Panchayat, a Hindi comedy-drama series, serves as maybe a masterful reminder of the variety that can be included in telling Indian stories. Panchayat follows a young city-bred engineer as he accepts a job in a distant village in Uttar Pradesh with a charm that frequently reminds the Indian viewer of Doordarshan’s Malgudi Days. The first season of Panchayat is a humorous and thought-provoking show thanks to outstanding acting performances, particularly by Jeetendra Kumar, Raghubir Yadav, Neena Gupta, and Chandan Roy, and an outstanding storyline.
Panchayat Season 1: plot summary What is the show about?
Abhishek Tripathi, who has an engineering degree but is unable to find employment, accepts the one available job as a panchayat secretary in the far-off village of Phulera. Abhishek arrives with all his belongings and an ancient motorcycle, and is welcomed by the upa-Pradhan Prahlad and Vikas, his office assistant. They are soon joined by Brij Bhushan Dubey, the former Pradhan, who, unexpectedly, is still referred to as Pradhan by everyone in the hamlet. Abhishek quickly discovers that although Manju Devi is listed as the village’s elected head, or Pradhan, in writing, the position is actually held by her husband, Brij Bhushan, who only forced his wife to run in the panchayat elections when the government had barred all female candidates from running for office. Abhishek’s days in the village get off to a terrible start when he forgets the key to the panchayat office building, which doubles as his home, and the building’s door malfunctions when the lock is attempted to be broken. After a few days, the secretary becomes determined to find a way out of the hamlet. His close buddy Prateek, who works for a city engineering firm, offers the advice that the secretary study for the CAT examinations while leading a solitary existence in Phulera free from any distractions. Abhishek spends the following several months adjusting to country life’s numerous intricacies and issues, which are significantly different from what he has experienced in the city. He also begins to get ready for an MBA programme.
Warning: Major Spoilers
How does Abhishek gradually settle into his new life in Phulera?
Abhishek struggles right away after entering the panchayat office because, to his urban tastes, the dusty offices with heaps of unopened paper files and his own room with scarcely any comforts beyond the bare necessities are difficult to accept. When he sits down to study at night after his day’s job and home obligations, the first significant setback occurs in the shape of daily power outages in the village. He enlists Vikas’ assistance to dispel an old urban legend about a haunted location in the village in order to persuade the committee to put a solar-powered light in front of the office because he is sick of having to make do with emergency lights and candles. Abhishek purchases a rotating chair with plush cushions to aid in his sitting and studying now that he is beginning to settle in, but while Brij Bhushan continues to hang out in his more basic, older chair, it eventually causes him to feel self-conscious around the villagers. In Phulera, a wedding ceremony is taking place at the same time, and Abhishek discovers that a rural wedding requires physical labour from everyone, including the panchayat Pradhan and his secretary. After spending the day rushing around doing preparations for the wedding, Abhishek becomes irate with the bridegroom, whose ego is bruised, and he demands that the marriage be called off. Finally, the fight is resolved by the groom cursing back at the secretary and giving him his nice new chair as a gift, something Brij Bhushan also readily accepts. Abhishek learns how words and their meanings are truly taken with considerable, perhaps too much, emphasis when the BDO assigns him to manage a slogan-painting campaign about family planning in the hamlet. The people are outraged by one of the slogans created, which likens any family with more than two children to mounds. The judgement of Pradhan changes after Brij Bhushan’s wife Manju Devi doubts his sternness in standing up for the right causes, even though Brij Bhushan initially agrees to remove the slogans. Even though the BDO office informs them that the slogan’s required status has been withdrawn owing to protests in other villages as well, Brij Bhushan orders it to stay painted on the wall. The most challenging time for Abhishek in the village comes a little later, though, when his carelessness results in the theft of the panchayat computer monitor. The secretary had forgotten to lock the office door at night after buying himself some beer after seeing his city pals enjoy their weekend. When the local police sub-inspector claims that Abhishek himself might have been responsible for the monitor’s theft, a frustrated Brij Bhushan rejects him and contacts the local police sub-inspector for an investigation. Brij Bhushan then plans a small, friendly party for Abhishek after he complains that he has no friends or family in the area and has become inebriated as a result. The following morning, Abhishek finds the monitor returned by the burglar along with a note apologising for the theft and explaining that he had mistaken it for TV since he has now made true friends who support him in a trying time.
