The film ushers us into the lower middle-class life of Chanda Sahay( Swara Bhaskar) and her daughter Apu/Apeeksha( Ria Shukla) . Chanda juggles many jobs( a maid, a shoe factory worker, a washerwoman) to provide for her daughter. While she has ambitious dreams for her, Apu reasons, ek engineer ka beta engineer banta hain aur ek baai ki beti baai. But Chanda isn’t willing to accept this inevitability. When Apu’s dismal maths score becomes a cause for concern, her mother decides to take things in her own hands, literally.
And since Apu’s in her 10th grade, her maternal worries are compounded as she fears her daughter would end up as a’matric fail’, like her. On being coaxed by her employer, Mrs Diwan( Ratna Pathak Shah), Chanda returns to school to complete her matric. The plan: challenge Apu to beat her in maths and, in return, get her to pore over the books she so despises. The result is as you’d imagine it to be, but the journey packs in laughs, tears and much emotional gusto.