Is ‘Class’, the Indian Adaptation of ‘Elite’, Just Another Remake?

'Class', adapted by Ashim Ahluwalia, is streaming on Netflix.

(Minor spoilers for season 1)

The Spanish drama series Elite has, since its release, garnered a wide fan base with many appreciating its storyline and its potential as a ‘guilty pleasure’. It is perhaps this success and the show’s dark appeal that drove National Award-winning filmmaker Ashim Ahluwalia to make an Indian adaptation titled Class. 

But adaptations have an interesting reputation, don’t they? People often assume that adaptations and remakes won’t match the charm of the original or that they’d get lost in their own ambition.

However, Class manages to be, pardon this, a class apart. As a teenage drama, the show has everything that makes a binge-watch – sex, scandal, love triangles, murder, and whatnot. 

Elite explores what happens when people with privilege are confronted by that same privilege and choose to double down on its oppressive nature. Class works in a similar way. Three new students, Dheeraj, Saba, and Balli, transfer to Hampton International School, a swanky fictional school in New Delhi.  

The bubble that the rich and privileged students at Hampton have created for themselves is shattered by the new entrants. They are suddenly forced to face a reality that they managed to keep at bay behind a dollar-studded smokescreen. 

Class stands out from other similar shows because of its exploration of contentious subjects.

The show portrays themes like discrimination based on religion, faith, sexuality, caste, and economic status, with a mature lens. Arguably, it does sometimes take on too much and the exploration becomes surface-level, but it’s still more than most try. 

While the adaptation keeps most of the original’s plot-points, it also delves into avenues more specific to India.

And yet, the underprivileged aren’t presented as hapless victims; instead they all find their own ways of coping and standing up to power. 

Saba uses her wit and intelligence to enter the race for a prestigious scholarship while her brother Faruq peddles drugs as a side-hustle. It’s also refreshing to see a relatively happy and healthy queer relationship develop between two men in Indian content.

Yet, the consequences that Faruq and Dhruv face at the hands of homophobia are also different because of their backgrounds. 

Further, through Dheeraj’s brother Neeru and Faruq, the show gives the audience a glimpse into how police violence disproportionately affects minorities. Neeru’s life as a Dalit man makes everything he does a dangerous gamble against the law while the rich kids at Hampton get away with almost everything, including murder. 

What starts off as a PR opportunity for the trustees at Hampton, including the businessmen who caused a fire at the three protagonists’ old school, becomes a story of greed, corruption, and survival.

This insidious tendency to use money to bury their problems (and sometimes crimes) is then passed onto their kids under the guise of ‘protecting the family name’.

And yet, people fighting for their rights, survival, and the truth are either killed or persecuted. 

Through all this, the show places female sensuality at the forefront, giving its female characters more agency than is seen in Indian content. While most of the characters exist as caricatures and spend an unnecessary amount of time planning and plotting and clicking pictures, the women aren’t interested in “fixing” the men around them. 

That being said, all the characters need more depth in the way they’re sketched but at least this seems like an equal-opportunity oversight. 

Class isn’t interested in telling its audience what to think; nor is it trying to say that it’s a story based in reality. The show attempts to give its viewers perspective and while its over-the-top dialogues and expensive set design might make you want to write it off, try not to.

There are a lot of important stories in Class and one season in, here’s hoping there’s more to see. 

Class stars Anjali Sivaraman, Zeyn Shaw, Cwaayal Singh, Madhyama Segal, Piyush Khati, Naina Bhan, Moses Koul, Ayesha Kanga, Chayan Chopra, Gurfateh Pirzada, Chintan Rachchh, among others, and is streaming on Netflix.

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