Episode 77 - 12th Fail

[00:00:00] Welcome to Movie Mistrial.

[00:00:22] The podcast will be opined about how accurate IMDB's top 250 movies of all time really is.

[00:00:29] My name is Johannes and I am Raji.

[00:00:33] Today we're discussing another film on this educational list.

[00:00:36] 12th Fail, a movie that stuck into the IMDB top 250 in the last few months and it stars

[00:00:42] Vikrant Masi, Mehta Shankar and Adjoshi and it's based on the real-life story of Officer

[00:00:48] Manoj, Kumar Shama and Officer Shraddha Joshi.

[00:00:52] 12th Fail received critical acclaim especially in the Indian media and had a strong showing

[00:00:57] in Rotten Tomatoes and IMDB.

[00:01:00] However, I must point out that this film has mixed reviews in many media environments.

[00:01:09] 13th Fail received critical acclaims

[00:01:15] expands. So all all done with the expense. I know we talked

[00:01:19] about that last time. Um, yeah, great show. Great show. Best

[00:01:24] characters. Yeah, best characters, Amos and drummer. Good.

[00:01:30] Good characters in my opinion. Um, what else? I am working on

[00:01:36] on a drum set. Like I've been playing drums for a long time.

[00:01:40] I haven't played drums in like 13 years. Now I'm I'm

[00:01:44] working on getting back to it. I'm super excited. Oh, nice.

[00:01:48] How about yourself?

[00:01:50] I am doing well as well. I'm getting back into writing. I

[00:01:54] have written a novel in the past called The Dark City

[00:01:57] Chronicles or in other places called Engelsstadt Chronicles.

[00:02:02] But I'm working on another book. And it's gonna be called

[00:02:07] like Lakers 2050 or some stuff like that. And we're going

[00:02:11] back to Cyberpunk, um, new and noir, my new and noir roots. So

[00:02:19] I'm looking forward to how that's gonna play out.

[00:02:21] Miles. Very good. Yeah, very good. Looking forward to

[00:02:26] hearing more about that.

[00:02:27] That's how it goes by.

[00:02:28] We'll see. It was always fun to write. It's always

[00:02:31] disappointed to see how all the sales go. But we're

[00:02:36] hanging in there.

[00:02:38] Yeah. Yeah. So 12th fail. You mentioned it last time when we

[00:02:44] talked and I was dumbfounded. I've never heard of this film

[00:02:49] and it completely snuck by for me. I didn't notice it was

[00:02:54] entering the list.

[00:02:59] Yeah, what what? How did you hear about this? Did you just

[00:03:04] look at the list?

[00:03:05] I was just going through the list and I saw it was like what

[00:03:08] 12th, I was like, what movie are we missing? And I was like,

[00:03:11] Oh, 12th fail. I've never seen this before. Oh, it's an

[00:03:14] Indian film. It's a Hindi film. Oh snap. Okay. Interesting.

[00:03:18] And then I brought it up in the last minute, just exactly as

[00:03:21] I'm gonna bring up the fact that do you snuck into the

[00:03:24] list? And there's now 11th.

[00:03:28] I mean, we may need to go back and talk about it. I

[00:03:31] mean, it's a good reason to talk about a movie that is

[00:03:33] currently in the in the zeitgeist. Yeah, but I was

[00:03:39] completely surprised by this film that it was on the list.

[00:03:44] And I'm ready to talk about it, I guess.

[00:03:47] All right, ready to talk about it. But to bring everybody up

[00:03:51] to speed, quick synopsis.

[00:03:56] 12th fail is a coming of age drama set in India directed by

[00:03:59] Mandip Singh Chahal. The film follows the story of a young

[00:04:03] student who fails his 12th grade exams and grapples with the

[00:04:06] societal pressures and expectations placed upon him

[00:04:10] determined to prove himself despite his academic setback, he

[00:04:13] embarks on a journey of self discovery and the redemption

[00:04:16] through trials and tribulations, he learns valuable

[00:04:18] lessons about resilience, perseverance and the true

[00:04:21] meaning of success. 12th fail shines a light on the

[00:04:24] flaws in the education system and the importance of

[00:04:27] following one's passion and intercalling. With its point in

[00:04:30] storytelling and relatable characters, the film resonates

[00:04:33] with audiences as a tale of hope and second chances. So with

[00:04:43] that, let's determine who is arguing for and against my

[00:04:48] friend heads or jail.

[00:04:50] I'm gonna go with heads.

[00:04:51] Okay, so I feel like I'm gonna talk about I'm gonna talk for this

[00:04:57] film.

