Facing Failure

In the previous two months I watched two films which had one common denominator – Vikrant Massey as the protagonist. Vikrant Massey is a promising movie and web series actor. Thematically, both the movies deal with a common subject – facing failure.

A brief of both the movies :

Death In The Gunj

Shutu is a gentle and sensitive boy. Inspite of being a brilliant student he fails his exam and is thrown out of the hostel. Shutu does not know how to handle his failure. He runs away to Macluskieganj, a small Anglo-Indian town in Jharkhand, to his aunt’s place instead of returning to his mother in Kolkata. He is different from his cousins and their friends who take advantage of his soft and kind nature making him the butt of their insensitive pranks.

Out of the entire family, he is only close to his cousin’s small daughter, Tani. The others are callously indifferent towards him using him either as an errand boy or an odd jobber. It is his aunt who comes to know about his failure from Shutu’s mother’s letter. She questions and even accuses him of not going back to her but does not want to know what made him come to her place instead of returning home.

Shutu’s father has just passed away whom he misses dearly. While at his aunt’s house he gets attracted towards Mimi with whom his cousin Nandu’s friend Vikram is having an extra marital affair. Mimi is Nandu’s wife’s friend. But when Vikram’s wife arrives he ignores Mimi. She, on the rebound, exploits Shutu’s innocence and embroils him in a physical relationship. However, the simple Shutu thinks Mimi is in love with him.

This is a coming of age movie wherein the protagonist is desperately looking for emotional anchor after bereavement of his father and perhaps consequent academic failure. As usual, the world around him is too engrossed in selfish aggression and meaningless competition wherein the softer sensibilities of a growing boy is of least significance till it leads to a bloody implosion.

Directed by the talented actress Konkona Sen Sharma, the film has an ensemble of stars but it is the stellar performance of Vikrant Massey as Shutu that steals the heart. Death In The Gunj is a thought provoking film which points a finger at the degeneration of familial bonds which in actuality should be a source of support, protection, comfort, understanding and care. The film mocks the extant concept of defeatism and male machoism which is flimsily personified by physical dominance over the ones who are seen as weak. However, sensitiveness, softness, gentleness and kindness, which are in today’s crooked, survival-of-the-fittest generation, taken as symptoms of weakness and foolishness in hu-man-s, are the qualities most needed to make this world better, livable and sustainable.

12th Fail

This movie is a biopic of currently serving IPS (Indian Police Service) Officer, Manoj Kumar Sharma, who hails from a remote village of the dacoit infested Chambal. Belonging to very, very humble background, Manoj, by sheer dint of hard work, single mindedness, inner conviction and honesty qualifies Union Public Service Commission (UPSC in short), (on his fourth attempt), one of the toughest of competitive exams in India, to join the Services. Based on the book named after him and written by his best friend and a pillar of support in his struggle, the film is a sleeper hit. Critically acclaimed as the story of real India, it is a hope raiser for millions of this country, who do not get a chance to be enrolled in country’s elite English medium educational institutions like IITs (Indian Institute of Technology) and IIMs (Indian Institute of Management), not because of lack of merit but because of lack of financial strength and fluency in English, yet nurture a passion to serve the country without any axe of their own to grind. These are the students from the grassroots who know and face the problems day in and day out which prevent them from passing the most important and difficult School Level Board Exam – the 12th Class – the first rung of the ladder.

Interestingly, in the movie, the name of the protagonist has not been altered. Manoj (Vikrant Massey) passes all his school exams by cheating which is surprisingly allowed by the Village School Hierarchy. The school is run by the local MLA (Member of Legislative Assembly) who calls it the jamee jamai vyavastha or the “well established order.” However, it is bad luck that in his 12th class exam, cheating is stopped by the newly appointed Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), Dushyant Singh. Although, Singh is transferred a year later because of not fitting into the scheme of things, he leaves an indellible impression on Manoj’s young mind who wants to become like him. Singh’s only advice to him is to leave cheating if he wants to become like him in life. Manoj takes this as his guru mantra and embarks on a tortuous journey to achieve his goal – to be a part of the system to become its change agent.

In this journey, with hardships he also makes friends with larger than life characters like Gauri Bhayya (his mentor), Pandey (writer of his biography), Chhotu (his manfriday) and above all Shraddha who later becomes his life partner. One of reviews of the movie states that if Vikrant Massey does not win the National Award for Best Actor (country’s highest award) for essaying the role of Manoj Kumar Sharma it will be a gross injustice. The movie is available on OTT for those who wish to watch it. Incidentally, after watching the movie on OTT its viewership in the PVR increased. Made with a small budget of INR 20 Million, the movie went on to gross around INR 70 Million. The praise for the movie has been passed on amongst the audience on word of mouth basis till it became a must watch for every movie goer.

Manoj, in one of his interviews, has said that he has not gained personally from this movie in terms of money or material. The only benefit he has got is that it has spread his message to the masses. Manoj and Shraddha have a unique love story. Shraddha renounced jewellery while in tenure in Uttarakhand. On birthdays, therefore, the gift the couple give to each other are love letters!

12th Fail is the ace Film Director, Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s gift to the Hindi speaking have nots of the country, who lag behind in realising their dreams because of countless obstacles which are embedded in the “well established order”.

However, failure can pull you down and it can also imbue you with an indomitable spirit to surge ahead and convert it into super success. 12th Fail passes on this positive vibe which for many may prove as a massive impetus to move forward notwithstanding the hurdles and give failure an unusual boost of “restart” like Gauri Bhayya.

Two movies, based on the same theme, but defining failure in their own way. Counting failures can also be equated to counting the number of lessons learnt , the number of opportunities provided by life to wizen up and the number of times one says no to defeat and presses on.

Even at the fag end of life I am inspired and filled with josh or the spirit to call out :

“Bring it on….I am still alive.”