#10 - Movies that shaped me (Part 1) - 12 Angry Men

In India, there are only 2 religions, one is Cinema and the other is Cricket. So in my childhood till 12th STD, there was only this TV with a normal antenna that telecasts Doordarshan Hindi Programmes till 3 PM. And after that channel turns into Podhigai and Tamil Programmes will be telecasted. There was no "India tholaikaatchigalil mudhal muraiyaga, thiraikku vandhu sila maadhangaley aana putham pudhiya thiraippadam" in DD.(Movies premiering First time on Indian Television channel after few months of theatrical release).DD telecast only old tamil movies. After that as days passed on we got thiruttu DVDs(Pirated DVDs) and saw many new movies, because my parents won't allow us to the theaters. Or else I go to my Grandpa's home where there will be cable connection and watch all the new Tamil movies. Also I started watching Hollywood movies in Tamil dubbed which were too mainstream like Spiderman, Jurassic Park, Titanic. The only Hollywood director I knew at that time was "Steven Spielberg ''. Then later on during college days some of my movie buffs friends and the advent of Facebook introduced me to 2 legends "Christopher Nolan" and "Quentin Tarantino". During this era, movies were being downloaded from torrents, but still the internet was a big issue. So we went to some friend’s home who has a good broadband connection with a pendrive of 8GB & transferred the movies to it. Now my horizon is gradually widening. Then I searched on Google and IMDB for the "best movies to watch before you die", "must watch movies for aspiring filmmakers'', "List of films that filmmakers love" and took a huge list and I could find few films that were repeated in almost every list and "12 Angry Men" was one among them. The title itself really got me hooked. Yes, then I downloaded that movie, it was a black and white movie made in the 1950s. I kind of was so reluctant to watch it that most classic old films won't be as engaging as the newer ones but one day I started to watch it. But still I managed to watch.

The movie story goes like this, in a court, a boy was being accused of a murder and all things were against him and he has to be given a verdict by the judge the following week whether he is guilty or not. The Judge before giving the verdict calls for a discussion forum which contains 12 people from diverse fields of life like a shopkeeper, teacher, businessmen, sportsman, painter, doctor, etc and they all have to discuss their opinions about the case and vote if that boy is guilty or not. It was an afternoon of a weekend, and everyone was in a hurry having some commitments after this discussion like going to theaters, soccer games, hotels etc. So, everyone was in a hurry. All of them came into a room and few were saying that, this boy is guilty, he has to be punished by law, see every evidence proves it, so what's the point in discussion. Let's vote and leave. And all of them voted unanimously and were in a thought of leaving, but one man alone said that he thinks the boy may be the real murderer but he could also not be a murderer too. So if in case, he is innocent and we all vote it out without even a discussion, then we are definitely killing an innocent. So, for a discussion to happen and prolong, I vote him as not guilty. Now the vote count is 1 for not guilty and 11 for guilty. Then a few got angry again and a discussion started in which another person came up with a valid argument and evidence and he also voted that the boy is not guilty. So now it's 2/10. Then likewise the discussion continues, 3/9, 4/8, 5/7, 6/8.. and now tables are turning around. But Only one guy was so strongly, vehemently saying that the boy is the murderer. And after a few more deep discussions, towards the end it was like 10/1. That guy was still stubborn. And atlast he burst out into tears and said that the boy was not guilty, it was his ego that was stopping him from telling that the boy was innocent. So at last it became 12/0 for the boy being innocent & not a murderer. And everyone goes out of the court, the movie ends.

This movie made me think that we shouldn't believe anything so blindly. And reminded me of "theera visarippathey mei". (A Fine Interrogation is necessary to find the Truth). If that first guy wouldn't have initiated this discussion, probably the boy would have been hanged to death for being innocent. So, the takeaways from this movie are we have to have perspectives and discussions. We should not judge a person based on their birth, caste, religion, language, country, race etc. We should not have preconceived notions. We should try to understand them, why they are like that, and why they behave in such a way. We have to have both IQ and EQ at a balanced level. And these things have become my fundamental moral ideology till now. Thanks to the whole team for making this cult classic movie. (Just think of it, the team while making the movie would have not even thought that this movie will change the perspective towards the life of a boy from Madurai). Yes, movies are inspirational, influential & it can make a huge positive social impact. That's the power of Cinema/Art.

Peace. ☮️

-Senthil Rajan