A new English school-teacher also teaches music but ends up leading both teachers and students to revolt against the school management.
Rahul Prakash Udyavar joins Saraswati Vidya Mandir, which is located in Mumbai's Eastern suburbs, as an English teacher. Shortly thereafter he also agrees to teach music at the request of nutritionist Anjali Mathur. With the school facing shortage of funds, pressure is being brought by Manager Lallan Sharma to try to get students' parents to pay more for a variety of activities. When the Principal, Aditya Sahay, supports Lallan, the students and staff are forced to raise funds. Despite their best efforts, however, the stage is set for a much-publicized confrontation that could result in the closure of this institution.—rAjOo ([email protected])
The story begins with a new English teacher Rahul Udyavar (Shahid Kapoor) joining Saraswati Vidya Mandir school, in the Mirpurkhas suburbs, a reputed school in Mumbai. He strikes instant rapport with students and teachers alike. Principal Aditya Sahay (Nana Patekar) is a tough as nails principal of the school who has built his reputation as a brilliant educator along with the reputation of his school.Soon Aditya comes to know of Rahul's music abilities & asks him to teach the music class too.
On his first day, Rahul attends a staff meeting headed by the principal, Aditya Sahay. In the meeting Aditya laments the falling reputation of the school & lack of funds to provide better facilities to students. Aditya says that the school has competition from 350/400 schools in the vicinity and are no longer considered to be the top destination for talented students.
Aditya announces that he will soon send an email containing new policies for the school's further development and requests the cooperation of all teachers. In the next few days, Rahul strikes instant rapport with the students and teachers alike.
Teachers include School Manager Lallan Sharma (Saurabh), Anjali Kapoor (Ayesha Takia) nutritionist, Farooque Sir (Sanatan Modi), Mrs. Shinde (Preeti Koppikar) Marathi teacher, Mrs. Bose (Sushmita Mukherjee) Geography teacher, Cyrus Hansotia (Kurush Deboo), peon Waghmare (Anjan Srivastav) and others.Student Vikram "Vicky" Bhatnagar (Sunny Singh) has a crush on Natasha "Nats" Singh (Shraddha Arya). Rahul & fellow teacher Anjali (Ayesha Takia) come closer gradually. Anjali is also the girl's hostel warden. Natasha gets infatuated with Rahul, which irks Vicky.
Anjali has applied for a job in the US, although she is very attached to the school and her colleagues.
In a follow up email, Aditya lays out the school resurgence plan which includes increasing class strength from an already high 40 to 65 or reduce staff. It also mandates that all students must participate in extracurricular activities. The students, parents, and teachers become unhappy with the school management's decision to suddenly raise the fees. Sports teacher Mr. Chauhan (Sushant Singh) is the leader of the teacher's union & with the agreement of all teachers, he refuses the plan.
This puts Aditya in a corner with the board of directors & chairman Mr. Dholakia (Nassar Abdulla), who raps Aditya & gives him one last chance to put the school of the right track. Aditya responds by implementing draconian measures such as increasing price of lunch coupons (from Rs 5 to Rs 10), forcing players to buy sports equipment from school, allowing sale of junk food (such as chips and soft drinks) on school premises, increasing the school fees & forcing students to buy music instruments from school.The school staff has to bear the ire of angry parents, who complain that the school is overcharging for everything and forcing the parents to buy from the school.Any student who fails to pay the fees is made to stand in the searing sun all day, till their parents pay up. Rahul steps in and pays the fees for the defaulting students.Aditya was away from the school for a week and Sharma was implementing all the decisions. The teachers still believed that the orders could not have come from Aditya's office.
Rahul Udyavar unifies the teachers Anjali (Ayesha Takia) and sports teacher Mr. Chauhan (Sushant Singh) against the atrocities of the school's management. Aditya defends the management's decision. This comes as a shocker to the teachers as Aditya is known for his dedication as an educator for the last 32 years who has built the school's high reputation.The teachers decide to resign together to force Aditya to roll back his decisions but realize that Aditya has already prepared an alternate staff list who will take over the school at a moment's notice, so they decide not to ahead with their plan.
The situation becomes graver as school management becomes overambitious with its growth and involves media planners in the extracurricular activities. This demands the involvement of students in TV reality shows and other media PR activities used for building the school's image in public which starts reflecting on the students' stress levels. The pressure on young minds increases incredibly, leading to unexpected and grim consequences.
The values & principles of the staff & students are repeatedly compromised in the name of media coverage & publicity. For e.g., asking students to maintain the human pyramid for extended duration in searing heat, or demoralizing students in music audition, or extended shoots for a "reality TV show" in searing heat, renting out school kids for TV commercials etc. In each case, the commercial interests put unprecedented stress of students to the extent of direct insult & consequent demoralization.
Caught in the web of commercialization, the students go on strike unable to take the pressure, and it becomes a national issue. The strike is initially only supported by Rahul, but as other teachers come to know of it, they come out in full support of Rahul & stand by him & the students.
Aditya resigns & is then sympathetically prompted by Rahul to tell the truth to the kids. Aditya reveals that Dholakia put pressure on Aditya to upgrade the school & facilities to increase revenue, without giving any funds. They threatened to demolish the school if Sahay did not comply. However, they refused to provide him with financial support, and Sahay couldn't secure any loans for the school either. Dholakia also threatened to close the school down if the profits didn't improve in 1 year. Hence Aditya resorted to the commercialization of education. Aditya offers to resign from his post.
However, the teachers and students sympathize with Sahay's helplessness and dissuade him from resignation. The media criticizing the commercialization of schools and Sahay resuming his work as the principal.
