Panchayat Season 4 Review: The Politics Becomes Dirtier, The Charm Gets Dimmer

Towards the fag end of the new season of the Prime Video series Panchayat, a frustrated Brij Bhushan Dubey aka Pradhan-Pati, played by Raghubir Yadav (who is famously called Pradhan ji instead of his wife and the real Pradhan of the Phulera village Manju Devi) makes a predictable observation.

"Politics hai gudde-gudiyon ka khel nahin ki sab badhiya-badhiya hoga." Translation - "This is politics. It's not child's play that will always be great."

The same can also be said about Panchayat season four, which started streaming on Prime Video on Tuesday (June 24). The politics is becoming dirtier and the charm is getting dimmer.

Few Sparks Of The Quintessential Panchayat Humour

The tonal shift in the third season of Panchayat irked many fans, but what do you do if you are to take a franchise flanked by a solid ensemble cast forward? The lighter moments in the last chapter were few and far between, the sequence with the toothless (not literally) dadi notwithstanding.

Again, there were some remnants of the original Panchayat humour in the new season.

One evening, Sachiv ji Abhishek (Jitendra Kumar) receives the "Hi" text from Pradhan ji in their men's group, a signal to get drunk, make merry or simply just prepare a safety net for good-ol' ranting.

They are also joined by Pradhan ji's father-in-law, played by theatre veteran Ram Gopal Bajaj, for drinks.

It's quite an LOL moment when Pradhan ji nonchalantly exclaims his oft-repeated catchphrase "Aye sasur!" actually in the presence of his real sasur.

One of my favourite parts is when Prahlad-cha, played with a lived-in quality by Faisal Malik who's getting better with every season of Panchayat, chortles every now and then. That laugh acts as a relief to the deep-rooted grief of losing his soldier-son Rahul at the border in Panchayat season two.

Lauki, Pressure Cooker, And Dirty 'Poltics'

The one-up(wo)manship also continues. Sometimes the lauki (bottle gourd symbol of Manju Devi's party at the gram panchayat elections) overtakes the pressure cooker (symbol of the opposition party led by Kranti Devi and Bhushan aka Banrakas). Sometimes the green vegetable -- that has come to be associated with not only the reigning Pradhans but also Panchayat as a show -- is pulverised under the intense heat of the opposition's attacks.

In a scene, Kranti Devi, played by a surprisingly shrill Sunita Rajwar, launches a (false) below-the-belt attack on Khushboo (Tripti Sahu), the pregnant wife of sachiv sahayak Vikas Shukla (Chandan Roy). Incoming was an onslaught of tears and a "course correction" to stop the murmurs in a close-knit circle like Phulera from spreading far and wide.

As the dreaded vidhayak ji says, "Poltics, poltics, poltics."

The nod to Swachh Bharat comes back in the form of a gram panchayat election strategy, yielded by both ruling and opposition sides, with a lot of time spent on toilet humour.

Food As A Leitmotif

The "aaloo le lo" dialogue by a vegetable vendor is without a doubt a hat-tip to the first Welcome film, which had a very sharply dressed Nana Patekar selling potatoes (and onions) as the don Uday Shetty. In the case of Panchayat season four, Bhushan (Durgesh Kumar) has already bought off all the potatoes on the thela, much to the chagrin of Pradhan ji & Co.

Tables are (sort of) turned when Neena Gupta's Manju Devi has a brainwave - she asks Bhutkun Chaiwala's helper at his famous tea stall to cook samosas and distribute it to the villagers who come by the kiosk and relay the message that the samosas are sponsored by her.

Then, there's also a not-so-subtle nod to the famous samosa-aloo-Bihar-Lalu comment by former Bihar Chief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav.

Among the few good parts of Panchayat season four is how secondary characters from the opposition such as Binod and Madhav, played by Ashok Pathak and Buloo Kumar, respectively, get plenty of screen space along with an opportunity to show their range apart from being used for laughs, much like in previous seasons.

Manju Devi also tries to drive a wedge in the Kranti Devi camp by attempting to poach Binod by feeding him good food and sweet seviyan.

When it comes to Rinky (Sanvikaa), ambition may skip a generation but ego is, after all, khaandaani. Kachoris can be cold, but ego has to be tended to with a lot of warmth and right on demand.

The laddoo motif again makes an appearance in the show: the quantity of laddoos and the quality of ghee used to prepare them determine which party is more hopeful about winning the gram panchayat elections. If one side orders 50 kg of the laddoos cooked in real desi ghee and the other orders 25 kg made out of vanaspati, you know which side is confident about emerging victorious.

Love Blooms But There's A CAT On The Prowl

After three seasons of 'Will they? Won't They?', the L-word finally enters the scene featuring Abhishek and Rinky.

With Abhishek's CAT result hanging over their head, it would be a more of a sweet moment than bittersweet if he were to get a decent percentile in his CAT exams and eventually leave Phulera for a better future, something he wanted to do ever since he joined duty as the sachiv.

But what if Manju Devi loses the gram panchayat elections, as Rinky asks. Abhishek quickly says - "Phir toh resign karke nikal loonga. Phir kya hee point hai?", inviting a pointed look from Rinky, who leaves from their daytime walk (date) in a huff.

Is Panchayat Season 4 Worth Your Time

If you're a Panchayat loyalist, you'll stand by the cast and crew till the eighth and final episode, which is setting up the show for another season. If you're just another Prime Video subscriber who has tuned in to the show as it was #trending on social media, you'll maybe have a different tale to tell.

Abhishek's friend in the very first episode of Panchayat season four asks him to take it easy, "Load mat le yaar sab theek ho jayega". That's what perhaps the makers are also saying to the show's admirers as they set Panchayat for season five, which will mark another chapter in the politics of Phulera.