Special 26

After the socially committed thriller “A Wednesday” director Neeraj Pandey is back with a movie that has quality entertainment value. Special 26 is a crispy thriller that will keep you entertained for its engaging pace and perfect blend of humor. Even though the film isn’t completely against corruption and crimes, the perfectly structured script ensures that you won’t regret the time spent to watch this movie.

The plot revolves around the early 90’s. A group of people conducts raids across the country in the name of CBI. Their targets are largely corrupted politicians and non-tax paying business giants. The gang finally gets the attention of original CBI and the CBI officials decide to conduct a departmental enquiry. The officer in charge understands the fact that the fake CBI is aiming a big deal in Mumbai The movie is basically about the mind games between actual CBI who wants to capture the thief while doing the theft and the fake CBI who wants to complete their mission along with the help of the 26 people they recruited for the mission.

The biggest plus for this movie is the timeline of the story. The technological advance in crime detection was so outdated at that time and Neeraj Pandey has smartly used this spark in making this humorous thriller. The association of Jimmy Shergill and Manoj Bajpayee in the movie can be used as the prime example. Unlike his first movie, Pandey tries to add more color to the plot by giving familiar bollywood backdrops to his chief protagonists and that will definitely help the movie in the commercial aspect.

Neeraj Pandey once again impressed me with his unique and catchy making style. The good thing about his writing and making is that it never questions the sensibility. Even in the typical filmy bollywood sequences he has tried to keep the melodrama in a digestible level. The cinematography is apt for the style of the movie and the color tone of visuals is something creative. The editing is slick and it helps the movie in moving on with nice pace. The art direction deserves a standing ovation for setting up the 90’s as the movie had a lot of outdoor sequences. VFX was impressive in the first half but showed some hiccups in the beginning of second half. Background music is yummy and the music of M M Kreem is already a hit.

On Screen, Akshay finally gets a role where we won’t feel headache while he screams.  He has done the role nicely. Pick of the performers was undoubtedly the veteran, Anupam Kher. The character has multiple shades in terms of expression and the interrogation scene with Manoj Bajpayee was something that relied heavily on his performance. The talented Manoj Bajpayee excels again in his CBI avatar. As always, I just loved the crookedness in his eyes. Kajal Aggarwal’s character is used to add some dram to the story and in the performance side; she doesn’t have much to do as challenging. Jimmi Shergill,  Divya Dutta, Rajesh Sharma and Kishor Kadam did their part neatly.

On the whole this Neeraj Pandey movie is a deserving success and a uniquely entertaining thriller. It’s a charming film packed with good amount of humor. There is a possibility that you may feel loose ends in the plot. But when I replayed the whole plot every loose end had the advantage of the timeline of the movie. I am giving 4/5 for this smart package.