Have you ever wondered what happens within the walls of a private school that is attended by the children of uber-rich parents? The minds of “little people” like us cannot even fathom the realities these kids live in. Common high schoolers worry about their grades, a seat in a good engineering or medical college, or who is going to pay the bill the next time while they are out with their friends—or they are just jilted in love. Added to this, the children at Hampton have their plates full of the anxiety of maintaining their “class.”
“Class” is a Hindi-language drama and thriller that was released on Netflix on February 3 and launched a handful of new faces. Netflix and teen dramas are a match made in heaven. The Indian audience that has been habituated to watching these suave and stylish American high school dramas gets to experience the exuberant, luxurious, elegant, but ironically “uncomfortable” lives of the rich kids. Adapted by Ashim Ahluwalia from the Spanish television series “Elite,” “Class” is dynamic and in sync with the societal imbalance of the cast that is very unique to the Indian milieu. The ideology behind caste discrimination, which had been fortified by the dictums of ancient texts like “Manusmriti,” has subjected India to “postcolonial subalternization” (as referred to by Pramod Nayyar). This strong hierarchy based on caste has only been strengthened by the economic disparity between the higher and lower castes. The wealth amassed by the upper castes is generally a legacy of their exploits of the less privileged lower castes. In the Indian demography, the caste issue can be extended to the issue of religion and even to the lack of a proper, sophisticated education system at the grass-roots level (which, at times, denies good opportunities to people with great potential).
“Class” is the story of a class of students who belong to the 11th grade at the fictional school Hampton High, located in the national capital of Delhi. The opening astonishes the audience because the series opens at a crime scene. We have a victim and a suspect—or rather, an upper-caste rich victim and Dalit poor suspect. As the police begin to investigate, the viewer becomes privy to another set of murders that were committed before the action of the plot began to roll. A sudden fire in a government school has claimed the lives of a few children, because of which the students of the government institution were accommodated across various schools in Delhi. But three lucky students from that school got the chance to build a future at Hampton. They are the disruptors of the status quo at Hampton; this disruption is not brought in through their action but through their feeling out of place in the pristineness of Hampton. The kids at Hampton, on the other hand, have their own secrets.
The series, under the garb of investigating the murder of this rich upper-caste girl, digs deeper into the social injustices that the marginalized have to face on a mundane basis in a democratic country like India. It echoes and reiterates Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar’s words that India is, in reality, an “un-democratic” democracy. “Class” as a series is visibly on the higher end of production value. It introduces a bunch of fresh new faces who show a lot of promise and potential in their roles. Each character has been given a sufficient backstory, so much so that we can be left expecting spinoffs. So, let’s unpack some of the characters from the series along with the cast details:
Piyush Khati As Dheeraj Kumar Valmiki
As the name suggests, Dheeraj belongs to the Dalit community and is accused of murdering his fellow Hampton batchmate Suhani Ahuja. Dheeraj is one of the three scholarship students who got an opportunity to better their future. In the course of the series, Dheeraj tries to fit in with these contemporary aristocrats, and in the process of civilizing himself in their language, he falls in love with Suhani. Dheeraj is a kind, caring seventeen-year-old to whom you are going to relate perhaps the most.
Piyush Khati, who plays Dheeraj, appeared earlier in Netflix’s “Extraction” and was a part of Hotstar’s “Criminal Justice.”
Anjali Sivaraman As Suhani Ahuja
Suhani is a rebel. She is also a drug addict. In spite of being the daughter of a ruthless, influential builder and promoter, Suhani somehow manages to keep herself free from all their meanness. In fact, she is an empath. She develops a tender, friendly bond with Dheeraj and falls in love with his elder brother, Neeraj, a fellow rebel. Unfortunately, she and her rebellious spirit to break the wheel are murdered by someone from her own tribe.
It is very hard to miss how stunning Anjali Sivaraman is! She does a fine job portraying Suhani. Anjali has been featured in ace designer Sabyasachi’s collections. She was recently spotted in the Netflix original “Cobalt Blue.”
