12th Fail

January 15, 2024

12th Fail

DIRECTED BY:
Vidhu Vinod Chopra
STARRING:
Vikrant Massey
Medha Shankar
Anant Joshi
Anshumaan Pushkar
YEAR OF RELEASE:
2023
PREMISE:
The real-life story of IPS Officer Manoj Kumar Sharma and IRS Officer Shraddha Joshi.

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS.

THE NEGATIVES:

Most of the narration and small flashback scenes felt very redundant, since the information conveyed through them could've been directly inferred by the audience by what was happening on the screen.

The “Manoj hiding the fact that he’s NOT an aeronautical engineer from Shraddha” conflict didn’t feel as significant, impactful, or convincing as the film tried to make it feel.

Although I understand that it would kind of make sense for Shraddha to appeal to her dad about trusting her to not have had sex with Manoj, I still would’ve preferred if the film in some way acknowledged that Shraddha’s dad was in the wrong to get “offended” by what is happening in his ADULT daughter’s private sex life.

There were also some overly dramatic and cheesy dialogue deliveries (particularly from Gauri Bhaiya and the narrator) that broke my immersion.

THE POSITIVES:

The film showcased good performances by everyone in the cast and an especially outstanding performance from Vikrant Massey. He was able to beautifully portray different aspects of Manoj - whether it be his naiveté about the education system, inexperience with city life and the opposite gender, vulnerability in an unfamiliar environment, or most importantly, his honesty, integrity and dogged, relentless determination to achieve his goal. Without his impactful performance bolstering the screenplay, I probably would’ve given the film just a 6/10.

The simple yet consistently impeccable and logical characterization of the protagonist made me feel immensely invested in his journey. I recently reviewed Maestro, which I concluded, was a technically very well made film but its story failed to make me emotionally connect to its characters.

12th Fail is thankfully on the opposite side of this spectrum, as it is a technically good film that was much better at making me care about the fate of its characters.

As a result, I felt the shock of all of Manoj’s failures,

The pain of all his obstacles,

And the heartbreak of his every loss.

More importantly, it also managed to tear me up a little seeing his utter breakdown when he’s told the result of his final attempt. Overall, the film did a fantastic job at putting the viewer in the protagonist’s shoes, making us root for him every step of the way.

The film is a pretty good example of how to execute an underdog, survival, and fight-the-system story all at once, which makes it very hard not to like. The story was also nicely spread out and paced, as the film rarely seemed to drag despite a near 2hr 30 min runtime.