Produced by Amin Surani and directed by Jayant Gilatar, the latest released Hindi film ‘Chalk N Duster’ is an emotion filled journey of two dedicated teachers Vidya Sawant (Shabana Azmi) and Jyoti Thakur (Juhi Chawla), who are teachers in a a Mumbai based private school run by a trust.
The passion and love for their teaching, bonds them in a special relationship with their students. Their work is even appreciated by the Principal of the school Principal Indu Shastri( Zareena Wahab). But, one fine day, we find the principal asked to retire and in her place, the management appoint a young teacher Kamini Gupta (Divya Dutta) who is close to the head trustee Anmol ( Arya Babbar). After taking over this post, Kamini Gupta, uses all those dirty tricks to harass senior teachers, so that they should leave the school and she could appoint new teachers on a lower scale.
First, she removes Vidya teacher and then Jyoti teacher, for taking the side of Vidya teacher. Vidya who is smart, decides to revolt and she gets support from a media house, through the head of another school( Jackie Shroff) . Finally, we see ‘Be a Millionaire’ type of Quiz show, conducted by channel producer Rishi Kapoor , to decide, who is supreme, the school authorities who set the questions or the two victimized teachers? And, finally we see the two teachers answering all the 10 questions right and winning the prize of 5 Crores, kept by the Trustees of the schools. Actually, as per the terms of the agreement of the Quiz, after winning , the teachers have to be reinstated by the school authorities. But, they have other plans.
The film takes time to pick up in the screenplay, in the first session; but takes the grip, little before interval and moves till the end, with interesting happenings. The film also creates awareness , about remembering the old teachers and respecting them, even after leaving school. Performances of all the artistes are very realistic. Shabana Azmi and Juhi Chawla are at their best, but Divya Dutta has played her negative character, very skillfully. Good support comes from Girish Karnad, Upasna Singh, Girish Karnad, Zarina Wahab, Samir Soni ,Aarya Babbar & Adi Irani. Rishi Kapoor, Jackie Shroff & Richa Chaddha make their presence felt through special appearances. Certainly, a very good and a timely film for all, which exposes the commercialization of education and corrupt practices adopted by the school managements.
Rating (***1/2)