Review of the 12th Fail: Vidhu Vinod Chopra gets excellent performances out of his ensemble, with Medha Shankar and Vikrant Massey expertly taking centre stage

A notable feature of Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s 12th Fail is an atta chakki, or gristmill. It’s a powerful, if indirect, metaphor for the torturous grind of the extremely difficult Indian Civil Services exams. However, the biographical drama enhanced by creative directorial touches is much, much more.

The film, a realistic and restrained adaptation of the book of the same name, follows a young man who struggles to make his way from a lawless Chambal village to the upper echelons of the police force, unavoidably encountering many intimidating obstacles along the way. He is a Hindi medium student.

The dilapidated building housing the grain-grinding mill is gloomy, depressing and replete with flour dust. Here, the main character secures a job as he intensifies his preparation for a crucial examination.

The underprivileged young person is well aware that his only option is to work hard in order to achieve his goals. He comes from a rural family. The only language he can speak and understand is Hindi. And his financial resources are alarmingly low.

Having promised his grandmother that he wouldn’t go back home until he had earned the right to wear a police uniform, he understands he has no space for complacency in the face of several social handicaps and a language barrier, realities that thousands of boys and girls like him must face.

The film 12th Fail is an amusing and thought-provoking retelling of a true event about an Indian Police Service (IPS) officer. The screenplay creates a perfectly relatable story. It extracts every ounce of drama from the man’s journey without resorting to any type of excess.

The video examines the specific circumstances of one person’s experiences in the context of the general reality of an examination system, often delving into the three-stage testing procedure in great depth. In the process, the story of Manoj Kumar Sharma’s hardships and tribulations (Vikrant Massey in a difficult part that sees him effortlessly traverse a wide range of emotions) takes on the form of a classic, universal, and absorbing underdog drama.

The significantly less onerous arc of Mussoorie girl Shraddha (Medha Shankar) intersects and merges with Manoj’s mastery of the frightening nitty-gritties of the UPSC examinations. The latter assists the doubt-ridden individual in fortifying himself against the second thoughts that begin to attack him as obstacles pile up.

Shraddha, who comes from a relatively rich family, has abandoned her medical studies in order to become a bureaucrat, believing that this will give her the capacity to make a real difference in the lives of ordinary people who are denied their rights.

12th Fail is a narrative of love and friendship being challenged by life’s hardships for Manoj, who fails his 12th board exams. He decides not to cheat despite the fact that everyone else in his class does, in reaction to the briefest – and most timely – of pep talks from a deputy superintendent of police (Priyanshu Chatterjee) assigned in Morena. He prefers honesty to expediency.

12th Fail is pitched as a tribute to the few of bureaucrats who stubbornly refuse corruption in the face of the temptation to go with the flow of an administrative structure that encourages cynicism and compromise.

The film’s early focus is on Manoj’s father, Ramveer (Harish Khanna). When he stands up to a corrupt official and a smarmy local legislator who abuses his power with impunity, he loses his menial government job.

With the help of his grandmother’s finances, the boy travels to Delhi as the father leaves for Gwalior to pursue legal action over his termination (Sarita Joshi). When he falls asleep on a transport, his suitcase is taken. After being left without food and without money, Manoj encounters Pritam Pandey (Anant Vijay Joshi), a grudging but happy candidate for the civil services.

The young man finds it difficult to navigate the large and confusing city of Delhi until he is taken under Gauri Bhaiyya (Anshuman Pushkar), a man who has attempted the UPSC tests multiple times but has never succeeded. Under Gauri’s guidance, the young man finds friendship and guidance.

Manoj gets a low-paying work in a library. It provides him with a modest bit of money, a roof over his head, and access to a large number of books. As a result, he works in an atta chakki for 14 hours a day, leaving him with only six hours for exam preparation and four hours for sleep. He continues nonetheless.

He requires the funds not just to support himself in Delhi, but also to support his mother (Geeta Agrawal) and siblings. On the one hand, there is continuous chaos and uncertainty, and on the other, there is steadfast perseverance and pluck.