[00:04:58] Okay, sounds good to me.

[00:05:01] I'm gonna like that.

[00:05:05] Okay.

[00:05:06] All right, here we go.

[00:05:07] The witness will address this court as judge or your honor.

[00:05:10] Your honor, 12th fail is a mouthful to say.

[00:05:15] The least already.

[00:05:17] Not great.

[00:05:18] Title, I don't think the main issue I have with this plot is

[00:05:25] it's basically a very linear story.

[00:05:32] Like along the way as I was watching it, it's it kept on

[00:05:36] reminding me of I saw a production of The Wiz recently

[00:05:40] and so the Wizard of Oz, right?

[00:05:43] And the the flaws of that production, the way that

[00:05:47] flaws of that production ultimately are that you have all

[00:05:51] the characters on this linear story, and it's already clear

[00:05:55] where it's headed.

[00:05:56] And you're just kind of strung along for all the bits and

[00:06:01] bumps on the road.

[00:06:03] And I felt very much the same about this film.

[00:06:05] The protagonist grows up in in the middle of nowhere.

[00:06:11] And this is trying to get by and trying to not fall into

[00:06:14] trap of cheating, but he wants to be an honest man and honest

[00:06:19] honest living.

[00:06:21] And he's with lots of bumps in the road.

[00:06:25] He is finally making it and he is becoming a police officer

[00:06:31] the right way and the honest and true way.

[00:06:35] And this is all told during the course of two and a half hours

[00:06:40] and it's there's no big surprises here.

[00:06:42] And I think that's that's the main issue I had with this.

[00:06:44] It's it's dragging us along and I'm sure the characters are

[00:06:48] charming and there's some interesting tidbits here and

[00:06:52] there that you learn about, you know, how things work and

[00:06:56] the culture and all that.

[00:06:57] But it's just so superficial and it's so strong out for

[00:07:03] something that is so utterly predictable.

[00:07:06] And it's so I don't know, it feels very stereotypical in a way.

[00:07:12] It's and it's so cliche.

[00:07:14] So it's just like it's a it's a picture.

[00:07:18] It's a paper numbers picture in the form of a movie

[00:07:23] that has some nice window dressing and it's interesting to

[00:07:25] look at but it's there's no depth.

[00:07:28] It's it's a two and a half hour kind of boring film because

[00:07:32] it is already clear that the main character will probably

[00:07:38] achieve what he's striving out to get on this hero's journey.

[00:07:43] And that's my main problem with this film.

[00:07:48] So I will say that, you know, one of the things that this

[00:07:52] movie was able to highlight was some of the problems that

[00:07:56] the society had.

[00:07:58] They were able to highlight some of the issues.

[00:08:01] For example, one of one such problem is how easy it is to cheat.

[00:08:07] How it was part of the mainstay people, you know, they did it all

[00:08:12] the time. Instead of when they were young, when they were

[00:08:15] cheated in the exams to when they become police officers,

[00:08:18] where they cheated people off their cards, took money away

[00:08:23] from people collected bribes.

[00:08:25] It just seemed to permeate the whole society.

[00:08:29] And the question then becomes, can you change?

[00:08:33] He do a small part of it to change.

[00:08:37] And the interesting thing is we get introduced to a new

[00:08:41] police officer named Vinude.

[00:08:45] And he comes to the village and he stops the principal from

[00:08:48] cheating.

[00:08:50] He stops the school from cheating for that year before

[00:08:53] he's transferred out.

[00:08:54] But that impact had such a big deal on our main character

[00:08:58] that he set out on his agenda to become a police officer,

[00:09:06] just like the person who influenced him to change.

[00:09:10] He also has support from the fact that his dad is somebody

[00:09:13] who believes in fairness.

[00:09:15] And like you said, the story is quite predictable.

[00:09:19] I have no qualms with that.

[00:09:21] But sometimes the movie is not about the story.

[00:09:24] It's about how the characters get there.

[00:09:26] And this movie is a perfect example of maybe not the journey

[00:09:30] as being the most interesting, but how the characters get to there.

[00:09:35] If you stare at the movie and you met the girl interest,

[00:09:37] you would say, oh, they would end up together.

[00:09:39] Great. No problem.

[00:09:41] But the story was how will this girl who grew up in

[00:09:45] a society, a family that is generally considered to be wealthy

[00:09:51] and this guy who is poor, who lives in a flour mill,

[00:09:59] how they ended up together.

[00:10:02] That story is interesting.

[00:10:04] The fact that they ended up together is not necessarily as interesting

[00:10:07] as how they got to end up together.