The links and contacts Abhishek develops with others around him eventually sways his opinion of the community. Even though he frequently gets irritated and irate with Vikas, Prahlad, and Brij Bhushan, he also develops a close relationship with them, particularly with the first one because he spends a lot of time with his assistant at the workplace. The polite Vikas always supports the secretary’s decisions and makes an effort to keep Abhishek company. Like any traditional Indian father figure, Brij Bhushan slowly but surely forms a warm and caring bond with the secretary, despite the fact that he displays very little of it. As the CAT exams grow closer, Vikas and two rowdy kids get into a fight, which prompts Abhishek to head to the closest town to get official photos taken. The kids try to start a fight, but Abhishek stays out of it even though Vikas is prepared to beat them up. The following day, when Abhishek goes back to the studio to pick up his photos, he discovers that the goons have deleted them. He continues to stay out of any fights, but when they phone his mobile number and harass him, Abhishek can no longer take it and challenges them to a fight the following day. When Abhishek, Vikas, Prahlad, and Brij Bhushan arrive at the scene, one of the thugs pulls the acting Pradhan to the ground, and things quickly get violent. Abhishek loses all control of his fury and begins pounding the thugs with a rifle that Prahlad had brought to the fight, disregarding his future examinations in the process. After a few days, Brij Bhushan and Manju Devi begin looking for grooms for the nuptials of their daughter Rinky, but the father is not in the mood to pay the twenty lakh rupee dowry demanded by one prospective groom. Instead, he now focuses on Abhishek, who insists on never accepting dowry despite landing a well-paying managerial position after attending an IIM. Brij Bhushan continues to attempt to assess Abhishek’s IQ as he studies for the exam and is consistently pleased with the results.
Finally, the day of the CAT exam arrives, but Abhishek returns to the panchayat office with a pouting expression, implying that he had a bad experience with the test. Brij Bhushan sets out to chase the other groom despite his high dowry demand because he is dissatisfied and is certain that his wife will not permit Rinky to be married off to a man with a measly 20,000 rupee salary. Nothing can help Abhishek get over the disappointment of his poor CAT exam performance during the coming weeks, and he finds it challenging even to restart his preparations. Even though flag-hoisting ceremonies are the responsibility of the actual Pradhan, the Panchayat begins preparations for one on the night of Republic Day with Brij Bhushan serving as the acting Pradhan. When Abhishek visits Manju Devi to get some official documents signed, the woman unintentionally bruises his ego by claiming that not everyone is deserving of high-paying professions and jobs. Now, Abhishek mocks her by saying that the female Pradhan of the next village raises the flag herself during ceremonies and handles all official business by herself. Manju Devi is now gradually realising the respectable position she occupies in society, but one that is never accorded to her, particularly by the male villagers. Manju Devi decides to take on her formal duty and hoist the flag on her own in the Republic Day ceremony since she is tired of constantly being praised as the Pradhan’s wife. She begins to seek assistance from Abhishek, who teaches her the national song, but she finds it difficult to master it in just two days. Finally becoming weary and angry with this work as well, Abhishek asks the Pradhan to learn it on her own while he leaves her with Jana Gana Mana playing on her phone. Manju Devi acknowledges that she is finding the task extremely challenging despite having no instruction and despite Brij Bhushan providing her a new saree for the occasion.
Panchayat season 1: ending explained How does Abhishek finally get his confidence back?
On January 26, all the Panchayat members waited for Manju Devi at first before deciding to proceed with the flag-raising ceremony with Brij Bhushan performing the honours. The District Magistrate finds a programme poster on the highway that features a large photo of Brij Bhushan and the label Pradhan-pati (spouse of the Pradhan) written next to it. This abruptly ends the entire celebration. The DM furiously resolves to examine the scenario in an attempt to discover what might be happening in Phulera because it is customary in India for politicians’ wives to run for office as dummy representatives for their husbands in circumstances when seats are designated for women candidates. Her assumption is confirmed when she arrives to the Phulera panchayat, and she severely tells Brij Bhushan to leave the area. The DM then orders Abhishek to be suspended because he hasn’t done his job as the panchayat secretary, but Manju Devi and several other women show up and prevent this from happening. She then downplays the situation by soloing the national anthem and raising the flag. Manju Devi’s husband prods her from the side whenever she has trouble remembering the words. The DM praises the event and advises Brij Bhushan to assist his wife with panchayat tasks in a similar way rather than denying her the opportunity to take part in them.
Abhishek understands the true meaning of tenacity and never losing trust in oneself as a spirit of celebration spreads. Manju Devi had been having trouble remembering the words of the national song, but she had finally triumphed and had even given a performance in front of an audience for the first time ever. So, when the barely literate village Pradhan chose to assert her independence, Abhishek was inspired and resolved to give himself another shot. He immediately resumed his studies and began getting ready for the CAT exam that will take place the next year. Vikas and Abhishek’s other coworkers had urged him to climb the tall water tank tower next to the panchayat office for a breathtaking view of the hamlet, which they assured him would make him fall in love. But Abhishek had never done it before, and it was only now that he made the decision to see for himself. He ascends the stairs and pauses to take in the view. However, he is greatly let down by it because it does not appear to be really different from the view from the ground. He soon discovers that there is someone else on the tower, and he spots a young woman who is nearly his own age. The woman introduces herself as Rinky, the daughter of Manju Devi and Brij Bhushan. Based on the look on Abhishek’s face, it is safe to assume that he has at least found some amicable company up in the tower, if not someone with whom he has fallen in love.