That may appear to be an extremely simplistic and cliched plot structure, but the seasoned director carves out a two-and-a-half-hour drama that makes its point forcibly out of what happens at the two extremes and in between them. Because the film never loses momentum, 12th Fail feels significantly more short and tight than its runtime would suggest. The numerous disturbing changes and flashpoints that Manoj must navigate add a sense of urgency to the story.

12th Fail, at times touching and heartbreaking, at others hard-nosed and clear-eyed, is a basic film with a direct message: India needs ethical officials and policemen just as much as anything else that keeps the country running.

It is not larger-than-life crusading officers of the type that Indian commercial cinema is particularly fond of who hold influence in the worldview that the screenplay promotes. The 12th Fail honours rooted, public-minded men and women who swear by the Constitution and are willing to go the extra mile to safeguard the ideas it enshrines.

Vidhu Vinod Chopra coaxes excellent performances from his cast, with Vikrant Massey and Medha Shankar taking centre stage with ease. Taking their inspiration from the film, all of the major and minor supporting actors are always alert.

At a time when Bollywood is routinely making a shambles of films inspired by genuine tales and real-life achievers, 12th Fail is a charming little picture that stays loyal to its objective and strikes out hard in all the right areas.

Cast:

Medha Shankar, Priyanshu Chatterjee, and Vikrant Massey

Director:

Vidhu Vinod Chopra is a Bollywood actor.

Review of Kaala Paani: The cautionary tale expertly and equitably walks the fine line between portraying an epidemic and its effects while also situating it within a larger ecological framework

In the once-pristine Andaman and Nicobar Islands, life-or-death decisions and disease intersect in the genre-bending, visually stunning Kaala Paani. The Netflix series, which was developed by Sameer Saxena, tackles a variety of pressing issues and weaves them into a larger narrative about a community gripped by a lethal illness.

While the administration tries to strike a balance between what is morally acceptable and what is necessary to address the emergency, a global corporation and its agents are only interested in earning money off of a government-approved water pipeline project.

Indeed, water serves as Kaala Paani’s visual and thematic unifying motif, which is not surprising given that the story takes place in an area of India that is completely surrounded by the ocean. Its contamination is a reflection of the poison that has permeated the islands’ atmosphere and landscape.

The ethical dilemmas that the medical community and the Lieutenant-Governor’s office must grapple with are related to the urgent need to save the affected population, stop the disease from spreading, restrict human movement, and take initiatives to lessen the effects of panic reactions.

The film Kaala Paani, written by Biswapati Sarkar and directed by Saxena and Amit Golani, is set in the near future but spans several decades. Flashbacks provide background information and dialogue snippets that allude to ancient times. Kaala Paani is full of thrills, tragic turns of events, and characters who are burdened by the past.

It is the year 2027. People are still recalling the Covid-19 pandemic. The Kaala Paani plot goes beyond illness and destruction and combines fact and fiction to explore the causes of the public health crisis, including deforestation, threats to an endangered indigenous community, an industry-government nexus, and corruption at various levels of local government.

The islands are filled with a sense of foreboding as Leptospiral Hemorrhagic Fever (LHF-27) spreads like wildfire. Citizens and medical professionals are up against an invisible foe, Nature, which has long suffered as a result of human avarice but is now retaliating. Strength comes from the ethical, psychological, and environmental issues that the seven-episode series highlights.

To highlight the nature of goodness and dishonesty in the modern era, a Panchatantra fable about a frog and a scorpion is utilized. The “trolley problem” thought experiment relates to the actual circumstance, in which the administration is faced with a moral choice that could make or break it. Is it acceptable to let one person die to rescue tens of thousands?

In order to find the solution, Kaala Paani places a number of important modern and historical stories in the collective and the individual.

Mona Singh and Ashutosh Gowariker are the stars of the Kaala Paani cast, but Sukant Goel, who plays a cab driver in Port Blair, steals the show. The talented actor gives a strong author-backed part that allows him to explore a spectrum of emotions—from the frivolous and sarcastic to the deep and unsettling—full justice.