[00:10:11] And after facing humiliation, I'm going to hear her parents' house,

[00:10:16] his parents' house and getting told to leave in a very rude way.

[00:10:22] It wasn't, you know, it is kind of surprising how it all

[00:10:26] boiled down in the very end.

[00:10:28] There were conflicts.

[00:10:29] The conflicts were interesting as somebody who grew up in Africa.

[00:10:33] I can relate to some of the conversation about, you know,

[00:10:37] hey, we got a call from a stranger saying that you were doing so and so

[00:10:42] that kind of happens in Nigeria too.

[00:10:46] And I do think that the journey was generally very interesting,

[00:10:50] even if the story is predictable.

[00:10:51] The characters were interesting enough.

[00:10:54] The main character was very, very interesting.

[00:10:57] And I was actually surprised that his relationship with his best friend,

[00:11:01] the guy who joined him at the train station,

[00:11:05] actually made me feel emotional,

[00:11:09] especially at the very end when they did give themselves a hug.

[00:11:13] I do think that, you know, the characters were the strong path to this film.

[00:11:19] But I can also talk a little bit about the environment

[00:11:21] and how it felt to be in those scenes,

[00:11:24] but I'll leave you a chance to rebut.

[00:11:31] So following your argument, like it hits harder if you can relate

[00:11:42] to the social dynamics in this, right?

[00:11:48] And I guess a big sense.

[00:11:55] I mean, like I still find the main story that we are watching here

[00:12:05] is not like incredibly compelling.

[00:12:08] Right? Like we have this main character

[00:12:11] that is setting out to be a police officer.

[00:12:16] First of all, it's crazy to me that that process is so complex.

[00:12:24] It's crazy to me that this process is the chances to become a police officer are so

[00:12:31] so unlikely.

[00:12:34] All right, so slim, basically.

[00:12:36] It's fascinating in a way, but.

[00:12:41] All that aside, I think like.

[00:12:45] We have to do that is just he's on the struggle train for 95 percent of the movie.

[00:12:52] He's always keeping keeping a smile and always, you know,

[00:12:56] he's not being pushed down.

[00:12:58] I think that's commendable, but.

[00:13:01] At the end of the day, we are watching this dude like fail and fail and fail

[00:13:06] and fail and fail again.

[00:13:08] And he's he's persevering through everything.

[00:13:12] And yes, he's getting the prize at the end.

[00:13:14] But again, there is no no surprise really there because he had to.

[00:13:18] Otherwise, this movie would have been just fail, fail, fail, fail and ultimate fail.

[00:13:26] So it's.

[00:13:28] So it's it's like.

[00:13:32] You could have told the story a lot faster, I think is my my rebuttal for one.

[00:13:39] We did not have to see this for two and a half hours.

[00:13:43] I don't think I think there's a lot of fluff around here.

[00:13:45] I think you could have done a lot of montage work around the.

[00:13:51] Around the.

[00:13:52] Around the.

[00:13:54] Exams, the multiple exam attempts and then maybe go more towards

[00:14:00] the work that he's done after he's become a police officer and show us

[00:14:04] like the good that he's brought and not just a struggle.

[00:14:07] I think the struggle is is a component of his life, but.

[00:14:13] There must have been something where he influenced somebody else

[00:14:17] and kind of keeping that the train going.

[00:14:18] But we are not witnessing any of that.

[00:14:22] I think it's a big misstep that we have here.

[00:14:26] And like I said, at the end of the day, it's.

[00:14:29] It's a movie about a dude that wants to get a certain job.

[00:14:32] He's working hard for it.

[00:14:33] He's failing. He's failing.

[00:14:34] He's failing at the last chance, honestly prevails and he's getting the job.

[00:14:40] And that's it.

[00:14:42] That's basically it.

[00:14:42] He's getting the job.

[00:14:43] He's getting the girl.

[00:14:46] And credits and.

[00:14:49] It's not new.

[00:14:51] It's it's not incredibly interesting.

[00:14:54] The the only thing that is interesting is just being exposed to

[00:15:01] an Indian film and kind of all that that surrounds that, right?

[00:15:06] And these for me, but like had been a normal American story in a way,

[00:15:11] like related a remake in a certain America.

[00:15:15] This would have been not a great film.

[00:15:18] Right. So so I guess the question is, is this film.

[00:15:23] Getting accolades, accolades because of the setting.

[00:15:30] Because it's not for the story, I don't think.

[00:15:33] I don't know.

[00:15:34] I'm like I said, I'm overall I'm just not super convinced about this one.

