The Hindi film, ‘Special 26’, released in February 2013 has been produced by Viacom 18 Motion Pictures, Friday Filmworks, Kumar Mangat and written and directed by Neeraj Pandey. It narrates the real-life heist of 19th March 1987 where a group posing as CBI officers conducted an income tax raid at Tribhovandas Bhimji Zaveri Jewellers in Opera House. The film stars Akshay Kumar, Kajal Aggarwal, Anupam Kher, Jimmy Shergill, Manoj Bajpai and Divya Dutta. The film’s music is by M.M. Kreem and Himesh Reshammiya and the background score is by Surender Sodhi. The film national and international box office collections were good.
The film opens with Ajay( Akshay Kumar) and P.K. Sharma( Anupam Kher) taking interviews and the film goes in flashback. Ajay calls up Ranveer Singh( Jimmy Shergill), Inspector in a local police station asking for more police force to conduct a CBI raid. Ajay, Sharma, Joginder( Rajesh Sharma) and Iqbal( Kishore Kadam) conduct a successful raid at in a Minister’s house. This is a fake team who later moves to their native homes. Ajay loves Priya( Payal Aggarwal), a to-be-married teacher. Sharma’s daughter is getting married and all four meet in Chandigarh.
Ranveer Singh and Shanti( Divya Dutta) are suspended from duty who join hands with real CBI Officer, Waseem Khan( Manoj Bajpai) to catch the group of four and punish them. Meanwhile, Ajay and his team conduct another raid at Kolkata and plan the ‘big one’ in Mumbai.
Waseem Khan and Ranveer with their team catch Sharma in a hotel, who on being threatened for life, confesses their plan for a heist in Mumbai and that Ajay is taking revenge for not being selected as a CBI Officer. Ajay and Sharma finalise the ‘Special 26’ team who were being interviewed in the opening scene. Khan changes the real jewellery in the shop by artificial one and sends it to a workshop nearby. Ajay and his team raid the workshop. Waseem Khan is amusingly shocked.
Ranveer and Shanti were with the gang from the beginning and Waseem Khan was unaware of it. Ajay meets Priya at the airport and are happily married. Khan receives a money order of Rs. 100/- mentioning that he could not steal the earnings of an honest officer. Khan is also informed that CBI knew about the perpetrators. Khan and Sharma are seen enjoying a cricket match in Sharjah Cricket Association stadium.
The film was accepted positively by critics. Newspapers and film editors gave it good ratings. It is a well made film, surely worth watching.
