Our human nature evaluates caste, class, poverty, and luxury through money and societal standards. In the United States we’ve distinguished a society that allows freedom in culture, religion, clothes, our choice of words, and interpretation isn’t discriminated against. Though our respect is evaluated through money and our representation, as we know, influencers and people that are well known have a reputation that they need to keep up. For example it takes a simple comment, or if they conducted themselves unacceptably, or even an controversial opinion can cause an influencer to get canceled and lose their perfect reputation in front of millions. The United States is one of the most diverse countries in the world, without a doubt there are millions of people that have different cultures, religions, races, standards, income, and backgrounds. 

The American lifestyle especially in high school has a stereotype. In our age group we’re supposed to act carefree but focused, in front of family you’re supposed to act respectfully but honestly, and if there is something about you that you can’t openly share then you know it’s best to not share. In different parts of the world, specifically Middle Eastern countries, Islamic countries, and India have strict expectations and regulations. Kissing in public, revealing clothing, drugs/drinking, being gay or transgender, and having an affair before marriage is very problematic in specific families and even unlawful in some countries. If something along the lines of these things happening, it’s known for the person to be automatically black listed, beaten to death, and even banned from the country. If something along the lines of this is revealed, their whole reputation is down the drain, as if you’re canceled from your family, friends, the whole society. If this were to happen to a female, it’s most likely for them to not find a spouse or have a stable life in the future.  

Even India’s Bollywood industry is known for their classic romance, but the industry avoids providing a sexual nature, LGBTQ storylines, or drug abuse in their films because it’s known to be sinful and wrong.  Someone with an Indian or Muslim background can relate to the fact that the same “wrong” actions that are done in America, people pay the price of their sins in other countries and some even end up dead or injured because their society doesn’t approve of this behavior. Even for actors filming scenes, this has ruined their reputation because it isn’t portrayed openly on TV like it is in the Hollywood industry. Recently the Bollywood industry is being more open-minded about a realistic portrayal of these things in an Indian society and what the consequences of these actions look like in an Indian society—-Which brings me to the show that has a realistic portrayal of an American high school life but in an Indian society. 

“Class” is a new show on Netflix and is a remake of the popular Spanish show “Elite” except it’s portrayed in an Indian society. The show is originally in Hindi but it’s also available to watch in six different languages and over 30 languages in subtitles including English. The show revolves around a murder of a high school girl; it goes back and forth from the investigation and flashbacks of the storyline to create a feel for the characters.  In the show, the main characters are a group of high schoolers that live in South Delhi, which is a city in India. These students live in this privileged society and are known to have a higher class, lots of money, with overprotective, fraudster, wealthy parents, and these teenagers take advantage of their privilege. After a suspicious fire was set to a school in a small town called Nurpur, children from that school were distributed into different schools. Three fortunate yet unfortunate teenagers got a scholarship to this advanced school in South Delhi called Hampton International. This school was unusual to those village kids because most of the students at Hampton were wealthy and aware that they didn’t have to work as hard because they got everything handed to them on a silver platter. These students were rich, liked to throw parties, they had addiction issues, and they were all involved in some sort of scandal which ruined their reputation. The girl that was murdered (Suhani Ahuja) was the daughter of Suraj Ahuja, a big builder that had been involved in multiple frauds but needed to keep up his reputation, he was a tricky person and had everyone wrapped around his finger. 

As these Nurpur students became involved in this school and understood the problematic people, they were confused and were having a hard time fitting in. They came from a poor society and have always been insecure of their caste. In Indian society, members of the LGBTQ community are normally beaten up and are only let go if money is bribed to a police officer, sexuality isn’t a topic of conversation in these societies because it’s considered shameful. These teenagers were forced to put up a front and be fake their whole lives so when they had the chance, they started to behave badly and delinquently. This shows that these students were doing bad things and with a reputation to keep up in a possessive society, these students had to be incredibly discreet about their actions. When their overprotective and rich parents that care more about their reputation then their kids find out about this “illegal” behavior much more drama goes down in their homes. This show leads up to a murder mystery finding out who murdered a troubled girl who’s a part of a wealthy family. The show and characters constantly throw the idea around that she wouldn’t have gotten murdered if the Nurpur kids never came to Hampton, they didn’t have the fancy clothes or cars they came in simple clothing with what they can afford.  

The actors in this show make the show feel real, as much as this isn’t the most accurate portrayal of an Indian society it sure does show what these activities can result in. Suhani Ahuja (Anjali Sivaraman), Yashika (Ayesha Kanga), Koel Kalra (Naina Bahn), Veer Ahuja (Zeyn Shaw), Dhruv Sangvhi (Chayan Chopra), and Sharan Gujral (Moses Koul) were the main characters of the rich South Delhi kids, and each of them had a storyline and a reputation they made for themselves. Saba Manzoor (Madhyama Segal), Dheeraj Valmiki (Piyush Khati), and Balli Sehrawat (Cwaayal Singh) were the three Nurpur kids who got the scholarship to Hampton, which changed their lives forever. There are a few other characters that are a part of the small town of Nurpur and play a role in the scandals and frauds; for example Neeraj Valmiki (Dheeraj’s brother) and Faruq Manzoor (Saba’s brother). 

This show may seem like any other scandalous murder mystery but watching this in an Indian society as an American puts so much into perspective. Overall the show is addressing the problems with a high class/perfect society—it’s definitely affecting individuals around the world that deal with addiction and breaking this society’s perfect image. This show is a 10/10. I would definitely recommend it for those 16 and up due to the mature adult content but it definitely had a moral to the story and something we can all take away from it while watching an amazing story with unexpected twists and turns.