The New Classmate

Chanda is a single mother, who works as a maid, with one dream: that her teenage daughter Apeksha gets the education she never got. But Apeksha has little interest in studying and is resigned to a destiny to be a maid just like her mother. So Chanda comes up with a plan to enroll in school herself and prove that even she can learn if she puts her mind to it. Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari’s tender debut offers an inspiring message of self-determination—despite class or gender—with nuanced performances from the two female leads.