“12th Fail” strikes a chord for those drawn to underdog stories and intrigued by the rigorous UPSC exams, which admit only a select few into India’s prestigious Civil Services. While growing up in the 1980s, I had little awareness of UPSC, as my role models, mostly engineers like my father, steered me toward engineering and later an MBA. Writing the UPSC was not on the radar for me. However, as I grew to understand the profound impact of the state and how public policy can shape a country – I have felt that if I could go back all those years, I would have attempted the UPSC.
About UPSC
Today, there are 3 stages of the UPSC exams:
- Preliminary Exam(entry level, Objective Test)
- Main Exams (subjective, written exam)
- Interview
In 2022, around 570,000 people appeared for the 1st stage, around 13,000 got selected for the second stage, and around 2500 were selected for the 3rd Stage. Finally, 933 people were selected for the various Civil Services.
UPSC has been criticized that the best and brightest who get selected are from privileged backgrounds. Over the years, reforms have been made to address this criticism – one of the key changes has been that the written exams can be taken in one of the several official languages of India and not just in English – though a very small percentage of applicants opt to do so.
The Story
With that background of UPSC, the true story of Manoj Kumar Sharma, on whom, the movie, 12th Fail is based is even more remarkable. Manoj, excellently portrayed by the fine actor Vikrant Massey, is poor and underprivileged and from a village from the Chambal district of Madhya Pradesh. The quality of school education isn’t great and the school encourages students to cheat to clear the important 12th board exams. Manoj is inspired by an honest police officer named Dushyant Singh, who stops the cheating. Manoj and all the other students fail the 12th exam in that year, but in the next year, he doesn’t cheat and just about clears the exam. He decides to become a police officer like Dushyanth.
The rest of the movie is his journey over 4 years in writing the UPSC. The story follows Manoj and how he juggles menial jobs to survive while realizing his dream, with his mentor Gauri Bhayya, friends, and girlfriend Shraddha Joshi’s support. He writes the exams in the Hindi medium unlike the majority of the candidates who write in English. After every unsuccessful attempt, he needs to find the drive to “restart” as his mentor Gauri puts it. The viewer feels involved in Manoj’s success or failure. As the tension mounts when he goes for the final leg (the interview), silent pauses and the ambient sound makes you hold your breath, too. The movie skilfully addresses pertinent issues, shedding light on the coaching industry’s malpractices, societal privilege within the aspirant pool, and the motives behind political suppression through lack of education.
Overall, ‘12th Fail’ is a must-watch movie that will leave you inspired and motivated. The movie’s direction, screenplay, and acting are top-notch, and the story is relatable and engaging. I do hope to meet the real life Manoj Kumar Sharma one day!!
gopaldevanahalli 