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.