Special 26 -review

What makes a movie worth watching? Its  story, actors or climax? Special 26 is a mixed one for me! Boasting a fabulous star cast and clean trailers this movie raises its viewer’s expectations from the very start, but sadly the movie doesn't hold that much power.

Based on true events, this story of the fake CBI (no, not central bank of India :P) and the ‘asli’ CBI in 1987 is a simple one without many twists and turns, which  added to its simplicity and realistic appeal . But the movie starts on an awfully slow pace which made me root for the interval! Only then did the story move quiet where it needed too. The tremendous part of the movie was the cinematography (by Bobby Singh) which remained very realistic and believable (except the ridiculous fake marine drive type location). Besides that it was a delight to see old cars, phones and Connaught Place back in the 80’s thanks to the art director Neeraj Reddy.

But the big turn off were the screenplay which as I said earlier, remained monotonous and the little refreshment it tried to bring through Ajay (Akshay Kumar) and Priya (Kajal Aggarwal) scenes seemed totally unnecessary and superfluous. Add to it the below average songs which just made the movie feel like a drag. This coming from the director of A Wednesday (Neeraj Pandey) was disappointing.

But which sailed the movie through was its bright side which without doubt was the awesome performance from the super awesome Anupam Kher ,Manoj Bajpai and Jimmy Shergill. Akshay Kumar did well but in many frames reminded one of his Oh My God character. Divya dutta , Kharaj Mukherji ,Rajesh Sharma and Kishor Kadam were good too.

This movie with a whole lot of slow motion walking and heavy background score did made the audience chuckle and feel good at various junctures with its simple yet absolutely funny dialogues like the one by Shanti (Divya Dutta) “ye asli kaam kar rahein hai hum to apni...” .Another star of Special 26 was definitely its climax, a wonder in today’s movies where the bad climaxes are nothing new.

The story on the whole didn’t quite add up as something extraordinary but watch it for its sheer acting, and cute humour. 

Rating-21/2