[00:15:40] All right. So I can talk to some of it.

[00:15:43] So the IPS officer is a police officer, like you said,

[00:15:47] but it's not the basic police officer.

[00:15:49] So generally you have the police officer who are regional,

[00:15:53] employed by the state who foresee small towns,

[00:15:57] small villages who foresee big cities.

[00:16:01] But then you have national police officers who supersedes them

[00:16:08] and they come, they come, they control the central armed police officers.

[00:16:13] The national security guards, the disaster response force,

[00:16:18] the intelligence bureau.

[00:16:20] So they're like really high.

[00:16:21] They are civil servants.

[00:16:23] They work directly with the government.

[00:16:25] And that's why at the very end of the film, when it goes to see

[00:16:29] the old police officer who initially introduced him to doing good,

[00:16:35] the guy had to salute him.

[00:16:36] So there's levels.

[00:16:38] It's a it's a pretty cushy job.

[00:16:43] And if there's any criticisms that I'm going to have about it,

[00:16:47] it's the fact that you need to know way too much to get in there.

[00:16:53] So one of the things I talked about at the very beginning

[00:16:55] was the amount of people who who apply for the job.

[00:17:00] It's a job.

[00:17:01] There are very few folks who actually are in the role.

[00:17:04] They only accept one hundred and fifty dollars, fifty humans a year

[00:17:09] and over two hundred thousand people apply for it.

[00:17:13] Um, he was a Hindi.

[00:17:18] He was a Hindi based student.

[00:17:21] I guess that's that's what he called it.

[00:17:24] Where most of his classes were in Hindi and the only classes took

[00:17:28] in English was English classes.

[00:17:32] So he didn't have a lot of exposure to English.

[00:17:35] You could speak it in certain situations,

[00:17:38] but you could see that he always reverted back to Hindi.

[00:17:41] Um, this is such a cushy job or post job that a lot of people

[00:17:45] look down on Hindi, Hindi studying students.

[00:17:50] Even at the very last interview, the main the main chief was like, oh, no, man.

[00:17:55] Yo, this Hindi guys.

[00:18:00] They mentioned that he didn't he didn't like Hindi based

[00:18:03] students and that he always preferred English based students

[00:18:06] because they saw that kind of idea.

[00:18:09] So I'm just saying all this because I wanted to point out how much

[00:18:14] of a stacked, um, a stacked deck he had against him.

[00:18:20] He had against himself deciding to forgo

[00:18:24] becoming just a normal police officer and then working for 25 years

[00:18:29] for the chance to be an IPS officer and just going straight for the IPS role.

[00:18:35] There were also conversations about casts.

[00:18:38] One guy said he took it, uh, Gnudge said he took it six times

[00:18:42] because he was of a lower cast and all six times he failed.

[00:18:47] And he could never take it again.

[00:18:50] I think that one of the things that they showed in this episode,

[00:18:53] in this movie was how often people failed,

[00:18:57] how often people stopped working on this program

[00:19:02] and switched to something else.

[00:19:05] How desirable the job was.

[00:19:07] All sorts of people were applying for this, looking for an opportunity to get in.

[00:19:11] And at the very end, you saw the elites, the folks who came in

[00:19:16] who were just sitting down in suits ready to take the interviews.

[00:19:20] And it all felt like a lot.

[00:19:24] What are the chances that this kid would all

[00:19:28] everything stacked against him would actually succeed in this role?

[00:19:32] Even the board was stacked against him.

[00:19:34] So I think that when you look at it from that human level,

[00:19:37] I found this movie very compelling.

[00:19:40] And I felt quite moved, especially between him and his relationship

[00:19:47] with the friend who met him in the train station and brought him to Delhi.

[00:19:52] And I felt like that skiff between the two of them,

[00:19:56] where he asked for the phone and he was like, no,

[00:19:59] you never asked me how I did.

[00:20:01] This is my fourth film and I'm never going to be this.

[00:20:04] I thought he made some valid points, even though he went too far.

[00:20:09] He went too far.

[00:20:12] I like the film. I like the film.

[00:20:15] I'm not going to speak for

[00:20:19] how, you know, what do you call it?

[00:20:21] How predictable it is.

[00:20:23] I don't think I can win an argument on that front.

[00:20:26] I can't win an argument on on whether, you know,

[00:20:29] this movie is exceptionally acted,

[00:20:33] but I can tell you that the story is good.

[00:20:36] And sometimes the story wins.

[00:20:39] Are you seeing predictable films in this in trouble?