The main supporting actors, who are all portraying characters with traumatic pasts and horrible experiences that are difficult to overcome, are also remarkable. These people have experienced a lot, from assault to toxic masculinity, societal rejection to career obstacles, and what they confront throughout the epidemic is an opportunity for them to make amends.

To attend a tourist festival, Santosh Savla, played by Vikas Kumar, traveled to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands with his wife and two children from Bokaro. The gentle and kind-hearted man relies on his wife Gargi (Sarika Singh) to support the family no matter what. Santosh is tossed around by separation, grief, and bereavement in a serious crisis situation, forcing him to draw heavily from his stores of endurance.

Jyotsna Dey, played by Arushi Sharma, is an aspiring nurse who has given up on her dream after being permanently damaged in a violent event in Pune. Her chance for redemption depends on making sure that two kids who have been taken from their parents are safe.

As a result of the health crisis, Dr. Soudamini Singh’s hospital is severely short-staffed. Radhika Mehrotra plays medical intern Ritu Gagra, who joins the team of this grumpy, cynical, but incredibly dedicated doctor who lives with a German Shepherd named Mister.

Amey Wagh portrays police officer Ketan Kamat, a guy used to fishing in hazardous waters and protecting his own skin at all costs, in a dynamic yet deliciously layered performance. Additionally, Chinmay Mandlekar adopts the persona of a doctor while under understandable pressure that is made worse by a catastrophe that affects the hospital.

Thousands of tourists have arrived in Port Blair ahead of a big tourist festival. As word spreads that a mysterious killer sickness has arrived on the islands, panic grows.

The central hospital is run by Dr. Soudamini Singh, while Admiral Zibran Qadri (Asuthosh Gowariker) is in charge of the administration. People like Chiranjeevi (Sukant Goel), whose livelihood depends on the influx of visitors and sick locals, as well as several outsiders, are pulled into the maelstrom.

Of course, tourists did not directly cause the situation. The beautiful islands have been brought to its breaking point by unsustainable development practices and the theft of indigenous land. With the help of corrupt officials and police, a multibillion dollar MNC is attempting to increase its control over the people and the land that the woods are on.

The fight to preserve lives and the pursuit of an epidemic’s root cause and remedy coexist. The story centers on the fate of an indigenous group that has lived in the forest for 60,000 years and is in danger.

A well-acted, beautifully made, and continuously entertaining drama, Kaala Paani avoids the problems of a multi-faceted story. It comes up with strategies to prevent one theme notion from obstructing another. The connections between all the threads are exceptionally clean and clear.

The cautionary tale skillfully and evenly balances the presentation of an epidemic and its effects with its placement in a larger ecological context. a television show with a lot to show for its efforts.     

Cast:

Sukant Goel, Mona Singh, Arushi Sharma, Ashutosh Gowariker, Sarika Singh

Director:

Amit Golani and Sameer Saxena

Review of Challengers: Zendaya stands up to the anticipation by delving deeply into the mind of a woman who will not accept no, in addition to portraying an enticing seductress with compelling elegance

Tashi Duncan, a champion whose career was cut short by injury, argues that tennis is more than just hitting a ball with a racket. Duncan is played by Zendaya. She implies that it is a romance. She fails to mention something that Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers does: sports have a way of changing, if not very subtly, with the ups and downs of form, confidence, and the guts to take a risk.

Tennis in Luca Guadignino’s Challengers is about human equations and mind games, as it typically is in life. In the lives of three persons involved in a chaotic menage à trois where the ball is hit from one court to the other and back without permission, it acts as both glue and repulsion. Instead of using overt titillation techniques, it produces an intriguing, sensual, and thrilling film.

To some extent, Guadagnino’s self-described “desire” trilogy—I Am Love, A Bigger Splash, and Call Me by Your Name—may be extended in Challengers. The goal of this seductive and captivating sports movie isn’t just to build a rivalry between tennis players to a climax and then offer a serve-and-volley match that results in a variety of thrilling cross-court winners.

