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episode - 1

Southern California coastline.

Our hero surfs the day away with his buddies, laughing it up and looking light-hearted. And then... a broody shower scene on the beach.
HAHA.
I dunno whatchoo got to be so angsty about, uber-rich teenager hero-manchild, but the music and mood tells us he is Very Serious On the Inside about something.

May as well introduce him off the bat : This is 18-year-old Shaurya Sabherwal.
His narration tells us of the parting words with which his older brother sent him abroad to the States, so blunt and succinct :
No need to get good grades, just have fun and live lightly.
"People with money just eat and play-they don't bother with dreams," he'd said. "If possible, don't even come back." And thus Shaurya realized that his study abroad was more like exile, and that his cold older brother was staking his claim on what he thought Shaurya might steal from him. Brother's name is Sabherwal Yash, and at 31 he's the president of Sabherwal (Empire) Group.

Their father is the Sabherwal chairman and Shaurya its future heir. But while there's no literal throne at stake here, royalty seems an apt metaphor :
There's only one crown in this family, and Big Bro's gonna wear it.

Shaurya sits at a cafe and is served by a waitress who speaks to him in Indian' Overacting American Friend asks how Shaurya feels about his family relationships, or rather his lack of them. Doesn't it sting that nobody's on his side?

Shaurya just looks around idly and thinks, "I'm too lazy to hate anyone."

Next we meet Anmol, hotel heir and Big Man on Campus back in Chandigarh. He bullies a hapless fellow student with a baseball while his lackeys snicker.

Aw, why you gotta be an asshole?

His good cheer makes his actions all the more chilling, because everything is laced with underlying menace. But more than being hit by the ball or mocked, the sense of terror comes from Anmol's icy reminder that no matter what the victim does, his fate is sealed : His life will continue to be this way forever, and one day these bullies will be his employers.

Anmol gives the guy props for standing up to him, then leaves with a pleasant "See ya after vacation." Behind him, his sidekicks start the beating. Anmol drops by a motorcycle shop, where our heroine drops in to deliver a food order.

She's Anokhi, a no-nonsense high school student who can't take crap from anyone (yay for that), calling the cops right away when a couple of the shop boys harass her for a date. The boy hastily backs the hell off, and she marches out to make her next delivery.

She catches Anmol's eye, at least for a moment. As though we weren't sure she were a poor Candy girl, she's got a whole string of part-time jobs. Her friend drops by the cafe where she works; he's Ahir, a platonic childhood buddy who has a girlfriend and encourages Anokhi to find herself a boyfriend.

She scoffs that any time spent not earning money is a waste. Ahir eyes her with pity, though I'd say Anokhi has no use for his pity. I do like that about her.

Then, a shrill voice orders Ahir to look elsewhere - ha, this is the girlfriend, and right away we can tell she's the high-maintenance type. Her name's Reema, she's an heir (to Mega Entertainment), and she shoots Anokhi a glare, ordering her to stop flirting with her boyfriend.

Anokhi is used to Reema's possessive nature and has perfected the way to disarm her fuse with wry nonpliments about how Reema's plenty pretty and how Anokhi is too busy for this.
I get the sense that Reema knows she's being mocked but isn't quite smart enough to figure out how (it's all in the tone).

Haha. I'm liking Anokhi more and more.

Reema drags Ahir away, griping about how much she hates Anokhi. He assures her that they're buddies, and Reema snaps that guys and girls can't be "just friends." Anokhi launches into her own set of complaints about Reema on the phone, although her rant goes unheard by her bigger sister.