Gurfateh Pirzada As Neeraj Kumar Valmiki
Neeraj is a rebel with a cause. He has been a jailbird, imprisoned for protesting against the Ahuja Corporation for setting the government school ablaze. His rebellious attitude charms Suhani and makes her fall in love with him. They plan to elope until it is hindered by Suhani’s murder. Neeraj is that iconoclast whom you can trust to bring in change. He is a responsible son and brother. But Dheeraj, who was once all love for Neeraj, develops an enmity towards his brother when he feels that Neeraj deliberately stole his “girlfriend”—all the teen and young adult angst rushes out on screen in the scenes they share.
Gurfateh Pirzada is believable as Neeraj. He has earlier been seen in the Netflix film “Guilty” and was also part of Ayan Mukherji’s magnum opus, “Brahmastra Part One: Shiva.”
Zeyn Shaw As Veer Ahuja
Let’s just begin by saying that Veer is a handsome, arrogant, and mean individual who has embodied patriarchy and his father’s ideology of controlling his sister to the best of his cognitive abilities. But as the plot progresses and a stupid dare from his girlfriend Yashica develops into a true connection with Hampton’s newbie Saba, we get to see that Veer, too, is human. He makes deliberate attempts to free himself from becoming like his parents. He even accepts his friend Dhruv’s homosexuality. Veer is definitely a gray character whom we need to watch out for in the upcoming seasons.
This is Zeyn Shaw’s first outing, and he is breathtakingly beautiful, just a tad bit too much to capture all your attention.
Ayesha Kanga As Yashica Mehta
Yashica’s character pays homage to Shanaya from “Student of the Year.” Only Yashica is meaner and has access to social media for influencing, something Shanaya’s generation didn’t have. She is Hampton’s best student until Saba Manzoor arrives. Her dream of getting the Hampton Gold only seems to drift away; this creates a rivalry between the two girls. Yashica’s backstory shines a little light on her mean-girl attitude, making it clear that she is an abandoned child.
Ayesha Kanga is as fashion-forward as Yashica. She was earlier seen playing the lead on “The Blood Priestess.”
Madhyama Segal As Saba Manzoor
Saba is also a scholarship student at Hampton. She is a Kashmiri, but the discrimination against Kashmiris due to the political upsurge against them, which does not allow them to be accepted in mainland India, forces her to hide her real identity. Saba is also very uptight and sincere when it comes to her father’s rules. Yet she twitches them and forms a bond with Veer.
This is Madhyama Segal’s big break. She shows a lot of potential too.
Chintan Rachchh As Faruq Manzoor
Faruq is Saba’s brother. He struggles with his Kashmiri identity and his father’s overprotectiveness towards his children because they are also “outsiders” in a cosmopolitan city like Delhi. He is also gay and has an affair with Hampton schoolboy Dhruv Sanghvi. Faruq also side hustles as a drug dealer who faces multiple marginalizations on various fronts.
This is Chintan’s debut, too; he is a poet and influencer when he is not acting.
Chayan Chopra As Dhruv Sanghvi
Dhruv Sanghvi is the quintessential good boy. His crisis arises when he discovers that he might be a homosexual and that he no longer wants to fulfill his father’s dream of becoming a swimmer. Dhruv, like most seventeen-year-old boys who are rappelling with their sexuality, has to comply with his friends’ patriarchal definition of being a “man.”
Chayan Chopra was a part of Netflix’s “Guilty.” He is very convincing as Dhruv Sanghvi.
Moses Koul As Sharan Gujral, Naina Bhan As Koel Kalra, And Cwaayal Singh As Balli Sehrawat
This is the weirdest trio and perhaps the most interesting and layered group of characters in the entire series. Koel and Sharan are high school sweethearts, but their romance is disrupted by an entity called Balli, who is a self-claimed hunk from West Delhi. Together, the three experience and partake in their sexual fantasies and kink. They have a symbiotic relationship where each feeds off the other, either through cash or kindness. Together, they commit an unthinkable crime from which there is no going back. All three new actors are very efficient at their jobs and show a lot of promise that will surely be explored in the coming years.
With “Class,” Netflix has cracked the space of teen drama in India, and the show is currently trending on the Most Watched List!
