The morning-after Abhishek Tripathi (Jitendra Kumar) was accused of stealing a computer monitor – a sarkari property – he unlatches the main door to fetch water from the nearby tubewell. Still sleepy, he almost stumbles upon the same flat-screen monitor kept at the threshold with a note: Humein laga TV hai, maaf kijiyega.
That monitor was stolen the previous night, the night Abhishek decided to drown his four months of drudgery in two bottles of beer and pass out instead of peeling lauki (bottle gourd). It was a Friday night, after all. From being accused of theft to admitting he’s friendless in Phulera, Uttar Pradesh, and more importantly, frustrated at the low-yielding job of a Panchayat Sachiv (secretary to the Panchayat Pradhan), to actually making his way into a WhatsApp group of friends who occasionally drink together using the code word ‘Hi’, episode 5, Computer Nahin Monitor is the peak point of Amazon Prime’s latest offering, the TVF show, Panchayat. That even the thief returns the stolen item in Phulera, shows the simple world we’re watching unfold before our eyes.
TVF were the pioneers, so to say, of the Indian web scene. That they are still miles ahead of their other mighty competitors, shows in Panchayat. Their trump card – their all-heart simple and therefore realistic storytelling – is all they need to make you well up in one scene, and then break into a smile in the very next. The amazing ensemble cast of Panchayat certainly has a huge contribution.
Jitendra as Abhishek is forever falling short – in class, in getting a placement, and in life. He is ambitious, but he’s falling short there too. He settles for this sarkari job not only because he didn’t have another option, but perhaps because it will be easier to blame Phulera than himself when things go south. Manju Devi (Neena Gupta) is the Pradhan of this village, but only on papers, because pichhle saal mahilaon ke liye seat reserve tha and Brij Bhushan Dubey (Raghuvir Yadav) – who has always been the Pradhan – elected his wife instead of himself so he could still run office. He, today, is known as Pradhan Pati – not a sarkari designation, but Phulera accepts and obliges. Brij Bhushan is a good man, not a shrewd politician, contrary to what the previous statement might have suggested. He’s even surprisingly nonconfrontational for a politician and finds it physically impossible to lie. “Yeh bhi nahin kar sakte, kaise Pradhan hai aap?” asks a straight-talking Manju Devi, and Yadav retorts, “Hum aise Pradhan hai,” as he helps his wife change pillow covers and bedsheets.
