***spoilers alert****
’Tis the season for all the directors who’d gone producer-mode for years, to return to their first love of directing and making movies in line with their vision of stories they want to tell. After Karan Johar with Rocky aur Rani, it’s one of our other favourites Vidhu Vinod Chopra, with 12th Fail on Disney+ Hotstar, inspired by a true story.
12th Fail is the story of Manoj Kumar Sharma (Vikrant Massey), son of a clerk, living in rural Chambal, growing unaware and unexposed in a flawed system of education and poverty, hurtling towards his inevitable destiny of the vicious cycle of poor education leading to poor jobs leading to poor income, continuing the cycle of poverty for the next generation. Until a chance encounter with an honest police officer, Dushyant Singh gives him the epiphany of wanting to change the course of his life towards becoming a police officer himself. With this dream, heading to Gwalior for enrolment, getting robbed, and losing everything on the way, another chance encounter with Pandey, sets him on the path to Delhi. What begins is the extremely high struggle and ‘ragda’ preparation for civil services and IPS, across many years and multiple attempts, with the support from strangers who become his friends and family, all of them cheering and helping him eventually achieve his dreams.
The beauty of India is the infinite stories we can tell about the different Indias that exist all around us. And so, while Zoya Akhtar’s Gen Z films tell stories of the urban and mostly the well-heeled (seen recently in The Archies and Kho Gaye Hum Kahaan), 12th Fail tells the other side of the Indian Gen Z reality, the story of what’s loosely referred to as Bharat, of largely the middle and lower income homes, in small towns and rural India.
This is why 12th Fail is such an important film, that is being loved by everyone, generating word of mouth, more than many recent OTT releases. It is the story that is still being played in the lives of millions of young people in India, who are not often seen anymore in popular cinema. Amidst our collective obsession with landing on the moon and conquering space, celebrating the re-establishment of the home of our most beloved God, cheering the arrival of India on the global stage through our economy and politics, and participating in the activism of inclusion and diversity, this film comes as a timely reminder of one of the most critical, complex and yet unresolved issues of our time, youth employment. It's a well-known fact that if we want to move towards our vision of being a developed nation by 2047, we cannot do it without ensuring the vast majority of our youth get meaningful jobs, to be able to earn a livelihood, toward a positive virtuous circle of personal and social progress. And it is also well-known that we are far far far away from this goal, as a country.
This central issue told through a deeply emotional story of one individual, Manoj, and his struggles, is what hits the mark. And humbly reminds us that as a country, we are not there yet… no matter what we see and hear on popular media everyday.
The film is a classic feel-bad-feel-good-underdog-story that is a timeless formula that works again and again. It’s a film that builds hope and re-instates our faith in people and humanity, in the kindness of strangers, in the idea that if you want something so badly (and you’re willing to work like a dog for it), the whole universe conspires to make it happen. Very early on, we, as the audience, become part of the gang of Gauri Bhaiyya (Anhsuman Pushkar), Shraddha (Medha Shankar), Pandey (Anant Joshi), Naval (Sanjay Bishnoi), and others, who are rooting for him, helping him and egging him on his path to his ambition. Because like Gauri Bhaiya says “Jis din hum mein se kisi ek ka bhi jeet hota hai, toh Hindustani ke croredon bhed bakri ka jeet hota hai”. This beautiful idea of a community moving forward through one individual or put another way, an individual is only successful when their community progresses, can only be felt by this side of Hindi-medium-Bharat, who actively reject the urban English-medium idea of individual success and glory. The film captures this essence so beautifully that it warms our hearts and souls throughout the 145 minutes of viewing time.
The actors do a fabulous job of their characters, each one of them, and not only Vikrant Massey, as the lead actor. Just like his IPS preparation, each of the supporting cast is as essential to Vikrant’s performance as is his own. He wouldn’t have shone without them, just like they wouldn’t have a purpose without him.
If there’s one fault I’d place on the movie, it would be the missed opportunity to explore other dimensions of the characters of Manoj and his friends. As a 2.5-hour film, which is reasonably long for OTT, there was ample time and space to explore further Shraddha and Manoj’s relationship, or perhaps Gauri Bhaiya’s back story, or Pandey’s possible path in life without IAS prep. Alas, all of them become just props to tell Manoj’s single-minded story of his struggle to become an IPS officer. And we miss an opportunity to build a more complete world of this part of Bharat (and not just one individual called Manoj), that needs more space on our screens and more time in our narratives.
All in all, a heart-felt warm emotional film that makes us tear up and smile and cheer, and give a big loud “yes” at the end, when Manoj finally makes it, feeling our own achievement in his success. Not to be missed!
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