Director Vidhu Vinod Chopra completes his 45 years in the Indian film industry with his latest release ‘12th Fail’, inspired from a real life story. 12th Fail is not the typical of Chopra’s movie as the film has a simple story narrated in a very simple way, making it director’s one of its kind film.
The film delves deep into the life of millions of youngsters who struggle to success in life. The story which is based on writer Ashok Pathak’s book about the real-life story of Mohan Kumar Sharma aka Manoj Kumar Sharma in the film, played by actor Vikrant Massey.
It is a story of a guy who comes from a tiny hamlet of Madhya Pradesh, struggling between bread and butter; his aim is to crack the UPSC and become an IPS officer. The film simply connects with millions of UPSC aspirants of the country as story remains true to its core.
Besides, the fantastic acting by Massey, the film also features Medha Shankar as Manoj’s girlfriend, Anantvijay Joshi, Anshumaan Pushkar, and Priyanshu Chatterjee—bringing alive the characters and make you believe in hard work and destiny.
The film is a workshop for people to overcome failures as Manoj does in the film. He leaves his village taking all his life savings given to him by his grandmother, to embark on a journey to become an UPSC aspirant. But, life never goes as one plans; Manoj loses all his money since his suitcase gets stolen while he falls asleep in the bus.
Further on in the story, he meets Pritam Pandey played by Anant Vijay Joshi, a fellow aspiring student, who later become his best friend and both go through the cycle of failures, attempts and restart—the story of many UPSC aspirant in India.
Though the film mainly revolves around the story of Manoj, it simultaneously presents many other narratives of the same struggle such as Shraddha played by Medha Shankar with whom Manoj falls in love with.
Shraddha, who comes from a financially stable background, leaves her career as a doctor due to a traumatic experience where she had to treat a young girl who died from abuse. And, that horror motivated her to take up UPSC to become someone who can bring justice to the abusers.
Besides telling an inspiring story of a guy who once had to work in a flour mill for 15 hours a day to send money home, while dedicating six hours for studying, left him with only three hours of sleep every night, Chopra did not forgot to recognize the prejudice and biasness in the system that makes the struggle of young people like Manoj far more tough.
The film pulls together every string of the system and tells every side of the failure and success in a most satisfactory way making its audience believes in a great deal of effort.
About Author
