Loosely based on an incredible true story, the broader strokes of Ata Thambaycha Naay involves the assistant commissioner of the BMC Shirurkar (Ashutosh Gowariker) who suddenly summons a bunch of his staff members belonging to the lower strata of the organization demographic, to enroll for night school in order to complete their tenth standard education (and continue if they can from there on). The catch is study or lose your job! It is this simplicity of the drama that taps into a strong emotional core, even as the writing treads on the dynamics of an oddball group who can be labelled as underdogs, particularly when you look at them from the gaze of the society. Invariably, this drama turns into a deftly-coded classroom drama on the lines of Mind Your Language (1977) or alternately even English Vinglish (2012) that focuses on the broader message of education.

One of the strongest aspects of the drama remains its characterization, coupled with the dynamics that are shared. Sakharam Manchekar (Bharat Jadhav) is a 55 year old BMC worker specifically involved with the manual scavenging activities. And because of his daily chores, he is distanced by his immediate family featuring his grandson, who is at the receiving end of similar feelers from the kids of his area, and his daughter-in-law (Rupa Borgaonkar) who is slogging her way through financial difficulties to make ends meet. Manchekar is a tenth standard dropout, and someone who is nearing his retirement, so the motivation to restart his studies is a far-fetched option for him. Elsewhere, you also are introduced to Maruti Kadam (Siddharth Jadhav), a debt-ridden BMC Grade 4 worker who often has to double-up as a taxi-driver to clear his debt. Frivolously teased by his father on his name (he was named after a God Maruti which is also the name of a car, but he now rides a Kaali Peeli), Maruti is often shown to be exhausted and tired, with little to no bandwidth to incorporate a segment for studies. In a heartfelt scene, you see Maruti accounting the moments of his life almost to imply that time is money for him.

There are a couple of interesting characters in the fray too – Jayashree (Prajakta Hanamghar) who follows a life similar to Maruti, of having to takeup odd jobs to feed her family that includes her daughter and her crippled husband, the ever-smiling Apsara (Kiran Khoje) who willingly volunteers for the course, even while having to deal with her dominating husband. At the helm of things is Nilesh Mali (Om Bhutkar), the teacher at the night school who is dealing with financial issues of his own. The cost of living in the city of Mumbai is soon taking a toll on him, even while struggling to find a life-partner for the very same reason. There is a subtle commentary on the plight of the lower working class that is touched upon through these characters even with respect to their finances, a specific driving force for Nilesh who emphasizing on the importance of education to the entire group.

The basic tropes of the drama are pretty straight-forward wherein the character arc mostly remains collective starting with resentment to finally acknowledging the importance. But the emotional core along with frequent bouts of humour lie within this arc, resulting in several heartfelt moments. Be it Nilesh going out of the way to pursue a shift in the mindset of the group by equating the importance of education to the quality of rice, a direct symbolism to how education would change the way of life including garnering respect from his family. The dots are joined in a beautiful scene wherein a reformed Manchekar helps his grandson struggling with Mathematics, to solve a problem with ease. This remains true even for Maruti who is encouraged by his once nagging father to pursue and complete his education, a promise that he had once made to his dying mother.

One of the underlying themes of the drama includes the writer’s importance of language that doesn’t necessarily equate to education. Here I liked how the concept of education was not equated to knowing and interacting in the English language (which if you actually think of it, is a foreign language for India). The streamlining of languages wherein education could also be achieved in your local language (in this case Marathi), was aptly showcased here. In a scene, Nilesh counters the group by inquiring on why did the group write their answers in English whereas the questions were in Marathi. In another scene, you see Manchekar and Maruti being asked to propose an idea to a Japanese partner, which they try in broken English only for the partner to also exclaim on how his English is weak. This remained a pivotal point of treating language and education as two separate entities, something that I personally adored!

One of the few stumbling blocks in the drama comes in its final act that uses a tragedy as a conflict for the members of the group. I did feel that the overall messaging was simplistic, so a simpler approach could have also done the trick. This is particularly true because the conclusion of the conflict remained on the sidelines towards the end of the film (despite an important acknowledgement of the unsung ‘thankless’ heroes that we tend to overlook), that slightly gave the drama a manipulated outlook. But even here, the tone and vibe of the drama remained intact, with moments that would put a smile on your face. Be it the scene involving Nilesh who gets to know the results of the group, or Maruti giving a speech for the first time in Marathi at his daughter’s school, or even the plight of other characters after the result, it just leaves you with a tingling feel-good vibe that stays long after the film has ended. The screenplay is simplistic, and at times that is what you need to evoke the right kind of emotions. It isn’t extraordinary but there is something extraordinary about it!