[00:20:42] We've done this is a 78 film or 77 film

[00:20:46] and we've seen a lot of predictable films.

[00:20:49] Some of them we've said, hey, they're good.

[00:20:51] Some of them we've said, oh, that doesn't work in its favor.

[00:20:56] So I don't think the predictability is what

[00:21:01] makes a film. Most films are predictable.

[00:21:04] I saw June in the weekend.

[00:21:06] I knew what was going to happen at the end.

[00:21:08] He was going to prevail because there's going to be another part.

[00:21:11] So you kind of know.

[00:21:13] So it's.

[00:21:16] It's it's it's not the predictability that matters,

[00:21:18] it's the journey, like I said.

[00:21:20] And I think the journey was compelling, especially for me.

[00:21:23] And I can appreciate the journey.

[00:21:24] So that's why I did.

[00:21:26] OK, I mean, as for as for doing,

[00:21:27] I would I would have a comment there,

[00:21:29] but I'm reserving it for the next episode

[00:21:31] in terms of predictability.

[00:21:33] But again, you you're familiar with the books.

[00:21:34] I'm not so, you know,

[00:21:37] I think they're very, very different stories.

[00:21:39] The.

[00:21:42] Like I said, I.

[00:21:45] I never had any doubt that the outcome of this film

[00:21:49] would would be any different to what we've gotten here.

[00:21:57] Because that just doesn't make a good feel good film.

[00:22:01] And I think the tone of it, like right from the start,

[00:22:05] like the first opening kind of shot and everything

[00:22:09] tells us, hey, this is basically a happy story.

[00:22:13] Right, it was right here and here.

[00:22:15] So it's already kind of laying the foundation of like.

[00:22:19] OK, like this will this will have a good ending.

[00:22:22] And that's what I'm saying.

[00:22:23] I think like.

[00:22:26] There was never a doubt that he would not get it.

[00:22:30] Right. So all the trials and tribulations along the way

[00:22:34] are interesting and purely for the for me, at least purely for the sake of

[00:22:39] learning about that process

[00:22:41] and how hard it is and how complex it is.

[00:22:44] And like, you know, all the essays you have to write

[00:22:47] and all that stuff, right?

[00:22:49] I think that's fascinating.

[00:22:52] But as a.

[00:22:55] As a character arc, there's not a lot there.

[00:22:58] And unless you just really take like he's doing

[00:23:01] like whatever it takes, but it's also he's he's

[00:23:06] like the span of time that is shown here.

[00:23:10] Seems like a long time, right?

[00:23:12] It's like 10 years or so.

[00:23:14] And I feel like that is not super clear either.

[00:23:17] And it takes like it's it's like.

[00:23:22] Mad props to the real person who's gone through this for for years, right?

[00:23:26] Like working in the library and really kind of scrapping by

[00:23:30] and doing all that to get his dream job.

[00:23:34] Super mad props.

[00:23:36] I think it would have helped to.

[00:23:39] If you if you go down that path and if you take the time

[00:23:43] to tell that story in that sense to also reflect time a lot, right?

[00:23:49] So it's.

[00:23:53] Yeah, it's there's a few missteps in this film.

[00:23:56] I think like sure.

[00:23:58] Like I said, it's it's interesting to see the this different world,

[00:24:02] those different environment and just kind of the lengths people go through

[00:24:06] to get these prestigious jobs.

[00:24:08] I find fascination in that, but I think the way the story has been told

[00:24:14] is just not.

[00:24:17] Fully there for me.

[00:24:20] All right, that's it.

[00:24:21] I mean, I can I can totally I can totally understand.

[00:24:26] I kind of figured.

[00:24:29] That you probably wouldn't like it as much when you jump on this train.

[00:24:35] But I thought I thought it was good.

[00:24:37] I mean, I'm another thing is I've seen a lot of Indian films

[00:24:42] and of the Indian films I've seen.

[00:24:44] This is one of the least dramatic like it's

[00:24:49] it's quite mellow.

[00:24:51] Yeah, it is quite mellow.

[00:24:52] You know, it's and no qualms.

[00:24:56] I really enjoyed a lot of Indian films.

[00:24:58] Delhi Belly is one example of a crazy Indian film that I really enjoyed.

[00:25:04] But this was a totally different tone and a totally different pace.

[00:25:08] And I think that, you know, it does a good job.

[00:25:12] One of the things that I would say is that there's nothing like

[00:25:15] extremely fancy about the way the camera works.

[00:25:18] Or, you know, there's nothing fancy about the camera movements,

[00:25:22] the styles or that.

