Special 26

Directed by: Neeraj Pandey

Starring: Akshay Kumar, Anupam Kher, Manoj Bajpayee, Kajal Agarwal, Jimmy Shergil

Released: 2013

Verdict: destroy every copy – horrible – bad – whatever – flawed but enjoyable - good – great – amazing

It is interesting to see how over the years we have abandoned the once so admired honest heroes armed with the flaming sword of justice and spotless shield of patriotism (as well as an A-Z dictionary of morals) for witty Robin Hoods, aka crooks and thieves taking from the rich (and not giving it to others). Stealing from greedy people is "right", but being greedy is not. It is acceptable that you are a thief if you only steal from nasty people. Be it Don, Chulbul Pandey or the gang of this film, we have learned to root for the bad guys. Who are not all that bad. Just outlaws. But still not bad. So steal away, kid, just make sure you steal from the right people. Or something like that I think. Makes my head spinning a bit.

Back in the old 80s (ironically enough the time of the spotless on-screen heroes in white shoes), a gang of several men make their living of crime – which is always the same. Posing as CBI or other government organization, they raid houses of rich people, whom we can suspect are most probably corrupted, and under a pretext of taking all the money and riches found to the authorities, they simply pack their own bags. And live happily until the need for more money and adrenaline lures them out of their homes to try again, some place else. However it seems their wit finally found a match on the opposite side of the law. An actual CBI officer Khan, with a help of a policeman, previously deceived by the gang, manages to locate one of them and through him also finds out details about their next target, which is to be non other than a huge jewelery shop in Mumbai. Will he manage to stop them? Will they outsmart him? Will the law win or will our crooked heroes will? My unfortunate ability to predict twists and turns proved functional yet again, though I dare say not everybody figured the missing piece of information out before it was actually revealed.

The film takes quite some time before actually taking off, and the plot perhaps could have been more elaborate, and one or two more twists would only ad some thrill and mystery (though after the twistingly twisty Race 2 even a dozen twists might seem too little). Maybe it would have been good to actually give more depth to the characters, who apparently all come from different backgrounds and have families and other bonds, but the sane viewer in me knows this would only slow down the story, that needed to be quick – in fact a lost quicker than it ultimately was.

The love track is one of the most useless ones ever, doesn´t even make anything for the ending. Kajal Agarwal hardly speaks in those four scenes she has, which is actually a plus because I can barely stand her. In any case seeing her with Akshay gave even Mr. Kumar away - he too is, much like his Khan and Devgn collegues, officially looking too old to romance anyone under 30 and pass off as younger than 40. On the bright side his performance was on the subtle side and very good. Hopefully we can see him in films like this and last years OMG more often. The acting stars of the film though are Anupam Kher and Manoj Bajpayee, both dominating the screen whenever they appear. Other supporting actors like Jimmy Shergil (sporting an unflattering moustache) and Divya Dutta (who is repeating one line throughout the film), are alright.

The settings of the 80s India are excellent, at times one truly wonders how in the world did they manage to recreate the Mumbai of that time so flawlessly and on such big scale. The camera work is good, and overall there is nothing to complain about when it comes to technical aspects. Special 26 is a good film, well told, well presented, well acted, well put together. Not brilliant, but good.

Singham

Directed by: Rohit Shetty

Starring: Ajay Devgn, Prakash Raj, Kajal Agarwal

Released: 2011

Verdict: destroy every copy – horrible – bad – whatever – flawed but enjoyable - good – great – amazing

When I watched it for the first time I was still under the influence of Dabangg, which I had seen just recently, and somehow in my mind I couldn´t help but compare everything in Singham to it. Watching Ajay Devgn beating up the trash out of villains somehow gave me a feeling I have seen something like it already and ultimately Dabangg could have been blamed that I did not enjoy Singham as I probably would if it was released much later or much earlier. It was only during second (and third) viewing that I could appreciate the movie. True – the setting, the seemingly almighty policeman from a village in a familiar khaki uniform, the booming main theme playing whenever he gets angry, the enemies involved in high politics, all that are features the film has in common with Dabangg (and other similar films that have began popping up like mushrooms after rain lately), but Bajirao is not corrupted Chulbul, his plight is not instigated by family problems and his lady love is not at all pleasant to watch. 

The introduction shot. Just so you know that this ain´t gonna be about a socially awkward biscuit seller.

Bajirao Singham is a police inspector serving at the place closest to his heart, his home village. He makes sure no injustice is commited against anyone, and in return he gets devotion and support from one and all. However then he insults a politician Jaikant Shikre – who in fact is nothing more than a complete villain who earns money and is responsible for criminal activities like kidnappings and murders – and to take revenge on him Shikre has Singham transferred to Goa, a town that is completely under his influence, and where Singham has nobody to help him in his efforts. As he soon comes to know, there used to be another police inspector who tried to destroy Shikre and uncover his illegal activities, but ultimately, after months of mental torture and false allegations concerning his own honour, he took his own life. Singham, however, refuses to fall into the same trap.

"I will pee on everything you love."

There is a rather useless love story line thrown into the movie, but it doesn´t contribute anything to the film or even the character of Singham. And unfortunately the actress is so annoying and unconvincing she makes it all one big bore. Childish and immature as Kavya, Kajal Agarwal is not a good match for mature and very manly Ajay Devgn, looking like his daughter. In the scenes with her Ajay also seems to „turn off“, while in his individual scenes he is wonderful. Forget Salman Khan. If there is one actor whose one angry look will make your knees shake and whom you would instantly believe he is capable of tearing iron apart it is Ajay. He is brilliantly matched as far as performance is concerned, by his evil enemy Shikre aka Prakash Raj, who makes his villain a threatening and yet not inhuman (read: not without a certain lack of confidence and some major fears) persona. You can never cheer for Shikre, but you have to cheer for Mr. Raj. Rest of the supporting cast too are good, it was a pleasure seeing Ashok Saraf.

"Thappad se darr nahi lagta sahab!"

"How many times...."

"..do I have to tell you...."

"..this ain´t bloody Dabangg!?"

While I am not completely a fan of all the south masala remakes, Singham is one of the good ones. It has tremendous repeat value (I was quite surprised when I found out I was enjoying it so much the second time, in spite of knowing what and how things are to happen) and although at first I was ready to dismiss it as a wanna be Dabangg, I have to take my first impression back. Singham has things to offer that make it stand on its own feet, in spite of outer similarity to other, similarly presented movies.

But the heroine really sucks.