12th Fail -Analysis

12th Fail – My Movie Experience

In the era of heavily sounded movies, 12th Fail is much more a relaxed, fun-to-watch movie. No bloodshed, unreal characters, and fast-paced cuts yet it engages the audience and gives a satisfied feeling. This movie is based on the eponymous novel by Anurag Pathak about the real-life story of Manoj Kumar Sharma who overcame extreme poverty to become an Indian Police Service officer. After a long time, I was watching a film with a smiling face.

It falls under the “Rags to Riches” plot structure with the Protagonist possessing a Positive character arc and dynamic quality. There are several positive moments in the movie including;

1. Perfect Casting – Everyone gave their best in terms of bringing out the best view of their character. I like the beats of the actors – taking time to act and react to the situation.

2. This story has a good moral and is socially responsible. I like the Never-give attitude of the protagonist in spite of all the odds he faces.

3. Clean and Clear storytelling – Didn’t get diverted from the main course of the story.

4. The camera angles are fantastic. The good thing is that they didn’t go for different angles/handles for the same shot.

As the movie is inspired by real life with little cinematic liberty, I can’t pinpoint much on how the story could have been much better. But there are a few things that didn’t work for me;

1. The story starts in the year 1997. When the story moves on, there is no clear picture of the years taken by the protagonist to complete the task. Like how many years he spent to clear the Prelims, Main, and the Interview. I like the innocence of the protagonist’s character. He is surely a good find for the industry.

2. Today’s generation is unaware of the process of UPSC. It would have been better if they gave clarity on the same.

3. Point of View of the Story and Story Narration is by the Duetragonist Character “Pritam Pandey” which I think didn’t fit for this story. There are several events that Pandey doesn’t know and he was not present there. Yet he narrates the story.

4. The story speaks too much about the day-to-day life of the Protagonist and fails to show the events of his family members, love interest, etc. This gives a feeling that the story is struck up in one place.

5. Just because the scenes are written only for the Protagonist, the resolution of other characters is missing.

6. I seriously thought that the protagonist would find his grandmother’s money at some point in time and Dushyant coming in at the crucial point of his life to push him in his final moment.

7. I felt that the name of the movie could have been something else apart from 12th Fail (My personal opinion)

If not done by Vinod Chopra, and his brand VC Films, this would have been a less-spoken film. Every good story needs a strong brand to reach the audience.

Written by

Sai Vijendhiran