[00:25:23] But what is interesting is we saw the transition from the small town village

[00:25:30] to a medium sized city where he was initially going to become a police officer

[00:25:37] and then to Delhi.

[00:25:38] And the contrast was intense.

[00:25:41] And I think that the character actor,

[00:25:45] the character, the guy who played the character did a good job of highlighting

[00:25:49] how daunting it felt to move from a small town to a big city like Delhi.

[00:25:55] And how much he had to hustle.

[00:26:00] I think they showed a lot of inside houses.

[00:26:02] It wasn't like a glamourized version of Delhi.

[00:26:05] He was like, OK, we're going into these buildings.

[00:26:08] These buildings are very tight.

[00:26:10] We have wires all over the road, all over the streets, all over the roofs.

[00:26:15] It just felt congested.

[00:26:18] And I think the movie did a good job of showing how difficult it is

[00:26:24] to go from a position like where you are in a poor town

[00:26:30] to leading a police force on from a civil servants.

[00:26:36] So, yes, I can appreciate that.

[00:26:39] Yeah, yeah.

[00:26:44] Should we go to the sidebar?

[00:26:45] Let's go to the sidebar.

[00:26:47] Overall, sidebar guilty speculation.

[00:26:49] Here's a brief case in my chamber.

[00:26:51] Stop beaver and the witness arrest.

[00:26:52] We could totally be lawyers.

[00:26:54] Sidebar.

[00:26:56] Nice.

[00:26:59] I think it's a perfectly fine movie.

[00:27:03] Yeah, you know, like I didn't hate it.

[00:27:06] The thing that I found very fascinating was

[00:27:11] in regards to language, like, I think that there's probably again a lot that

[00:27:20] we may miss because we are not.

[00:27:24] Understanding the nuances that are happening here.

[00:27:30] Like you were mentioning, you know, the difference between the English classes

[00:27:35] and the Hindi classes and kind of how that elevates your status

[00:27:38] or like your ranking in all of this and how it sets you up

[00:27:42] for less of a success rate.

[00:27:45] If you're part of the Hindi group and all that.

[00:27:48] I found that fascinating and I also found fascinating

[00:27:51] the amount of English that pops up here and there.

[00:27:56] I don't know if you noticed that, but, you know, there's like certain words

[00:27:58] that they're just kind of suspended was one of them.

[00:28:01] I wrote that down because I wanted to learn more about like why that is

[00:28:07] and math.

[00:28:08] Math was in English too, right?

[00:28:10] Like X minus one and all that.

[00:28:12] So learned a little bit more about it.

[00:28:15] And it's very similar to German and that apparently where it's

[00:28:20] it's just easier to use the English word because it's like the Hindi word

[00:28:24] is longer, takes longer.

[00:28:26] Like I've been that kind of stuff fascinating, but it doesn't have anything

[00:28:30] to do with the movie.

[00:28:32] Right? So.

[00:28:35] Yeah, it's.

[00:28:37] The more I thought about this and the more I thought about the linear story

[00:28:41] arc argument that I had, there's another film that I saw recently,

[00:28:47] I O Capitano, which is nominated for Best Foreign Film.

[00:28:53] Have you heard of that film?

[00:28:55] OK, so it's basically the story of

[00:29:00] two cousins that try to.

[00:29:03] Get from Somalia to Europe.

[00:29:08] And like the main the main character, 16, and this cousin was also as young,

[00:29:12] right? So they they use like the help or get exploited along the way.

[00:29:20] Right? And it's kind of similar in that.

[00:29:24] You feel like this has to be a happy ending.

[00:29:28] Otherwise, this would be the most oppressing movie ever because it is

[00:29:31] already pretty depressing because along the way there's just nasty stuff happening.

[00:29:36] But I felt it was a little more compelling in a sense

[00:29:39] because the tribes and tribulations along the way were had so much more stake.

[00:29:47] And I think like a lot of a lot of that what we've seen here in

[00:29:52] in this film, there was not a lot of stake like the only stake was there was

[00:29:57] really was does it get the job or not?

[00:30:00] Right? Like this is not a life or death kind of situation.

[00:30:05] And. In a lot of sense, that makes a story that is so linear,

[00:30:13] a bit more compelling if you have stakes that really matter, I think.

[00:30:17] And then again, this film kind of like that a little for me.

[00:30:22] I do I do agree with you in the sense that

[00:30:25] this whole movie was just about somebody who wanted to take an exam

[00:30:29] to become a police officer.

[00:30:31] It was just a movie about studying.

[00:30:35] And honestly, I felt like some of the points in the film felt hamfisted.

