Class

What I appreciate about this remake is the introduction of the caste system. It brings to light a menace that still remains prevalent in India. The show also lightly touches upon the sort of prejudice a Kashmiri Muslim has to face here. I've seen it happen myself. So, when a character says, "she doesn't even belong in this country," I remembered someone spewing those exact kind of poison. So, I found it quite relatable.

That said, I wish the makers had taken a greater effort to merge it with the way things are in India, rather than creating a fantastical portrayal in certain things. I don't know of a single institute in India where students can get away with using the sort of lingo that the students do here in front of the teachers. Good or bad, it just doesn't ring true. I would have appreciated a more realistic portrayal of the classroom rather than copying the Spanish culture in an Indian backdrop. It doesn't work that way.

Now, let's get to some of the real problems with this remake. When the initial trailer was released, the first thing I prayed that the writers would have the wisdom to not kill off Marina (Maria Pedraza) in the first season. I loved Anjali Sivaraman's acting in Cobalt Blue and was sure she would do justice here as well. And she did that in Suhani's role. She was absolutely brilliant in the scene where she's apologizing to Dheraj for the things she has done. I felt that Marina's (Suhani's) character had potential for more nuanced exploration if she was kept alive in the first season, if someone else had taken the fall instead of her in that random encounter at the end. And now, I find no reason to at all cae for a second season. Let me tell you why.

Firstly, where Elite excelled is having an excellent cast, especially that of Carla (Ester Exposito). She was another fantastic actress. And following the romantic subplot between. Carla and Samuel was quite interesting. Naina Bhan as Koel Kalra doesn't have the same X-factor for me. (Sorry!) And seeing that the makers are following the plot of the original verbatim, I know that's where we'll be going. (I loved Madhyama Segal as Saba Manzoor and Gurfateh Pirzada as Neeraj, though.) Now, these are, of course, my personal preferences. Others may feel differently about the casting. But let's come to the real problem.

Spanish TV series have a long tradition of actors leaving the show midway for other projects. So is true for Elite. We have seen some of the most loved characters leave the show with some laughably made-up excuses. Now, even if Netflix greenlights this show for later seasons, what will the makers of Class do? Ask their actors to pack their bag and leave, just because their Spanish counterparts did the same? Seeing that the writers have zero originality as far as the plot of the series is concerned, I'm really not feeling quite upbeat about its future.

In gist, Class could have encashed upon so much unitilized potential that Elite had for its later seasons that got buried under some poor storytelling choices in the first season. With some originality, Class could have done it so much better. But it's the same old same old. Even for people who liked the first season, I'm not quite sure if the show will be salvagable second season onward with its current choices. And one of the strongest reasons being, unlike Elite, they don't have a female lead to step into Anjali's shoes.

Let's get straight to point. There are many things shown in this series that just can't be digested by average Indian audience. The makers have simply stuck to the original "Elite" without much changes to its controversial parts. However, overall, the series is pretty interesting and technically superior.

So for those who haven't seen Elite like me, the story is a whodunit thriller where we explore the past of a bunch of school teenagers and what ultimately leads to the murder of Suhani Ahuja . The past explores a lot of things in the relationships between the students.

First, let's talk about the whodunit part. It was damn surprisingly good. For those who haven't seen Elite, they won't be able to guess for a second also who is the killer considering all the students in picture have a grey shade to their characters and all are under suspicion. When the killer is revealed, it is a shocker because just before the moment Suhani gets killed, you feel there are others as well willing to kill Suhani.

Second, let's get to the past , the bulk of the story. So this part is a bit of "Student of the Year" and "Parasite" mix. I would say this Netflix school is the daddy of KJo school. From school kids consuming alcohol, drugs to getting involved in unbelievably weird fetishes to constant shaming to students kissing their elder teachers , when you just witness those scenes, many of them will make your skin crawl with disgust. There's absolutely no study in this school. Time to time you have to slap your face hard to remind yourself that these are being done by school kids, not college students. I don't know man i maybe too poor to understand what these rich people do or what awkward fetishes they possess but ya ..thi s series shows all that and you have a hard time believing all this . Makers should realise in which country they are remaking such series whether it suits their taste or not.

The clash of rich and poor is explored in Indian cinema a million times and this kind of presentation might not impress many . You have the rich always calling the poor "waiter" "beggars" and all sorts of filty stuff like c'mon , it's 2023 and i really don't think we still live in this era where kids from well educated families would even do so.

