AMITABH SRIVASTAVA, SENIOR JOURNALIST
Vidhu Vinod Chopra has thanked audiences for watching his film Twelfth Fail.
Actually those who have watched the film are thanking him for reminding us of values we thought were lost for ever.
Based on the real life story of IPS Manoj Kumar Sharma and his wife IRS Shardha Joshi its protagonist is so honest he makes you cry.
Having gone through innumerable hardships including a rejection when he is asked why he had failed his twelfth exam he says,”I failed because cheating had been banned in our Village that year.”
The hero played by Vikrant Massey vows to carry the tradition of honesty set by his father and repeats the lines of Atal Behari Vajpayee “Haar nahi manoonga Raar nahi thatnoonga” to motivate himself whenever he seems to be going weak.
Yet another ideal of his is former President Abdul Kalam who studied under a street lamp.
However the film is also a love story of two students who came in contact at a coaching centre.
Even though both his ideals were bachelors Manoj Sharma has said in interviews to some channels that he had instantly fallen in love with Shradha and his primary aim was to win her over, “IPS can wait”.
The film highlights a very old dilemma whether a girl can be called a distraction for boys when they are trying for competitions and Vidhu Vinod Chopra being what he is obviously is on the side of Love being an inspiration rather than distraction.
I don’t know if girls are feel boys are a distraction because no one made a film on this.
It is convenient that Manoj Sharma also believes in this.
He has been saying in various interviews that Shardha actually planned his schedule of studies and she was so strict that his friends were scared of being around when she was with him.
The film has a classy ending when during a break in his interview he reads a letter from her saying that whether he cleared the exam or not she would never desert him.
With that confidence he faces the interview board and tops his batch even with his Hindi medium background.
A film so honest it makes you teary-eyed most of the time!
Such films however don’t last very long commercially and when you are free from the World Cup on Sunday go and watch it with the entire family.
