Shahid Kapur is an English teacher who also teaches music with a glee and a guitar. Ayesha Takia is the school nutritionist who screams no-cola-no-chips by day and turns a kerchief for crying children by night. Principal Nana Patekar competes for the stiffest upper lip while his students pee in pants at his sight.
Welcome to “Paathshaala” where director Milind Ukey unlearns the basics of filmmaking and the viewers learn a painful lesson. Just like the average Indian schoolbag, the director stuffs too many things into his little movie — commercialisation of education, student stress, discrimination, fee hike (hero Shahid even offers to pay for a child from his salary), reality shows, media frenzy...
And even after showing all these sob sides, the movie doesn’t evoke a sigh. Because the girls are always playing cheerleaders and the boys are, well, watching them. And the smaller ones are either jiving with Shahid or eating with Ayesha.
Nana Patekar tries hard to evoke some emotion as he plays an idealist who eventually bows to management pressure to convert Saraswati Vidya Mandir into a five-star paathshaala. His climax speech doubles up as tear gas, and everyone — from teachers to LP school kids to the peon — irrigates their eyes. This paathshaala teaches nothing.
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