ঋতু পর্ণা

That was the time of Corona. Lockdown has started. Housebound people watch the outside world through cell phones, laptops and TVs. All over the world there is a demand for clean air. Meanwhile, Phulera village appeared on Prime Video on 3rd April, 2020 with purity, clarity and simplicity. Bengalis are only familiar with Rabindranath Tagore's 'Postmaster' story. Rabindranath compared the postmaster, a city boy who goes from town to village to work, to a "fish caught in air". 'Postmaster' could not survive in the village in Tagore's story. The beginning of the 'Panchayat' series is much like this. City boy Abhishek tries for a job and gets the job of panchayat secretary. The boy, who has grown up in the city all his life, takes the job as a break for a few days of life and reaches the village of Phulera. But here he starts differing from Tagore's character who was a fish out of water, a city boy who could barely adjust in the village. Our Panchayat secretary and the audience are completely tied with Phulera, with the people of Phulera. For the audience of Panchayat first season, it was a time of house arrest due to Corona, so we virtually, vicariously roamed around Phullera. Then season two came in 2022. As soon as it arrived, it won the audience's hearts. Now people's love for the second even surpassed the first season. The secretary gradually became one with the village. Village problems and their solutions are met with pure humor. Almost the entire two series became meme material, you think of a frame from Panchayat and in your mind a meme pops up. The simplicity of the village people, the dirty politics of the MLA, the emotional melodrama of rural life make people laugh and cry. That race of tears with countless questions had to be carried on for another two years while waiting for the third season. Seeing the smiling face of the deputy chieftain of the village who lost his son, the viewers breathed a sigh of relief. Here lies the success of the Panchayat series. Each character has become the audience's own. May 28, 2024. Ending the long wait, the third season of Panchayat web series arrived on Prime Video. Is it able to touch the mercury of human expectations? Phulera's roads did not look any better this time, Rinki and Abhishek's love did not take root this time, but six or seven hours of watch time passed as a stream flows effortlessly looking at the screen of Prime video. This season of Panchayat is like the preparatory phase before the start of the Mahabharata war. Just a prelude before telling the actual story of a glorious battleground. This time, as soon as each warrior of the Great War was introduced, the preparations for the war were made, the curtains fell on the third season. The end of Panchayat season three marks the hopeful beginning of another tenure of waiting by the audience. Waiting for Panchayat season four. Written by Rituparna Koley