CON, BABY, CON!

The 80s feel is almost impeccably done, but ‘Special 26’ could have done without the extra seasoning.

STARS: 7/10

QUICK TAKE: Slick, fun and sexy period con movie that crackles but a tad less than it could.

There is something about the series of cons Johnnie Walker and Bindiya Singh, later joined by Amitabh Bachchan and Vinod Khanna, pull off in ‘Shaan’ that I have a soft corner for. A good con is always good fun and so is ‘Special 26’, a quintessential con movie that follows the ‘Ocean’s Eleven’ type ‘one-last-big-job’ template. Neeraj Pandey’s ‘A Wednesday’ may have been a thriller that wanted to make a social point but the story he writes and directs here drops any pretense of that, instead focusing on the cat-and-mouse game between a gang of conmen posing as CBI officers and pulling off fake raids at homes of the rich and famous and the real CBI trying to nab them. He pulls out the nuggets of an underreported, yet interesting story but then frames it into a story that squarely aims at serving the mainstream.

Ajay (Akshay Kumar) leads the team as the chief strategist aided by Khurana (Anupam Kher) and two others. We find them pulling off a faux raid at the house of a minister in Delhi on Republic Day with the help of Sub Inspector Ranbir Singh (Jimmy Shergill), who is promptly suspended. He vows to track them down and lands at the CBI office and enlists the help of Waseem Khan (Manoj Bajpayee) and the chase begins. Pandey does a good job of the writing and while there are enough references made of this being based on ‘true incidents’, he takes obvious cinematic liberty to turn this into an entertaining mainstream flick, including inserting a love interest for Ajay. Kajal Aggarwal does a half decent job as Priya in the limited scenes she has, but beyond being a fancy ornament that makes the script a bit heavy, there isn’t a world of value her character adds.

Akshay Kumar is serviceable and revels in being the Alpha Male of the pack but Anupam Kher puts in a measured performance cleverly navigating the ups and downs of his character like only a veteran of his caliber can. He seamlessly transforms from conniving conman into the doting Punjabi dad and family man in no time. Jimmy Shergill isn’t require to fire all the guns his acting arsenal but he looks effortless enough and is well supported by Divya Dutta in an interesting (if small) role. Bajpayee predictably gets the best lines  – ‘Sir, about that promotion. Is it happening or not?’ he tells his superior, ‘It’s becoming difficult to sustain my family. If it’s not happening, should I start accepting bribes?’ Or maybe he delivers the punches much better than the others and owns the character like he always does, portraying an effortless intensity that grips the viewer but doesn’t strain you.

Like any good con movie, ‘Special 26’ has its share of nifty twists and turns and will keep you guessing at times but it doesn’t crackle with quite the same wit and satire that ‘A Wednesday’ did. Having said that, the last three quarters of an hour do light up (the runtime could easily have been 20 minutes shorter; at 2 hours 23 minutes it’s a bit stretched) both in terms of the fun, the suspense and the storytelling.

Great credit, though, should go to the art direction and production for making the 1980s setting look so brilliantly authentic. There are subtle references galore for the viewer looking for the clues to nostalgia – a Lijjat Papad jingle in the background here, a Vimal hoarding during a chase scene, the live telecast of the Republic Day parade on Doordarshan on a black and white TV set. Sensibly cast, ‘Special 26’ will leave you well entertained for sure, especially if you enjoy con movies in general but do not go hunting for the thrilling originality of ‘A Wednesday’.

P.S. : About the dialogues with profanities being edited out in the film, I have only one question: Why the cuss did you have to do that?