[00:30:43] Like the question about honesty, it was a little too on the nose.

[00:30:48] A little too on it was almost everywhere.

[00:30:50] It's like, oh, look to the officers.

[00:30:52] I mean, I get it. The idea is great.

[00:30:55] But if director had a message you wanted to share and I felt like

[00:30:59] rather than let the story tell the story or let the story

[00:31:04] emphasize the value of being honest, they found ways to explicitly

[00:31:09] state taste, state their point.

[00:31:14] You know, even at the final scene when he's doing the interview with all

[00:31:17] the the board who was going to accept him, you know, it just felt

[00:31:23] you know, it felt like something you would expect like, oh, OK,

[00:31:27] this is the kind of movie where, you know, he would go into there

[00:31:32] and they'd be like, oh man, I don't like this guy's.

[00:31:34] But man, this guy for some reason he's done is done great.

[00:31:40] The name 12th fell is very localized because nobody

[00:31:44] on outside of India understands what 12th fell means.

[00:31:49] And I had to look it up.

[00:31:52] It doesn't help that the story.

[00:31:55] I mean, the name of the movie is 12th fell restart, which I mean,

[00:32:01] it doesn't it feels weird.

[00:32:04] But anybody who understands the context of it in India will probably

[00:32:07] understand exactly what this movie is about.

[00:32:10] And I think they do the good job of explaining it in the film.

[00:32:14] But like when we saw 12th fell, I couldn't tell you what the film was about.

[00:32:18] I didn't even know what the film was about.

[00:32:22] Twenty five minutes into it.

[00:32:24] And then I was like, oh, we're just watching about a movie

[00:32:27] about a guy who wants to take an exam.

[00:32:31] And it was quite disappointing.

[00:32:34] But then, like I said, the story of the characters were compelling

[00:32:38] and I eventually got moved by the characters.

[00:32:40] So I like the film, like I said,

[00:32:44] do I think this movie deserves to be as high as it is?

[00:32:49] And no, no, no, no, I don't think so.

[00:32:53] But would I watch this movie again?

[00:32:55] Yes, I think this movie is.

[00:32:58] Is definitely punching above its weight in terms of the reviews at the moment.

[00:33:06] But I also feel like it's a great human story

[00:33:09] and anybody who wants to watch this should give this an opportunity.

[00:33:13] They should watch this film because it's a great human story.

[00:33:16] The human stories are human stories.

[00:33:18] Yeah, I was just thinking of if there, you know, if there was an American remake.

[00:33:25] Because America likes to do remakes and not just take photos.

[00:33:29] You know,

[00:33:31] you could probably be like, OK, you have this kid that starts out in school

[00:33:37] and wants to land a job at Google, right?

[00:33:41] And then is going through a lot of trials and tribulations,

[00:33:45] multiple interviews, like always having to wait another year

[00:33:48] for the if you don't pass to to get back into the interview cycle.

[00:33:54] You know, like and then after I don't know how many years

[00:33:58] like eventually they get that job and that's where the movie ends.

[00:34:02] And it's like, is that really interesting?

[00:34:05] Right. Like.

[00:34:10] Probably not.

[00:34:11] So so again, like for me, it goes back to.

[00:34:15] The journey is not necessarily interesting.

[00:34:17] What we're seeing on the on the outside of the

[00:34:20] of the main character is interesting.

[00:34:23] But just because it's not an environment that I see a lot, right?

[00:34:27] Like, like so.

[00:34:28] So there's a lot there that is like, oh, that that's super cool.

[00:34:31] That's, you know, like the contrast, like you said, between the village and the

[00:34:35] and Delhi, like this wildest bonkers that would go crazy there, I think.

[00:34:42] So so that's fascinating just to see as a as from a cultural perspective.

[00:34:48] But from a story perspective, it's

[00:34:50] it's OK.

[00:34:52] It's fine.

[00:34:54] It's not crazy interesting.

[00:34:55] It's more the process than like the actual story, I guess.

[00:34:58] I agree. I agree with that.

[00:35:00] I will say that when they went into the mountains to see

[00:35:05] his prospective girlfriend, I thought that

[00:35:09] they didn't do a good job of highlighting

[00:35:12] that region.

[00:35:13] It would have been nice to see what it's like.

[00:35:16] It's like all we could see was what we could see from the windows.

[00:35:19] And it felt like we were on top of a mountain

[00:35:22] and there was some water below.

[00:35:24] I'm not entirely sure, but it looked beautiful.

