Getting a glimpse into the mind of an artist is fascinating; to be able to see the minds at work behind a piece of art is something truly special. And that's the feeling that Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s Zero Se Restart leaves you with. This stirring documentary about how 12th Fail was made takes you to the very start – when nobody believed in the film.

The idea is obvious – we’re meant to draw parallels between the film and the protagonist’s stories; how both their success hinged on faith and perseverance. But since the film’s design makes that idea so obvious, it feels a little unimaginative. However, if you push past that, there is a lot to love about Zero Se Restart. 

Vidhu Vinod Chopra on the sets of 12th Fail in a still from Zero Se Restart.

Multiple young directors meet with Chopra and show no faith in the film; the word ‘disappointing’ is thrown around. Everyone seems to be going in circles until Chopra announces that he will direct the film and thus begins the journey of an artist dissecting his own work to create something he has never done before. Does doubt come with that? Or is the exhilaration of a project finally getting a kickstart enough to shadow doubt? Turns out, neither of those questions could be answered with a resounding yes. 

That is both the film’s win and pitfall. Chopra, with films like Parinda, Khamosh, and 1942: A Love Story, is no stranger to ‘cinema’ and he has the means to simply build a massive set if he so pleases. While the film accurately captures that aspect of his work in 12th Fail, the look into his anxieties about the film feels comparatively superficial. The shift from ‘Nobody believed in this film’ to ‘Director saab will handle it’ doesn’t happen as seamlessly as it should because a nuanced study of the man behind the camera feels absent.

While Chopra’s quick wit and Rangarajan Ramabadran’s (aka Ranga) ingenuity are fascinating to watch on screen, you can’t stop seeking something more complex. 

The sets of 12th Fail in a still from Zero Se Restart.

This documentary doesn’t have place for ‘interviews’; instead it stays in the ‘creative’ as long as possible, with voiceovers leading the audience through the narrative. We watch the film’s crew act out the film’s first sequence (arguably one of the film’s best-sketched-out ones) and we watch as the director realises, on the set, that he pictured it all wrong. This a film about a film – deeply rooted, naturally, in the idea of showbiz – but the sheen you would expect is absent. In fact, it looks like a student film (in the best way possible). 

It feels like the audience is in on something with the crew. As the crew is watching Chopra build 12th Fail, so are we. So we also wonder why the multiple atta chakkis don’t work and we can’t help but wonder why a script would possibly need more than a 100 revisions. The one issue with the narrative, however, is that it sometimes pulls on a scene too long. Say we’re waiting for a ‘reveal’ – why is this person on screen acting this way? – the scene takes too long to get to the point. It feels more frustrating than satisfying when the ‘reveal’ does come. 

Vidhu Vinod Chopra on the sets of 12th Fail in a still from Zero Se Restart.

The makers have picked the right anecdotes to leave in for the most part – the editing is crisp and concise, there’s no time wasted on things that don’t need, or wouldn’t hold, your attention. Even when a fight is put into the film, it ties into the narrative and somehow finds itself perfectly blended in with a character’s emotional journey. 

You could call Zero Se Restart whimsical and unpretentious in the sense that it ‘feels’ low budget when it obviously is not. And that’s why Varun Dhawan’s name popping up out of nowhere feels jarring in just the right way and how fun is it then that the film is talking of him as a ‘star’ who would look out of place in 12th Fail’s setting? And the bit lasts even longer when Vikrant Massey, who played the lead Manoj Sharma in 12th Fail, doesn’t get any introduction – he’s just ‘there’. And once again, you get it. The focus on this entire process only makes the later part, where Chopra grossly underestimates Massey’s popularity, shine. 

However, Medha Shankr’s exclusion from the film is puzzling, considering she was one of the actors who garnered the most praise for her portrayal of Shraddha Joshi. The few moments that we do get of her only heighten the feeling that something is missing. 

The sets of 12th Fail in a still from Zero Se Restart.

Speaking of technical prowess, the camera has a life of its own in Zero Se Restart by design. If 12th Fail relies on POV shots to get things across, effectively attempting to end the barrier between protagonist and viewer, Zero Se Restart wants to maintain that gap. And the sound design, while inconsistent at times, is brilliant. The soundscape puts the push-and-pull and high-and-low format of filmmaking to good use. 

While you’re enjoying how much thought was put into 12th Fail, it can become easy to miss out the work that went into this one. But that’s the magic of these films – 12th Fail makes you want to watch Zero Se Restart and you can’t watch Zero Se Restart without wanting to watch 12th Fail again.

Perhaps there isn’t a cinema-going audience for Zero Se Restart but there is someone out there, with a love for film, wondering if they’re cut out for that life. Wondering if they have what it takes. And this film will remind them to ‘not give up’. But to be honest, that’s not even the documentary’s overarching message.

What you might actually take away from the film is this: Nobody actually knows anything so why not try? And are those two things really that different?