Ideal Worship: An earnest ensemble elevates a tale of idealism in the second season of 'Gram Chikitsalay' 

Gram Chikitsalay Season 2 Review: Ideal Worship | Director: Lalitam Anand | Cast: Amol Parashar, Vinay Pathak, Akansha Ranjan Kapoor | Prime Video

“In a village like ours, if you’re a young single woman it is better to be considered a daayan (witch). The men leave you alone,” says an outcast from the fictional village of Bhatkandi. It is one of the many truth bombs in the second season of Gram Chikitsalay, from the same house as TVF, the creators of the Prime Video show, Panchayat. A doc­tor, Prabhat Sinha (the talented Amol Parashar), is posted to a village primary health centre (PHC), and takes it upon himself to challenge the endemic sloth.

In the process, he becomes less of a doctor and more of a revolutionary against the system, to quote his fellow PHC doctor, Gargi (Akansha Ranjan Kapoor). Prabhat’s struggles with orthodoxy, politics, and blind superstition often parallel the issues faced by Panchayat’s Abhishek Tripathi (Jeetendra Kumar) in Phulera. We even have a crossover cameo from Phulera’s new pradhan pati and his shadow (the delightful Durgesh Kumar and Ashok Pathak). There is something to be said for the earnestness of the actors, including a seemingly evil doctor Chetak Kumar (Vinay Pathak), and the idealism of its writers. As an offi­cial says, Bhatkandi PHC may or may not win the Adarsh PHC award but its doctor is an ideal professional.