The movie is about the noble profession of teaching.
Inadvertently, without even knowing it, Gilatar throws light
on the petty politics that exists at every level in
organizations; where someone less talented, but with the
energy to move up the ladder, will stoop to any level of
chamchagiri . It also throws light on incompetent bosses
with no family life who try to harass employees for their own
sadistic gain.
At times it gives you a feel that you are watching a
television serial. Nevertheless, the script at its core is solid
and that is what saves the day for Gilatar, apart from
Shabana Azmi and Juhi Chawla.
Kamini Gupta( Divya Dutta) is a supervisor in Kantaben
School who likes to harass her subordinates. At every
opportunity she uses the name of the principal to get things
done, when in reality, the principal( a good lady played by
Zarina Wahab) is not aware of anything. Kamini is shown as
this mean, scheming woman who succeeds in getting the
chair of the principal and onto the lap of the owners of the
school. Arya Babbar happens to be the young MBA returned
from UK who is given the task of running the school.
Kamini manages to influence the youngster in such a way
that she runs the school like a dictator in the hope of
getting the old staff to leave. Meanwhile, the youngster
wants to make his school famous, even more famous that
the one run by Jackie Shroff in the neighbourhood.
Things get out of hand when Vidya( Shabana Azmi), a Math
teacher in the school for over 28 years, is insulted. She
suffers a heart attack. The Media gets a wind of this and
Kantaben School is in focus and famous.
Here is where the director gets it all wrong. One cannot
understand why the seniors on the board cannot see the
damage that is being done by a bull-headed Kamini and
why they cannot step in and stop the flow. Instead they go
all out to malign the teachers even further.
