An inspirational tale which provides a ray of hope to the masses and proves that struggles never go for a toss in life is Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s 12th Fail movie.
The story is based on the life of Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Manoj Kumar Sharma whose career was full of ups and downs yet he never accepted defeat and went on to become a top government employee in the country.
A resident of Morena district in Madhya Pradesh, Sharma scored third division in Class X and also failed in all subjects in his Class XII board exam initially except in Hindi.
Sharma, who is now serving as the Additional Commissioner in Mumbai Police, met his biggest motivator in the love of his life Shraddha Joshi who is an Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer.
As his family’s financial condition wasn’t good, Sharma did odd jobs to support them.
He drove an auto-rickshaw, became a dog walker and worked in the library to earn his bread and butter.
Although he slept besides beggars and homeless people on roads, he read about inspiring historic figures like Gorky, Abraham Lincoln and Muktibodh and woke up the zeal within himself to serve the country.
Sharma even failed to crack Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) exam for three times but ultimately passed it with flying colours in his fourth attempt and became an inspirational icon for India.
Based on a novel by Anurag Pathak, the film 12th Fail features Vikrant Massey as Manoj Kumar Sharma and Medha Shankar as his girlfriend Shraddha.
The supporting cast of the film includes Priyanshu Chatterjee, Harish Khanna, Sarita Joshi.
Massey is shown as a boy from Chambal who failed in Class 12 board exams but still doesn’t lose his hope of cracking the UPSC exam even when he saw his poor family became a victim of politics.
He doesn’t turn hostile or picked up arms even when his family were ill-treated and made to go through hell by people in power.
