi to learn the National anthem of India as she decided to host the flag ceremony, but fails to remember the National anthem. On the day of Republic Day, the District Magistrate notices the banner as Pradhanji is the Sarpanch and decides to go as an inquiry, where she is about to suspend Abhishek. Manju Devi arrives. Then she hosted the flag ceremony and everyone celebrates. Abhishek realised his mistake and decided to try one more year for the CAT examination. At last, he climbs on the water tank as his colleagues suggested earlier to fall in love with the village, where he meets Rinki, the daughter of Pradhanji as the episode comes to an end. It is hinted that Abhishek is attracted towards Rinki, which confirms the saying that he would indeed fall in love.