Special 26

Neeraj Pandey’s debut into Bollywood could be equated to a storm.  While it was a remake, A Wednesday, created a lot of ripples across the film world.  Of course he was aided by a few of the best names in the industry.  2 out of those – Anupam Kher and Jimmy Sheirgill form part of the crew for Special 26 as well.

Supposedly based on a series of true events, Special 26 is the story of Ajay aka Ajju (Akshay Kumar) who has three partners Sharma (Anupam Kher), Iqbal (Kishore Kadam) and Rajesh (Rajesh Sharma).  Partners in crime.  Well – not crime exactly.  The only crime that they can probably be accused of is impersonation.

 

Because what the group does is pose as CBI or Income Tax agents and loot the filthy rich people of the world.  They loot them of their black money.  Ergo, they leave the victims too embarrassed and unable to report their cases because firstly black money doesn’t exist and secondly there is just too much to lose if there is a report filed.

 

But, like most conmen, it will only be a matter of time before fate catches up with them.  This time in the form of an actual CBI Officer Waseem Khan (Manoj Bajpayee) who is as honest as they come.  And has been deputed by the head because a minister is too scared to let the police handle that fact that he has been conned.

 

I thought this would be an outright copy of Catch Me If You Can because that’s what the trailers indicated.  But it turns out to be definitely different.  Yes it is about a conman at the end of the day.  But more like a Robin Hood conman – well almost. So that’s a saving grace – not an outright copy.

 

Superb performances from Manoj Bajpayee, Jimmy Sheirgill (the extra i in the name has helped) and of course Anupam Kher as expected.  But not as expected – and pleasantly so – a strong solid performance from Akshay Kumar who is as composed as I have seen him in a long long time. 

 

The music from comes from M M Kreem and is placed just right.  It is set aptly for a series of events in 1987.  There is a lot of attention to detail such as how Delhi used to look in the 1980s – something that is not associated with movies from this part of the world.  And the screenplay and dialogues are really good.

 

I loved Special 26.  Well balanced are the words that came to mind.  It gave me a sense of hope that all is not too bad in Bollywood as of now.  Yes, we started with a disastrous 3 weeks in 2013 but things have been looking up even if it is just a little bit.  First with Akash Vaani, then David and not Special 26.  Good stuff I say!!!! 7 on 10.

 

Trailer on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PiyQb28geOg