12th Fail is a 2023 Indian Hindi-language biographical drama film directed, produced and written by Vidhu Vinod Chopra. It is based on the 2019 eponymous non-fiction book by Anurag Pathak about Manoj Kumar Sharma, who overcame extreme poverty to become an Indian Police Service officer. The film stars Vikrant Massey as Sharma, alongside Medha Shankr, Anant V Joshi, Anshumaan Pushkar and Priyanshu Chatterjee.

Released theatrically on 27 October 2023, 12th Fail received widespread critical acclaim and emerged as a sleeper hit, grossing over ₹69 crore (US$8.1 million) worldwide on a ₹20 crore (US$2.3 million) budget. At the 69th Filmfare Awards, it won five awards, including Best Film, Best Director and Best Actor (Critics) (Massey).

12th Fail‘s teaser was released on 10 August 2023, while its trailer was released on 3 October 2023. The film was released in theatres on 27 October 2023 in Hindi and Kannada languages. After the success in Hindi, the makers announced that the film will be dubbed in Tamil and Telugu languages and was released on 3 November 2023.

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Born in dacoit-infested Chambal, Manoj Kumar Sharma is the son of a clerk. His father, an honest man, is suspended for hitting a corrupt officer. Manoj prepares cheat slips for his Class 12 exams, as do all his batchmates. The teachers at the local school help students cheat. However, a newly transferred police officer, DSP Dushyant Singh, stops cheating at the school. As a result, all the students, including Manoj, fail the exam.

Meanwhile, Manoj’s father leaves home to challenge his suspension in the High Court. To support the family, Manoj and his brother run a traveling rickshaw. However, his brother is falsely accused of smuggling alcohol after hitting the local henchman of the MLA after he tries to have their passengers travel on a bus. Local police officers frame his brother, but Manoj bails him out with the help of DSP Dushyant. When Manoj expresses his desire to become an officer like him, Dushyant advises him to “stop cheating”.

One year later, Manoj passes his exams without cheating and pursues a B.A. to become a DSP. His paternal grandmother gives him all her savings as he sets out to study in Gwalior, but he loses all his belongings on the way to a woman who steals them while he dozes off in the bus he is travelling in. He then learns that the government has decided to stop the Group I exams for MPPSC for the next three years. This destroys his dream of becoming a DSP.

Struggling without money for food, a local hotel owner near the railway station offers him free meals. There he meets Pritam Pandey, who had also come to study for the PSC exam. Pandey’s father calls him and tells him to prepare for the UPSC exam in Delhi. Manoj learns about UPSC and travels with Pritam to Delhi to study and become an IPS officer. He meets Gauri Bhaiya, a fellow aspirant on his last attempt to pass, who provides Manoj with work and a place to study. Gauri Bhaiya is unable to clear his final attempt and opens a tea shop named “Restart” and also provides guidance to other UPSC aspirants.

In his first attempt, Manoj fails the preliminary examination, but with Gauri’s help, he reappears and manages to clear it the following year. During a visit to a coaching centre, he meets Shraddha Joshi, a UKPSC aspirant, and falls in love with her. She assumes he is an aeronautical engineer, but he was actually a literature graduate and does not correct her. Despite hard work, Manoj fails to clear his main examinations that year due to a trivial mistake. His relationship with Shraddha also suffers when she learns the truth about his degree. Disheartened, Manoj travels to Mussoorie to apologise to Shraddha and confess his love. However, she bluntly asks him to return to Delhi.

Manoj visits his home and finds that his grandmother has passed away. He returns to Delhi, determined to pass the examination. Manoj works in a mill to earn money to send home and cover his own expenses, where he also resides. Shraddha arrives to their coaching class in Delhi and apologizes to Manoj for being rude. They reconcile and again become close. Manoj passes the preliminaries, and Shraddha expresses her love for him.

Gauri moves Manoj to his own house and tells him to give up working odd jobs and focus completely on his studies. He finally clears the main examinations, while Shraddha clears her UKPSC examinations as well to become a Deputy Collector. Meanwhile, Pritam, who failed his exams, spreads rumours to Shraddha’s family that she has been sleeping with Manoj. Manoj becomes angry with Pritam but realises that Pritam really wants to be a reporter, but his father pressured him to pursue the UPSC. Manoj advises Pritam to stand up to his father.

During the interview round, Manoj answers every question honestly. He reads the letter written and given to him by Shraddha before the interview, asking him to marry her, irrespective of the outcome of the interview. Two months later, the results are declared, with Manoj qualifying for the rank of IPS officer. One year later, Manoj, now an IPS officer, meets DSP Dushyant Singh at the police station in Mandsaur to thank the DSP for encouraging him. Manoj marries Shraddha, and Pritam begins working as a news reporter.