The film A Wednesday certainly put Neeraj Pandey on the Bollywood road map, and Special Chabbis does nothing less than make him out of the finest new directors in the industry.

What is so special about Neeraj's work, and especially Special Chabbis? Perhaps that it does not rely on star power! Neeraj does not require a SRK, Salman, Aamir or Hrithik to lead the main male roles, but simply someone who can portray the role. He has done that twice now with Anupam Kher and Jimmy Shergill.

Special Chabbis starts off slowly, but after the intermission you are glued to the screen to see what happens next. Akshay Kumar plays his role with simple ease. For such a seasoned actor, such a role was never going to be a problem but he has done it fantastically. Anupam Kher will always be one of my favorite actors and this performances reminds me why. Manoj Bajpayee is out of this world! Why does he not do more films?! He is a powerful actor with his screen presence and dialogue delivery. Another notable performance is that of Jimmy Shergill, who is one of the most underrated yet talented of Bollywood. Divya Dutta and Kajal Agarwal don't get much scope in their roles, but do a reasonably good job.

The music of the film is pleasant, and very much MM Kreem's work, but far from his best work. Kaun Mera by Papon is by far the best song in the album.

Don't underestimate this film like I did before watching it. IMDM viewers have rated it an average of 7.7 out of 10 while I write this, which is no mean feat as I can see it has an higher average than the 3 biggest films of the year 2013 - Krrish 3, Dhoom 3 and Chennai Express.