Special 26

Special Chabbis

Story of Five Striding Conmen Who Steal the Show!

By – Lt Col D Purushothaman Pillay (Retd)

An absolutely riveting heist film set in the 80s, inspired by the famous Opera House, Tribhuvandas Bhimji Zaveri, daylight robbery on 19 March 1987, in Bombay by a group of 26 people (they make up the ‘Special 26’ in the titular reference) posing as CBI sleuths, this Neeraj Pandey film is an absolute entertainer.

The plot opens with a scene dated 18 March 1987, where two conmen P K Sharma alias Sharmaji (Anupam Kher) and Ajay Singh alias Ajju (Akshay Kumar) posing as CBI Officers conduct a walk-in recruitment interview, before going into a flashback. The excitement starts in New Delhi, with Ajay Singh purportedly from the CBI, making a phone call, asking for manpower assistance for a secret raid, from the Tughlak Road, Police Station where SI Ranveer Singh (Jimmy Shergill) agrees, only to be told to drive to a rendezvous to know where the actual raid would be conducted. Ajay then proceeds with his accomplices P K Sharma, Iqbal (Kishore Kadam), and Joginder (Rajesh Sharma) to the tryst, to marry up with the Police team, wherefrom they proceed to raid a corrupt Minister’s residence. As anticipated, loads of cash and valuables were found, hidden in every imaginable crevice, including the Pooja room, in this sprawling mansion. They drive away with a mini-van load of loot. Here it is revealed that Ajay and his accomplices were a fake CBI team. The quartet then merge into the crowds to quickly disperse, by all manner of transportation, to their respective residences, scattered across the country at Jaipur, Chandigarh, and Mumbai. The next morning expectedly nothing was reported in the press. This team had specialized in conducting raids only on people who have amassed ill-gotten wealth and therefore would never report their losses to law enforcement.

Ranveer with his senior officer then meet the raided minister, who refuses to lodge any official complaint regarding the false raid, to save himself from being reduced to a laughing stock in his constituency, he, however, ensures that Ranveer and his colleague Shanti (Divya Dutta) are suspended for their irresponsibility. It is here we are introduced to Mr. Tough Guy, the real CBI officer Wasim Khan (Manoj Bajpai). The disgraced Ranveer wants revenge and joins hands with Khan to go after the criminal quartet. The rest of the plot carries us through the Burra Bazar, an Income Tax Raid in Kolkata by Ajay and the gang, which finally gets reported only on the insistence of Khan, with an aim to spread panic in the minds of the conmen. It does serve to inspire the team to go for one final “Big Raid” which is also the climax of the movie. To carry the story to its climax, the CBI with the help of Ranveer mysteriously stumbles upon the criminal records of Sharmaji and immediately taps into his phone conversations with Ajay to manage to get some vital clues regarding the final heist in Bombay. They then do everything they can, to foil this raid. For the sake of keeping the suspense alive, and the fun of the movie intact, suffice it to say, the unexpected twist, in the end, takes this movie to an altogether different high. It has to be seen, to be discovered.

I did feel this film, in which the two female characters, played by Kajal and Divya, had precious little to do, had its small share of shortcomings. They definitely could have scripted a better way to ease their foot off the pedal once in a while, than for instance relying on the unnecessary romantic angle, which was tedious, unconvincing, and a total waste of time. Except for the freshly bathed Priya Chavan’s (Kajal Aggarwal) tulsi-watering introductory scene, where she looked stunningly angelic, there was no sizzle in her chemistry with Akshay, to salvage something out of this love story. It however superfluously added to the 143-minute length of this movie, and so did the long Manoj Bajpai introductory scooter chase through CP and the whole Chandigarh trip ending in the pre-nuptial song for Sharmaji’s daughter’s wedding. I do have another intriguing question for Mr. Pandey, Sharmaji confesses to 49 raids, and we know how much is collected in such hit-and-run seizures, but then all the conmen seem to still survive in apparent penury, despite the obvious prosperity they must be sitting on, where does all the money from the raids go? Sadly, this film also won’t be remembered much for its melody, as the audience is too rapt and caught up in the relentless drama.

Though, definitely not in the league of his earlier 2008 debut film ‘A Wednesday’, this Neeraj Pandey effort is still very ‘Special’. However, what I distinctly remember rather curiously is that, for almost half the length of this two-and-a-half-hour movie, there is always this constant striding towards the camera, to the accompaniment of some rousing background score, by the various characters, maybe it is the Director’s deliberate ploy to enthrall by implying intense movement and an overwhelming pace. I wonder if others also felt that it was, at times, a bit overdone.

The star of the show, for me, was undoubtedly the thespian Anupam Kher. He was brilliant; I shall remember a few scenes for a very long time, like his reaction in muted shock, at the Kolkata Airport while reading a newspaper that reported their raid. Another memorable sequence was when he was confronted by Manoj and Jimmy in the hotel room the night before the final raid, his range of expressions in utter surrender, during this encounter was amazing.

Akshay’s performance, in comparison, was a very measured one, fortunately, the two AKs (Akshay K & Anupam K) instead of competing with each other, brilliantly complemented each other, this was a highlight of this film. Ajay did provide some great moments too. The presence of mind shown in changing the raid location in Burra Bazar, Kolkata, as also the audacity of getting help from the other group of raiders, to load the cars, post that raid was hilarious. His motivational speech to the successful candidates after the interview, towards the end, was something that even Sharmaji said, which made him forget for a moment that he was a crook.

Manoj with his furrowed brow, has a frown permanently etched on his face, which did not help in bringing out the range of histrionics he is normally capable of, as there is only so much one can do with one’s eyes alone. Having said that, his was an important and competent performance, which carried the story with its tautness intact.

Neeraj Pandey has rationally scripted and skillfully directed this period thriller. The meticulous and flawless manner in which the late 80s Delhi, Kolkata, and Mumbai were recreated, was no mean achievement and needs to be applauded. Cinematographer Bobby Singh has done a great job in canning the 80s for us. The attention to detail, with regard to reconstructing a bygone era, be it in the advertisements of the time, the old Ambassadors, Fiats, and Marutis with the odd Lambretta scooter, the magazines, currency notes, dial phones, etc, was unimpeachable. Also, the interview snippets of all the various candidates and their absurd moronic responses were very entertaining.

There were more than twenty-six reasons for me to like this film, I felt thoroughly entertained at the end of the two and half hour Delhi to Dubai journey of the primary conmen. Go see it; you will definitely enjoy ‘SPECIAL 26’, especially the surprise ending!