Special 26 : The Con is On !

Neeraj Pandey raised the bar with his directorial debut “A Wednesday” in 2008, only to come back in 2013 with another intelligently directed cat & mouse thriller. If his earlier movie questioned the system and was much up front, this one is much subdued in its tone. His protagonists change from – “Common Men” to “Con Men”. Set in the back drop of late eighties and inspired from real life incidents “Special 26” shrewdly and wittily depicts the run & chase game between CBI and a gang of con artist who pose as CBI or Income Tax officials and rob corrupt politicians and businessmen.

What stands out in this creatively crafted cinema is the focus that has been given to detailing, be it the peculiar behavior of employees of powerful Govt organization like CBI or capturing the essence of different cities like Jaipur,Delhi or Kolkata where the conmen travel to entrap  their targets. Akshay Kumar , after a series of mindless roles finally gets to play a substantial character and gives a controlled and laudable performance. Manoj Bajpayee once again repeats what he does best, to put life into his characters. Rajesh Sharma & Kishore Kadam gets into their characters and gait, like a fish takes to water.  But one performance that deserves a standing ovation is of Anupam Kher’s. He gives an absolutely adorable portrayal of his character that underlines what a versatile artiste he is.

The script also subtly takes a sarcastically wink on the political system and the idiosyncratic functioning and set up of Govt offices. However couple of places where Neeraj fails is the unnecessary romantic side track between Akshay and Kajal Aggrawal. It only drags down the pace of an otherwise swift script. He was bold enough not to add any romantic angle and still deliver a stupendous film in 2008, wish he would have been as bold this time around. Also the director fails to extract much from Divya Dutta. Considering the amount of talent she possesses, she is wasted in the movie.

None the less Special 26 is a film that will keep you glued till the end, take you back to those sepia colored 80’s world and con you into falling in love with the Conmen. I will go out with three and half out of five.