Panchayat Season 3 Review: Still Entertaining

TVF seems to be harbouring the secret magic formula for creating shows that feel like a warm hug. The same fuzzy feeling inhabits the third season of Panchayat, TVF's social comedy series that began in 2020. The new season features beautiful writing, nuanced performances and, to my surprise, a more realistic portrayal of rural India, surpassing the already high bar that Panchayat set in its previous two seasons. It'll make you smile, cry, laugh, contemplate, and probably google the government's Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana!

What makes this season stand apart is that the rose-tinted glasses come off this time. The protagonists still share the warm camaraderie, but we get to discover their tumultuous individual arcs, along with their emotional baggage and crises, making room for a paradigm shift. Political rivalries intensify, and their consequences become more threatening. If I were to give it straight, Panchayat's third season bursts several glossy bubbles of utopian fantasy and gives hard-hitting reality checks.

We see Prahalad Chacha (Faisal Malik) turning to alcoholism to cope with grief, Vikas (Chandan Roy) enduring the fear of financial burden silently, Abhishek (Jitendra Kumar) trying to shrug off his obvious attachment with Phulera, and Brij Bhushan Dubey (Raghubir Yadav) facing humiliation from all enemies on the political front and scuffles back at home.