After a deluge of sloppy fare, Special Chabbis is like a breath of fresh air, the best movie till date in 2013, and quite simply, the best heist movie that Bollywood has ever churned out. With edge of the seat excitement all throughout, earnest performances and a super tight screenplay, this is one movie that has tons more entertainment than the usual Bollywood hit parade that overflows with formulaic bawdy comedy plus over the top stunts.

Based on a true story where Tribhuvandas Zaveri Jewellers store was robbed in broad daylight by a gang posing as CBI agents, Special Chabbis hurtles through with a raid on a minister's premise led by Ajay Singh (Akshay Kumar), and P.K.Sharma (Anupam Kher), and unknowingly assisted by SI Ranveer Singh (Jimmy Shergill) and Shanti (Divya Dutt). Not exactly Robin Hood but CBI reject Akshay is the mastermind of a gang that poses as fake CBI officials and conducts raids on politicians, and businessmen relieving them of their wealth.This act, however catches the attention of ace cop Wasim Khan (Manoj Bajpai). Wasim wants to catch them in the act, and the remainder of the movie is one hell of a cop and robber drama, with the gang trying their final big bang heist and the police hot on their heels.

Director Neeraj Pandey is Chulbul Pandey of the directorial universe- he gave us the excellent A Wednesday 4 years back, and follows it up with similar levels of intelligence, intrigue and emotion in Special Chabbis. For a Bollywood movie set in the 80s, the attention to detail is magnificent. While they did not have to change much for the Kolkata sequences, since the city still looks the same as it looked 25 years ago, the Delhi scenes really transport you to an era long gone. The cars, the props, the shops- how did he make Connaught Place look that way? The pacing is brilliant too- the movie has some songs, and there is the mandatory romantic angle thrown in (Kajal Aggarwal looking pretty in a thankless role) but even that adds to Ajay's purpose. The humor is mostly delivered with a straight face to sledgehammer effect by all the actors, and is infectious- the Special Chabbis selection scene is worth many viewings- in typical Pandey fashion we have a twist out of nowhere, and the background music is a zingy throwback to the masala flicks of the 70s. And what about the casting coup? Akshay Kumar reported cut his fee by half to shine in his most intelligent movie and is great as the leader of the pack, but it is Discover India with Anupam Kher (Official)nd Manoj Bajpai that take the acting honors. Kher is stupendous as the bumbling partner in crime, while Bajpai nails it by being more police than actual police. Not long back he was running around trees romancing half his age girls, thankfully he has turned a corner post Gangs of Wasseypur and now is focusing on good character roles.

Pick any day- weekday, weekend, Valentine day. Pick anyone- wife, girlfriend, friends, mistress or yourself- please go and watch Special Chabbis if you have not already done, a cent percent recommendation. Beautifully scripted, excellently paced, clean family entertainer. Movies like this can only make us proud of our film industry- that there are some folks still there with their thinking caps on. 100 crores or not, this is one heck of a ride, a very very Special Chabbis!