However, i really liked a lot of things . The relationships between the students is explored pretty well in this series . I like the relationship explored between Suhani and Dheeraj, Faruq and Dhruv and to some extent, Saba and Veer. Despite being a gay relation, i felt Faruq and Dhruv had the most beautiful relationship between them and it stood out amongst all . The remaining relationships like Koel's weird fetishy Balli and Sharan, and Balli - Sharan' s gay relationship, and Veer - (Tara sutaria clone) relationship were either cringy or too disgusting to accept. The fact that again, these are being shown to be done by school teenagers makes me somewhat feel really disgusted. In India, such filthy stuff doesn't happen in schools like boys randomly roaming around naked, or some girl putting their panties in boys lockers , man all these stuff happen in America, not india.

The technical details of this film is just outstanding. The raw and rustic lanes of old Delhi are shown so well. The raw background sounds are incorporated so well, from a peacock sound / sweet music sound at a rich persons house to the sound of people coughing loudly and incessantly and water dripping noise at the Poor's house . The lighting is terrific. The screenplay is fast and interesting. Bgm is also well used.

One thing to note is this series doesn't try to show the rich enjoying and the poor struggling. It shows how both classes have equal problems in their lives .

Performance wise, Suhani, Saba, Dhruv, Dheeraj, Neeraj, Faruq were the best for me. Rest were too cringy or overacting shops. Overall, i think this series might not find widespread acceptance in india . However, if the fetish part is ignored, then it's a pretty riveting and dark presentation of class division in society with an interesting Whodunit angle to it. It was definitely a surprise watch for me.

A mesmerizing blend of sophistication and raw passion - remake- i personally didn't expected that much quality in series but undoubtedly it's one the greatest series by India , at some point it even crossed the benchmark of Élite , Ashim Ahluwalia - man behind missile, i want more of you, when you watch series you can see what i am trying to say almost all of scene's are depicted out of so much love, a high notch sh+t with desi tadka, even though i watched Élite few year's back but it doesn't made feel like this i knew the storie, end but it had it's " Apana Effect " from storie - to cast : i would have loved original storie but it wasn't that bad, you can't complain about cast, "a young youth fueled with energy & talent " ,my fav Cwaayal aka bali. Piyush, anjali, gurfateh, Ayesha know their craft i hope netflix keep some of this good talent in their pool in term's of dialogue & lust and my overall overview : one thing i liked about it is that it had not overexerted dialogue and slang's to make it more cool, i personally felt that "Delhi Wala feel" and i was really happy with it, i loved all lust scene's and LGBTQ stuff, overall it is a teen drama mixed with emotion that tries to give you a fantasy high school experience, which sometime fails and sometime win's over should i watch : if you are high school kid or 40 year man women or whatever you like to call you should give a trie. If you are into teen drama or kdrama stuff 2. If you have already have watched Élite should i watch it ?

Yes or no , it mostly depends on you for me -i watched Élite like 2-3 year ago i had vivid memorie about show, i still knew there was a girl who dies and all that stuff , i stooped watching show after 4 season's so i don't cared about it that much, for CLASS - name " it's just a bad name look's cheap, i don't why but it look's " , i don't like last episode and i skipped few bite's of each episode , maybe it was boring or i knew what was going to happen, made me urge to skip.

That's a overall review.

I've watched the original Spanish series Elite. And this is a very much failed attempt to make a Indian version of the parent series. Every character seems like struggling in their role. Don't know they got directions like that or they couldn't understand what an actual privileged child looks like. They were just trying to copy the original series which they should not in my opinion. It's because every nation has its own privileged people and they are different from each other. Spanish and Indian series should not be the same. We have different morals different culture, makers should have considered it. Maybe a different plot to reach the same destination would have worked. Apart from my opinion its definitely one time watch. But if you have watched the OG series then you will feel disappointed.

SHORT REVIEW- Watch the original Spanish series 'ELITE' instead of this show.

This webseries could have been a saviour for Netflix India.

After all, the makers had not much to do, because incase you don't know, this is not an original series, rather an adaptation of the Spanish series 'Elite'

But they have failed. It is nowhere near the parent series. The direction lacks passion and the show appears to be trying too hard to create some buzz.

Apart form the show being underwhelming for most of the time, the makers have failed badly to give justice to the theme of the show. Instead of sticking to the core theme ie. 'class divide', the show makes a very desperate attempt to turn it into a typical 'Upper Caste Vs Lower Caste' battle.

The Upper Caste in this show is represented by people who hate the poor, mock 'HIJAB' and trust h0rny spiritual leaders, alongwith other innumerous flaws.

The creators knew that the show is mostly gonna be watched by the youth and thus, used this opportunity to add political junk to our brains.

In a world where we should be healing our distances, 'CLASS' tries to create a divide amongst the viewers, using its outdated political narratives.