When many actors act, you can see the effort. Effort that is more literal than figurative. There is an exaggerated twitch of the eyebrow when showing anger, a deep clench of the mouth and fist when expressing determination, open-mouthed, most often more than necessary, to illustrate surprise, and wide-eyed for wonder. The list is endless, far outreaching the nine rasas of acting.
Even when firmly ensconced in the soapy swish-pan world of Hindi saas and bahu, Vikrant Massey has never been that actor. Acting, for him, is all about not acting. The young actor, who stepped up from screens big to small and roles supporting to main, always brings a special something to everything he does. Both effort and intent are the bedrock of his acting. But his effort is subliminal and organic, not performative.
That aspect of him as an actor shines through the most in 12th Fail, a film which has so much heart, even when its own heart is breaking. That heartbreak comes in the form of failure. But it is failure and the ability to rise above it and restart, but without any guarantee of success, is what makes 12th Fail one of the most moving films of the year.
12th Fail is directed by Vidhu Vinod Chopra. Chopra's directorial prowess has given us films like Parinda, Khamosh, 1942: A Love Story and Mission Kashmir, among others. His instincts as a producer have been even more lucrative, yielding experiences like the Munna Bhai series, 3 Idiots, PK, Sanju.... In his latest film, Chopra brings his film-making style down to the basics, eschewing the surreal beauty and larger-than-life canvas of most of his previous work for the dust-filled roads of Chambal and then the cheek-by-jowl lanes and bylanes of Mukherjee Nagar in Delhi.
It is here that Manoj (Vikrant) finds himself destined to be, clutching his third-division certificate and nursing the dream to become an IPS officer. The odds are heavily stacked against him — he is poor, he hails from the fringes, caste and class divisions have defined his life since the time he didn't even know what they meant and, most importantly, he is honest, thus making him a misfit of sorts.
The hub of aspirants feverishly jumping from one coaching centre to the next in a bid to crack the civil services exam, Mukherjee Nagar seems far removed from the world and yet, in a strange way, is a microcosm of it.
Manoj, fighting against all odds and not letting his previous failures define him — he is "12th fail" after all — navigates his way through this world, and also the larger one beyond it, looking each adversity in the eye. He fights back against failure, which is a byproduct of his own poverty and the corruption inherent in the system.
I haven't read Anurag Pathak's 12th Fail, from which the film predominantly draws its source material. But I have been aware of the real Manoj Kumar Sharma's story. While it is an inspiring story of hope and resilience — a son of the soil cracking the IPS exam after failing his 12th standard exams — it didn't leap out at me. After all, we live in a country where such stories are a Humans of Bombay post away.
But it is to the credit of its film adaptation — with every member of the cast and crew bringing in an equal mix of craft and compassion — that the story feels both aspirational and relatable. We have seen this coaching ecosystem before — think of much-loved shows like Kota Factory and Aspirants — but 12th Fail makes every aspect of this world palpably emotional, aided in no small measure by Rangarajan Ramabadran's immersive work behind the lens.
What makes this film feel like a warm hug of unflinching hope is the fact that this is not Manoj's story alone. 12th Fail speaks to all of us and to our failures. It mirrors the initial trepidation we have all felt to begin again after we have failed and salutes our ability to pick up the pieces and start anew.
#Restart is the apt tagline of 12th Fail and we see that happening in the film not only with Manoj but also with those around him. His friend Pritam — played by a superlative Anant Vijay Joshi, whose role as narrator elevates the film several notches — is an essential cog in the same system. So is Manoj's ladylove (played by Medha Shankr) whose disgust with the system propels her onto a path different from what she had initially set out on. A special word for Anshuman Pushkar, the beating heart of the film.
12th Fail ventures into didactic territory quite a few times but its earnestness of intent and the honesty in its filmmaking override its shortcomings. Chopra reinvents himself at 71, giving us a picture of the bleak times we live in and yet never taking away the beacon of hope from us.
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