A Neeraj Pandey film post the classic A Wednesday cannot escape two major things associated with it unarguably. One is the huge amount of expectations among the viewers from his second film and the other is a comparison in their minds with his debut movie which was acclaimed all over unanimously.

This time the basic theme revolves around few shocking true incidents of 1980s wherein four people posing as CBI or Income Tax department men robbed several businessmen and politicians in the broad daylight and nobody even reported those fake raids due to the fear of revealing their unaccounted black money. The subject is no doubt a well chosen one which also has been made into a fine exciting thriller which would surely entertain majority of viewers interested in this particular genre. The fantastic initial 30 minutes impress you a lot and then you get into the mood of watching an engrossing heist tale of four entertaining con-men who plan & execute their brave heists with great intelligence and confidence.

To begin with, SPECIAL 26 has an uneven first half with a forced in love angle and few good songs (taking you again into the clichéd Punjab) which I was never expecting in a film from the maker of A Wednesday (a song-less masterpiece). Anyway, to say the truth, the film would have been a much better, focused and inspiring tale to watch without all these silly, forced in sequences.

In the second half, though there is another song to continue the avoidable teasing, still Neeraj gets back on his track soon and then gives you a shocking climax in the end breaking all the norms of such con-films made in Indian Cinema till date. The twist in the tale makes you sit straight and forces you to think that how they actually did it. Yet here once again I would like to say that S26 will surely be appreciated more by the lovers of this particular genre only because the film has a major part of its content without dialogues with just the pulsating background score keeping the energy alive and the actors performing their act on the screen silently. Hence it's basically a film, which is more concerned about its rare plot in the script and less about the actors performing their roles on the screen (as it should be).

Apart from its exceptional execution SPECIAL 26 also excels in its department of Cinematography and Art Direction showing the cities of Delhi, Mumbai and Calcutta in the late 80s almost perfectly. To give you the feel of that developing era, the essence of those times is well taken care of with all Maruti 800s, Fiats, Black Autos, the old Connaught Place (partially), Best Buses & Bus Stops in Bombay and Trams in Calcutta shown clearly in all the long and close outdoor shots taken elegantly. Further its also nothing short of an achievement made by the director that despite of being a film about con-men, police and thieves performing some big crimes, there is not even a single scene of blood- shed, murder or gun-shots. So visually too it's a great work done by the team lead by the talented Neeraj Pandey which needs to be watched keeping in mind the obvious points (like there were no communication sources at that time other than the fixed line government allotted telephones in our homes).

Musically, S26 didn't require a romantic plot and the songs at all even if they do give you some listening pleasure for few moments (like Kaun Mera) . The songs hinder the pace of this crime-chase thriller hugely and they have clearly been added to suit the image requirements of the lead hero.

Akshay is in terrific form in the film and emotes well in all kinds of scenes in the script, which is far different and ahead than most of his recent mindless comedies. But in case, the romantic angle was in reality forced by him only then its pretty evident that he was not 100% confident about the genre of S26 and its success right from the beginning. Both Manoj Bajpayee & Anupam Kher give another splendid performance of their bright careers as expected. Jimmy Shergill is efficient and same can be said about Rajesh Sharma and Kishore Kadam who mostly remain silent throughout the film.Kajal is wasted in a forced role and Divya Dutta shines in her small cameo.

Having said that the film still has many big flaws(like the real identity of Anupam and his residence already known to Police, still he manages to fly away with his wife) which force me to rate it a bit lower than desired. However one can enjoy it surely if he wishes to ignores these big open loopholes in its entertaining script. So due to that very reason SPECIAL 26 remains a fine heist thriller from Neeraj Pandey which can surely be considered as A TUESDAY after his A Wednesday and not A THURSDAY.