Synopsis

The Rough Book is a hard look at the education system in India in 2014.

Though one of the finest systems in the world, the lacunae in the system have created issues which, though non existent 15 years ago are threatening to clog the channels of learning in contemporary India today.

The story is told to us through the eyes of a teacher, Santoshi Kumari, who rallies through a divorce with a corrupt income tax officer to become a teacher of Physics in a school. Her pupils are in the D division – “D” sarcastically referred to as Duffers within the school by both the students and other teachers. How Santoshi rebels

agains​t​

the system to fight for her students, so that they can pass the Entrance Examinations to the Indian Institute of

Technology and the Joint Entrance Examinations forms the bulk of the small, simply told, yet completely thought provoking film. Devoid of any melodrama, almost gentle in its telling, the rebellion of the teacher and her students are internalised to make their point.