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You better not be sleeping on this gritty, dark, and very real depiction of the tension between high-school students in a posh Delhi school. When three students from a low-income neighbourhood are given free admission to an elite private school, it feels like someone has just tossed a lit matchstick into a room full of explosives.
A whodunnit, inspired by the Spanish series Elite (2018), the show boasts of a ton of fresh faces.
Soft-hearted Dheeraj Kumar Valmiki (Piyush Khati), the bright and earnest Saba Manzoor (Madhyama Segal) and the brazen Balli Sehrawat (Cwaayal Singh) start getting enmeshed in some intense drama with their posh, snobby classmates as the episodes unfold.
Dheeraj (Piyush Khati), Saba (Madhyama Segal) and Balli (Cwaayal Singh) on their first day of class in Hampton International.
Siblings, Suhani (Anjali Sivaraman) and Veer Ahuja (Zeyn Shaw), deal with matters of the heart that they did not anticipate. Walking the tightrope of love and lust, are the school’s hottest couple Koel (Naina Bhan) and Sharan (Moses Koul). The story also has Saba’s brother Faruq (Chintan Rachchh) and the principal’s son Dhruv (Chayan Chopra) as recurring characters, coming into their own.
The young cast are a breath of fresh air, with most of them really powerfully owning the characters they play.
Veer (Zeyn Shaw) and Yashika (Ayesha Kanga) - two insufferable rich brats whose personal lives starts crumbling as the show progresses.
The storytellers, too, have done a fabulous job of showing how each character is battling their own demons. As in life, there are no simple binaries in this show. There is no clear good and bad, no sanitised storylines. There are only dizzying swings between vulnerability and vindictiveness. And, while there are moments when you see the characters take a step towards redemption, it somehow manages to always stay beyond reach.
Weaving through issues of classism, casteism, and sexuality, Ashim Ahluwalia has directed this show alongside Gul Dharmani and Kabir Mehta.
The cinematography is delivered in striking contrasts - the empty marble corridors in the palatial houses of the rich, and the claustrophobic, grimy homes of the underprivileged. Landscaped vistas, spacious rooms, and vast yet empty swimming pools are the spaces in which the rich teenagers strut around, whereas Dheeraj, Saba, and Balli are shown occupying cramped rooms in tiny hovels - sharing space with family, friends, and employees - without any choice in the matter.
The show shines a light on how blind to their privilege, the rich and the famous truly are. And how they would rather wait till the whole world burns down before they start acknowledging it.
Class (2023) gets a lot of things right - sets the mood for a great thriller, delivers a tight narrative, captures volatile relationship dynamics - but most of all reminds us that no matter how much we empathise with the “other”, we are willing to do little to give up our own precious privileges.
They got locked years ago into privilege. They have to protect their belongings. No one is meaner than the rich. Trust me” — Michal Ondaatje,The English Patient.
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