Review: Special 26

The other two starrier gang members are more what we expect them to be even as they go about doing their jobs : Anupam Kher as Sharmaji, who made a ludicrous top cop in 'A Wednesday', is much better here, as a much-married man with a gaggle of kids and a bun in his wife's oven, as well as Akshay Kumar, as Ajay aka Ajju, who is the brains of the group, kitted out in a thin moustache and flash goggles. Teasing them out is Manoj Bajpayee, again in fine fettle. His CBI `afsar' Wasim Khan, good father, careful husband ( where's your `dupatta', he asks his buxom wife with a nice mix of proprietariness and propriety) is bright, but knows when he is beat.

Pandey has a great liking for heights : he places a lot of the action on rooftops, ( just like he did in 'A Wednesday'), which sometimes results in unintended funniness : CBI officers putting snipers on roofs is one thing, but holding a `briefing' or an 'encounter' on terraces sometimes becomes simply an excuse for including an arresting shot. Two actually : the twinkling lights of Marine Drive, and another of the circular loveliness of the Capital's Connaught Place. The director does better with getting his period look right. The film is set in 1987, so the dress code is slicked-down hair, V necked half-sweaters, drab salwaar kameezs. No cell phones, only landlines ( one of which develops a near-forgotten crackle at a crucial time). There are a few improbable patches, and things slackens with an unnecessary romance between Akshay and Kajal : but then if you will have a star, you must also allow for songs, or what's the use?

Because Hindi cinema doesn't usually do well with intelligent hide-and-seek games, I didn't have too much hopes from 'Special 26', but the film surprised me. Its flaws are minor; on the "whole, 'Special 26' is a gripping, well-made heist film.

... contd.

ALSO READ

New sex 'superbug' may be more infectious than AIDS

Guptagate: More officials suspended over 'marriage of the century'

Direct cash through Aadhaar to save 0.5pc of GDP for India: IMF

Big hits to flop shows, earnings are a mixed bag for India Inc