The Tribe on Prime: If ‘any resemblance to real is purely coincidental’ had a face!

The Tribe on Prime Video is your window into the world of the kids of the high and mighty, their visions, their aspirations, their lifestyle, and their other worldly problems. The series never pretends to be what it is not. It wears the badge of being guilty of promoting nepotism the same way Karan Johar wears it while promoting many star kids on his chat show. But, not without entertainment. Once you prepare to immerse yourself in this world represented by a few entitled kids, you are in for a joyride. Mindless but joyful.
The Tribe features Alanna Panday, Alfia Jafry, Alaviaa Jafferi, Srushti Porey and Ariana Gandhi. All of them are mentored by businessman Hardik Zaveri, who believes in his many spontaneous visions and never shies away from throwing money into them just like that. But, you are not supposed to care, as long as you are getting to see good-looking faces, polished mansions, the LA glamour and the right to judge all these people as a viewer sitting in the comfort of your middle-class home.
The series begins with just the perfect Bollywood nudge. It is, after all, produced by Karan Johar’s Dharmatic Entertainment. The first two episodes cover the star-studded wedding of Alanna, daughter of Chikki Pandey and younger cousin to actor Ananya Panday. The wedding is full of sophisticated chaos: a delay in bridal jewellery and the bride’s very valid concerns like ‘oh my God, I don’t want cameras in my faces while I am walking down the aisle’. But, you don’t mind any of that glamorous drama because you get to see Shah Rukh Khan attending it as one of the high-profile guests.
Right after the wedding, the series takes you to LA. The drama only gets multiplied in folds there and not long before, it becomes a Bigg Boss house of cat fights. Everything is unrelatable and irrelevant, but you don’t mind. A steep focus on their hairstyles, makeup and trendy outfits help you ignore the bickering. It’s fine, you know. Your world is different from theirs, and they somehow make you realise that you probably don’t even want to aspire to be on the other side of the wall with them. Just 20-something kids trying to convince you about their ‘struggles’. Everything is AK-OK.

There’s Alanna, newly married to Ivor, a total green flag. There’s Alavia, daughter of actor Jaaved Jaaferi, trying to make her father understand what she actually does for a living because, for him and many like him, “influencing is not a real job”. There’s singer Ariana, who’s just happy being called ‘Ariana Grande’ sometimes. Shrushti is the real firecracker. She is lively, quirky, knows the wrong things to say at the worst times. What else do you want from a girl in a show like The Tribe? You do want something else, though, and you don’t realise it until you meet Alfia.
Daughter of producer Rumi Jaffry, Alfia has had a difficult past with a failed marriage and mental health issues. And you get to see all of this playing at the fore in the series. She might not have as many followers as others in the show, but she has a life worth writing home about.
Alfia makes sure there’s never a dull moment in the series. It has been established that she is not good for the ‘tribe’ that everyone is trying to build, but totally best for the show. Everything is about her, her insecurities, her perspective and her emotional breakdown right from the moment she enters the story. But, you don’t mind. You put your money on Alfia, and become engrossed in the series even more.
The Tribe shows you the best of your world in a way. It gives many moments for you to rejoice in the small happiness in your life. Like eating a home-cooked meal, having time to chat with your family over a cup of tea, endless gossip with your work friend or even a lack of dressing sense sometimes. You start valuing these little joys that probably make your life more normal and happier. This is not to say that those living in an LA mansion are not happy or disconnected with their families.
For the people in The Tribe, success is having their faces etched on a billboard in LA. For you probably, it is being able to achieve the simple pleasures of life. And you appreciate them even more when you watch the show. There is no right or wrong way of living here. For these women, if things are failing in LA, there’s always an extra cushion at their Bandra homes to comfort them and provide them with another opportunity at experimenting. You probably don’t have that. The Tribe makes it pretty clear. While it is an absolute glorification of their first-world issues, it is also a mirror to where you are coming from. A clear class-divide perhaps, but again, you don’t mind any of it.
The Tribe is not meant to be taken seriously. It is a glossy, good-looking show, as real as those heroines wearing a chiffon saree in the Swiss Alps and pretending not to feel cold in the movies. You are okay with it because you are not it.