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.
