Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s 12th Fail has passed surpassing all the other blockbuster hit films of 2023 to become the highest-rated film on IMDb. The film has been rated a solid 9.2, surpassing Christopher Nolan’s film Oppenheimer which starred Cillian Murphy an 8.4 rating, Greta Gerwig’s movie Barbie which was rated at a solid 6.9 starring Margot Robbie, and even some of the Marvel Universe films such as Spiderman: Across the Spider-Verse rated an 8.6 and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 which garnered a rating of 7.9, films like the Martin Scorsese’s Killer of The Flower Moon got a 7.8 rating whereas John Wick: Chapter 4 received a 7.7 rating. Surpassing the big Hollywood hits of the year to become the highest-rated film is an achievement.
The film has become the highest-rated Indian film of all time on IMDb. It also tops the chart in the category of top 250 Indian Films on IMDb, securing a rating of 9.2 out of 10. The predecessors of the movie are the 1993 animated Ramayana: The Legend of Prince Rama; Mani Ratnam’s- Nayakan; Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s Golmaal; R Madhavan’s Directorial Debut Film: Rocketry- The Nambi Effect are following the film in the top five Indian Films of all time.
Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s 12th Fail is a biographical drama that has become the talk of the town for its massively inspirational impact and the large-scale representation the film provides for the millions of students who apply for the union exams leading to becoming a civil servant. The film is adapted from the book “12th Fail” written by Anurag Pathak, it chronicles the life of Manoj Kumar Sharma a boy from a small village in Madhya Pradesh who overcame extreme poverty and hardships that came along the way to become an Indian Police Service Officer, and his wife IRS Shraddha Joshi who played a consequential role in her husband’s success and achievements. The main leads are played by Vikrant Massey who plays the role of Manoj Kumar Sharma and Medha Shankar who portrayed Shraddha Joshi beautifully.
The film is mainly centred around Manoj and how he moves away from home to study and become an IPS Officer after his father, the sole breadwinner of their family is suspended from his work due to not following through with the orders of his corrupt employer. Yet before even reaching his destination of Gwalior to receive guidance to prepare for the exams, Manoj is robbed of his stuff and finds himself lost and penniless in a new place altogether, this is where he meets Pritam Pandey another student appearing for the same exams as Manoj. The pair then moved to Delhi to begin their preparations for the upcoming UPSC exams. Each student is offered 4 attempts to clear the exam, which consists of three stages- The Prelims, The Mains and the Interview. Manoj on his first try is unable to clear his prelims but after some quality guidance from Gauri- a fellow aspirant who could not clear the exams but still guides other students free of cost to help them, Manoj is able to clear the first round of exams yet the next two attempts are unsuccessful for him as he is unable to clear his mains due to the English exam- and his mode of language being in Hindi, but finally, after a lot of hardships he manages to clear the exams and is set for his interview, where the interviewer is said to be biased against Hindi Medium students, yet leaving the interview with a lasting impression due to his honesty and moral ethics, Manoj clears the exam becoming an IPS officer.
