Special 26

A prey to commercial demands

 

               

            After the spectacular thriller of 2008, A Wednesday directed by Niraj Pandey, it isn’t surprising if you eagerly await for his next, especially when the trailers look pretty interesting. When a first time director make a spectacular film, his second not so bad project, can easily be written off and Special 26 can fall prey to the same.

            A decent plot, good story telling and an excellent background score is what Special 26 flaunts, but all this goes in vain when a smoothly running story is occasionally interrupted by totally unnecessary romance sequences. It is surprising and annoying to see an efficient director fall prey to the so called conventional commercial demands of a Hindi movie especially when he already has roped in a ‘very saleable’ hero. Dragged romantic scenes and dance numbers pop in and out of a gripping narrative and make it look like a never ending novel and defy the very intention of it bringing some entertainment value as all it does is, is to make the viewers restless.           

            Ajay Singh, played by Akshay Kumar with his three fellow conmen have been raiding politicians and rich businessmen for some time now by pretending to be officers from CBI. They raid another minister and also cheat the local police who aid them during the raid. Ranveer Singh, the cheated (and hence suspended) police officer played by Jimmy Shergill is desperate to find the conmen down with help of Wasim, the real CBI officer. The raids shown look very real and tiniest of details shown. Entertaining dialogues and comic traits of certain characters are the brightest parts of the movie.

 



 

Director writes a gripping screenplay for the parts showing the hardcore planning and execution of the raids/robbery, but the lengthy romantic pop ups totally slow down the pace of the film. Pandey adds a totally unnecessary character: Ajay Singh’s lady love played by Kajal Aggraval. This character costs the film a really boring 30 minute excess run time and hence a few detractors. The screenplay then fails to keep the suspense till the end.

Camera work is excellent, especially during the chasing sequences, the robbery and vehicles. Editing is average and some really amateurish animation is easily annoying. Music is also average but background is excellent.

 Anupam Kher is terrific as the oldest of the conmen. He is hilarious in parts and really strong and vibrant in the raiding sequences. Manoj Bajpai looks pitifully weak but delivers an equally strong performance. Kajal Aggrawal gets the second name in the credits, but has least work. She is wasted in the film, has the most insignificant role and fails to be even a show piece. Jimy Shergill and Divya Dutta too have much smaller roles. Akshay Kumar is entertaining, smart and quick for his role and performs it with utmost sincerity.

Special 26 has its flaws, but it surely is one of the better films of the year.

I am going with a 3 out of 5 for Neeraj Pandey’s Special 26. Do watch it, but with some patience.

 

 

 

Vishwaroop

 

                                                                       The first in India

               

              In spite of having seen decent action sequences in some recently released films like Ek tha Tiger, action in Indian films has been incomparably inferior to that produced in the west. Writer, co-producer and director Kamal Haasan’s Vishwaroop is a perfect example to break this convention and is to date the most technically sound film made in India. This can perhaps become your sole reason to catch it this week in the theatres.

                Kamal Haasan’s Vishwaroop totally sucks you into the plot within the first few minutes of the run time.  It is easily amusing to see an effeminate hero dance kathak on a classical number, in a spy thriller in the very beginning of the film. But it soon starts to lose its grip with some scattered writing in the second half.  Hasan writes a non linear screenplay and tries his best to keep the suspense intact, but the story is often too simple to even pretend to have anything hidden.  And in this desperate play of the screenplay, Hasan introduces unnecessary characters and scenes which add nothing but an excessive run time.

                It all starts with narration from Dr Nirupama(Pooja Kumar) an oncologist in the states, who is married with an hidden agenda to an effeminate and much older husband,Vishwanath(Kamal Haasan). Having to self hide her guilt of an affair with her boss, she hires a spy to find out a possible extra-marital affair of her husband. Soon the spy falls into the wrong hands while chasing Vishwanath, and things start to unfold and all the lies to unveil.

 



                A large portion of the film is shot in parts of the terrorist camps of Afghanistan and is easily the highlight of the film. The combat including the bombings, the Arab culture and especially the vicious terroristic influence on the kids of the jihads is shown with utmost genuineness which makes it a well researched film. Hasan excels in showing emotions of the innocent Arabs living life on the edge in Afghanistan.  For instance, a scene where an innocent Arab accused of being a traitor is hanged to death on a crane while the mother cries helplessly reveals the intense atmosphere in the country.

                The camera work is excellent with clean cinematography capturing the lonely arid deserts of Afghanistan and cold snowy winter of New York. Editing is uniquely done, especially the spoofy edits when the narration changes timelines.

                Pooja Kumar as Dr. Nirupama is well cast, she often struggles to match up to Hasan’s performance, but succeeds in most providing a comic relief in the film. It is interesting to see Rahul Bose cast as a jihad, especially when the casting team had a lot of other options. He seems a little uncomfortable in his character, and doesn’t finds a spot for it. Shekar Kapoor has limited work, and he hardly shines through whatever he gets. Praising Kamal Hasan for a good performance is like calling sugar sweet; from being the effeminate to the macho guy, he gets it all bang on!

                Vishwaroop could have been a great film had it managed to find a smarter script. Yet, the film is easily watchable and I would recommend a watch as this film has touched such a height of excellence in the technical department that no Indian film has to date.

                For the record the film doesn’t make any derogatory remarks on any sane community of the world, and the film clearly deals with anti-terrorism ideals and the reality of the terrorists groups of Taliban in Afghanistan.

 

I am going with a 3 out of 5 for Kamal Hasan’s Vishwaroop. Watch it for its technical finesse and to have a closer look at the reality of Afghanistan