A Neeraj Pandey film post the classic A WEDNESDAY cannot escape two major things associated with it unarguably. One is the huge amount of expectations among the viewers from his second film and the other is a comparison in their minds with his debut movie which was acclaimed all over unanimously. Ideally, the comparison factor should be of least concern in such cases as a film-maker needs to be given complete freedom to break through and move in some diverse directions in his next attempts. However since in his second project Neeraj still opts for another Chor-Police kind of exciting thriller quite close to the genre of A WEDNESDAY so the comparisons would come in automatically as self-invited and cannot be avoided.
This time the basic theme revolves around few shocking true incidents of 1980s wherein four people posing as CBI or Income Tax department men robbed several businessmen and politicians in the broad daylight and nobody even reported those fake raids due to the fear of revealing their unaccounted black money. The subject is no doubt a well chosen one which also has been made into a fine exciting thriller which would surely entertain majority of viewers interested in this particular genre. The fantastic initial 30 minutes impress you a lot and then you get into the mood of watching an engrossing heist tale of four entertaining con-men who plan & execute their brave heists with great intelligence and confidence.
As a clever step by its makers, just before the release they started using the song Dhar Pakkad in its promos with the text written all over because in reality the title SPECIAL 26 was not working and creating several confusions in the minds of the viewers. May be that also became one of the reason for its slow start at the box office on Friday. Anyway as it has got the right pace of an interesting thriller and has got some great performances too to support its unconventional theme so its sure going to pick up in the coming days as it seems.
To begin with, SPECIAL 26 has an uneven first half with a forced in love angle and few good songs (taking you again into the clichéd Punjab) which I was never expecting in a film from the maker of A WEDNESDAY (a song-less masterpiece). Probably since this time it was Akshay in the lead role, so a deliberate love angle, songs and sequences related to it were made necessary by the actor as well as its producers to make it a more commercial venture for the box-office. But to say the truth, the film would have been a much better, focused and inspiring tale to watch without all these silly, forced in sequences.
In the second half, though there is another song to continue the avoidable teasing, still Neeraj gets back on his track soon and then gives you a shocking climax in the end breaking all the norms of such con-films made in Indian Cinema till date. The twist in the tale makes you sit straight and forces you to think that how they actually did it. Yet here once again I would like to say that S26 will surely be appreciated more by the lovers of this particular genre only because the film has a major part of its content without dialogues with just the pulsating background score keeping the energy alive and the actors performing their act on the screen silently. Hence it’s basically a film, which is more concerned about its rare plot in the script and less about the actors performing their roles on the screen (as it should be).
Apart from its exceptional execution SPECIAL 26 also excels in its department of Cinematography and Art Direction showing the cities of Delhi, Mumbai and Calcutta in the late 80s almost perfectly. To give you the feel of that developing era, the essence of those times is well taken care of with all Maruti 800s, Fiats, Black Autos, the old Connaught Place (partially), Best Buses & Bus Stops in Bombay and Trams in Calcutta shown clearly in all the long and close outdoor shots taken elegantly. Further its also nothing short of an achievement made by the director that despite of being a film about con-men, police and thieves performing some big crimes, there is not even a single scene of blood-shed, murder or gun-shots. So visually too it’s a great work done by the team lead by the talented Neeraj Pandey which needs to be watched keeping in mind the obvious points (like there were no communication sources at that time other than the fixed line government allotted telephones in our homes).
Musically, S26 didn’t require a romantic plot and the songs at all even if they do give you some listening pleasure for few moments (like Kaun Mera) . The songs hinder the pace of this crime-chase thriller hugely and they have clearly been added to suit the image requirements of Akshay. In fact this is a clear example of the act that in Hindi Cinema, an actor’s image is given much more importance than the theme, subject or need of the project itself.
Akshay is in terrific form in the film and emotes well in all kinds of scenes in the script, which is far different and ahead than most of his recent mindless comedies. But in case, the romantic angle was in reality forced by him only then its pretty evident that he was not 100% confident about the genre of S26 and its success right from the beginning. Both Manoj Bajpayee & Anupam Kher give another splendid performance of their bright careers as expected. Jimmy Shergill is efficient and same can be said about Rajesh Sharma and Kishore Kadam who mostly remain silent throughout the film. Kajal is wasted in a forced role and Divya Dutta shines in her small cameo.
Coming to the points which force me to rate this film a bit lower than I really wished, please read further only after you have watched it, as there are spoilers ahead.
As a creative person Neeraj Pandey has all the rights to try something new and different as per his choice in his second film. So it was fine to accept that this time Neeraj is back with a comic kind of heist thriller based on some true events of 1980, without any strong thought provoking message for the nation. But on the other hand, it wasn’t really fine to see such big open loopholes in his second script which were nowhere to be found in his earlier A WEDNESDAY. Here for reference I am stating two big flaws in S26 among many others which might force you to think about the film once again from the beginning.
1. Both Jimmy Shergill and Divya Dutta are posing as fake police officers in the raid at the minister’s house, that’s fine. But later in another scene they also take a fake “Commissioner of Police” to the minister’s house too after making a proper appointment, where the Commissioner suspends both on the minister’s request. Now this means that a minister of that area is so foolish that he doesn’t even know who the Commissioner of Police is in his own state.
2. In the second half we are shown that the CBI very well knows, who Anupam Kher is (by finding him in their old records) and where he lives with his family in Chandigarh. To know their plan they even send a person to install a phone tapping machine in his home. But still strangely CBI doesn’t appoint a person to keep an eye on the house of that notorious criminal and neither they go to raid that house at once after Kher vanishes away from the crime scene. In short, CBI never even goes to that house in Chandigarh to question Kher’s wife nor makes any arrangements to stop him moving out of the country. And then we see both Anupam and his wife enjoying a cricket match in Dubai?
Keeping in mind the above two and many more flaws which I found in S26, one can enjoy it only if he ignores to look at the big open loopholes in its entertaining script. And due to that very reason SPECIAL 26 remains a fine heist thriller from Neeraj Pandey which can surely be considered as A TUESDAY after his A WEDNESDAY and not A THURSDAY.
Rating : 3 / 5
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