Critics rating: 1.5 Stars.

Cast: Juhi Chawla, ShabanaAzmi, ZarinaWahab, Divya Dutta, Upasna Singh.

Direction: Jayant Gilatar.

Produced: Amin Surani.

Written: RanjeevVerma, NeetuVerma.

Genre: Drama.

Duration: 130 Mins.

The last time Hindi cinema came up with a film devoted to teachers and denounced the profit-driven education system, it was Rough Book. While it emphasised differences in the teaching methods of schools versus an idealistic teacher’s unconventional tactics, Chalk n Duster follows the teacher-management politics.

Supervisor Kamini Gupta (Divya Dutta) invites dread and the title Hitler when she sashays down the corridors, glaring and chastising all moving entities in her path. As it is in life and must be in film, Kamini meets businessman Anmol Parekh, who takes over as school trustee, ousts the principal Indu Shastri (Zarina Wahab) and replaces her with Kamini. ‘Hitler’ makes for every bit of the vamp, complete with the fake bob-cut wig and the red satin night clothes when at home.

The enfant terrible of Kantaben High School (let the name sink in for a bit) makes life difficult for all the teachers. Why? Because Kamini and Anmol want to make the school upmarket (a name change is not even on the cards) by psyching the old teachers into quitting so that they can hire a younger, more attractive breed. One wonders if this is a recruitment process for a school or flight attendants for a government airline.

Kamini lives up to the warped Hindi-pronunciation of her name (not referenced in the film) and sacks popular teacher Vidya Sawant (Shabana Azmi). We establish said popularity in a cringe-inducing scene where she teaches the class the principles of BODMAS through song. Great method, embarrassing moves. The suddenness of her job termination gives Vidya a heart attack, leading her friend and colleague Jyoti Thakur (Juhi Chawla) on a war path against the authorities.

Bhairavi Thakkar (Richa Chadda) steps in as the journalist and the voice-of-reason, championing the teacher’s cause on national television. She shows sass when Anmol and his associates try to dissuade her from her cause over the phone. It also gets weird fast when she has to mouth lines like “You’re not my daddy” before cutting the call on them. Yikes.

The climax culminates in a Kantaben management versus Vidya and Jyoti quiz show where Rishi Kapoor is the host. Resembling KBC, the purpose of the quiz is to see whether the sacked teachers are as well-versed with topics as they are supposed to be. However, Vidya, a Mathematics teacher, and Jyoti, a Science teacher, are subjected to GK questions about things far outside their purview of teaching. The writers seemed to have confused a teacher knowing her subject with a teacher being a know-it-all. Quite bizarrely, the condition the management puts for Vidya and Jyoti is that if they lose the quiz contest, they have to quit teaching altogether. And oh, the prize money is 5 crores.

Fairly ridiculous but with a noble intention, Chalk n Duster is the film schools would nudge the students into watching on a day-out. But as a tribute to teachers, you are better off remembering and doing something for them in your own way. Taking them to watch this film should not be one of them.