[00:35:27] I wish they could have given us a little bit more

[00:35:31] just to spice it up and say, hey, this is totally different region.

[00:35:35] We never see this region of India.

[00:35:37] We only see like the big, you know, big cities.

[00:35:41] Let's see what it feels like to be living like up here,

[00:35:44] you know, like the folks that live up in the mountains.

[00:35:48] Let's see what it feels like.

[00:35:51] That's one of the things that I felt like they missed on.

[00:35:54] Yeah.

[00:35:56] Yeah, for sure.

[00:35:57] So yeah, I agree.

[00:35:58] This is like 55, it's in the 50s, I think, at the last currently.

[00:36:02] Right? Yeah.

[00:36:08] I would say that should go down to the 80s or the 70s.

[00:36:13] I mean, it can still stay on the list,

[00:36:15] but I'm not entirely sure.

[00:36:18] I mean, there's even an argument that it may not even be shouldn't be on the list.

[00:36:22] Yeah.

[00:36:24] It's really better than Django Unchained.

[00:36:26] No.

[00:36:29] You know, there's I mean, if somebody told me like really,

[00:36:34] do you really think that this movie should be on the list?

[00:36:38] I probably would be like no, but I can.

[00:36:41] I mean, I don't even know why it made it this high.

[00:36:44] I must say the movie is bad.

[00:36:46] But even the reviews were slightly mixed.

[00:36:51] Like we're seeing a lot of three out of five from India,

[00:36:55] some 3.5, some, you know, twos.

[00:36:59] For somehow, it still had a huge IMDB score.

[00:37:06] So I mean, that's the reason why we put the initial

[00:37:09] point about, you know, in some regions,

[00:37:12] this movie isn't well received.

[00:37:14] So, you know, I guess it's good.

[00:37:19] It's interesting.

[00:37:21] But don't go in expecting a blockbuster.

[00:37:26] Yeah, I would say, however, it's better than Life is Beautiful.

[00:37:31] Life is Beautiful.

[00:37:32] Oh, the Italian one.

[00:37:34] Oh, yeah.

[00:37:35] That movie is still the Bane.

[00:37:37] I still don't know how high that anyway.

[00:37:40] Yeah, you know, it's also it's quite interesting to say,

[00:37:43] you know, I'm watching

[00:37:47] Open Hammer, we know this awards.

[00:37:49] And you know, it's very interesting to see how

[00:37:53] despite the fact that I wasn't a biggest fan of this film.

[00:37:58] And like I said, it felt like

[00:38:01] contrived in many areas.

[00:38:04] The timeline seems weird.

[00:38:06] The people love what they want and they're still giving it Oscars.

[00:38:09] I mean, it's like sitting down and watching that movie,

[00:38:13] take all the Oscars.

[00:38:14] It's a little bit disconcerting because it causes you to question my views

[00:38:18] on movies.

[00:38:22] So it's like seeing this movie on the list

[00:38:25] and me not liking it doesn't necessarily mean

[00:38:29] that this movie doesn't deserve to be there.

[00:38:31] It wouldn't be on my list.

[00:38:33] But I think that it could be on other people's list.

[00:38:36] And that's fair enough.

[00:38:39] Yeah, for sure.

[00:38:41] All right, I think we've spoken of about all this.

[00:38:46] Next up, Dune Part Two.

[00:38:49] Yes, we're going to Iraqis.

[00:38:52] All right, I'm excited to talk about that film.

[00:38:55] Sounded like it.

[00:38:56] So I'm excited to hear what you have to say about it.

[00:38:59] You know, the irony was after I finished the movie,

[00:39:01] I was like, I need to go reach that.

[00:39:03] I'd really I'd finished reading the first book.

[00:39:05] I think I was halfway to the second and I just dropped off.

[00:39:09] Well, after watching the movie, I was like, I need to go watch

[00:39:11] read the third book all over instead of reading it again.

[00:39:16] I'm glad I'm glad it's a good.

[00:39:19] Anyway, I can't talk too much about it.

[00:39:21] I have I may have to argue against it.

[00:39:23] So I'm not going to give you my cards.

[00:39:26] All right, so thank you very much for listening until that.

[00:39:29] You can find us on.

[00:39:33] Yes, I was just going to go through that.

[00:39:34] Sorry, you find us on Facebook, Instagram,

[00:39:38] on Twitter or X on at Movie Mistrial.

[00:39:42] Or you can send us an email at contact that movie mistra.com.

[00:39:47] We're looking forward to hearing from you.

[00:39:49] Hope you guys have a great week and ciao.

[00:39:52] Ciao.