It does almost everything perfectly, yet nothing in Challengers can match its brilliantly thought-out and suspenseful conclusion. It is supported with a hardcore techno score by Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, who collaborated with Guadagnino on 2022’s Bones and All. It is enlightening with a brilliant burst of inspiration that matters for far more than a point gained in the game. It’s on a whole other level.

A tale of wavering love, ambition, ego, and obsession lies at the heart of the captivating drama around broken relationships. Self-interest and hatred propels three tennis prodigies onto dangerous terrain, where their lives have intersected yet produced different outcomes.

Three of them—one a three-time NCAA champion—had to give up tennis before she turned eighteen, another advanced to the pinnacle of the sport, and the third, having fallen short of his own expectations, has been reduced to oblivion. They are linked to one another irrevocably.

Challengers takes place in the 2019 ATP Tour tournament championship match. At the end, it features the final match between old boarding school roommates Art Donaldson (Mike Faist) and Patrick Zweig (Josh O’Connor), with the former’s life partner and tennis coach Tashi watching as a spectator and a deeply involved spectator.

A losing streak is preventing tennis star Art Donaldson from completing a career Grand Slam in the lead-up to the US Open. Tashi advises him to sign up for a low-risk challenger at the New Rochelle Tennis Club, which is located outside of New York, in order to resume winning before the Big One, which has escaped him.

When Tashi finds out that Patrick—a man she and Art had eliminated from their lives over ten years ago—is also in the lineup, everything seems certain to go south. Patrick has no money. He can’t check into a hotel because of an issue with his credit card. He naps in his vehicle. When he paired with Art in college activities, his life and profession obviously haven’t brought him to where he would have loved to be.

With the use of flashbacks that trace the development of their friendship and relationships tainted by dishonesty and dubious behavior, the tale of tennis players who have known one another personally for more than ten years is stitched together. The three are too preoccupied with themselves to be seeking sympathy. That represents the film’s greatest obstacle. Tashi, Art, and Patrick are undoubtedly not considerate of manners because they will stop at nothing to get what they desire.

The viewer must determine how exactly to relate to the trio on their own. Which way do we want our feelings toward them to go? Should we support them or hate what they say, do, and say to themselves and each other? Challengers are at the losing end in the ambiguity game.

The screenplay by playwright Justin Kuritzkes is so rife with moral and emotional ambiguities that it is impossible to sympathize with the friends-turned-enemies Patrick and Art or the unwavering Tashi, who is determined to assist Art get out of his current situation. Her task ahead of her is formidable. She’ll stop at nothing to ensure she’s not left wanting.

With tennis at its core, Challengers is a chic, deftly constructed psychodrama that smacks the ball out of the park thanks to three incredibly self-aware central performances. O’Connor performs with incredible flare as a complete twerp. He annoys, he provokes, and he doesn’t back down from his arrogant behavior. The actor makes clicks with each step.

With equal conviction, Faist develops Art Donaldson, a man who is more manipulative than manipulative. There are many highs in the duet that the two performers perform. Their on-court and off-court jousting gives the movie its mesmerizing atmosphere.

But when all is said and done, Zendaya is the essence of Challengers. Patrick calls her character “the hottest woman I have ever seen” at one point. In addition to playing an enticing seductress with fascinating elegance, Zendaya lives up to the anticipation by delving deeply into the thoughts of a woman who will not accept no.

Sayombhu Mukdeeprom, a renowned cinematographer whose credits include the Palme d’Or-winning Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives and Call Me by Your Name, contributes his established sense of texture and depth to the visuals, as well as his skill at using the camera to simulate the distanced and detached view of a world full of contradictions.

Challengers’s fractured timeline, which depicts encounters and exchanges that are both youthfully passionate and instantly traumatic, adds to the film’s allure. It shows how the dynamics of the story shift between a tense love triangle and a story in which a wedge the size of a tennis court is driven between former tennis partners. These dribbles are both enlightening and captivating.

The film Challengers is incredibly well-crafted. It is both palpable and vivid.

Cast:

Zendaya, Josh O’Connor, Mike Faist