User Reviews

Special Chhabbis (a group of twenty-six specially chosen people) is based on the real life event of the loot of the jewellery showroom of Tribhuvandaas Bheemji Jhaveri in the Opera House of Mumbai (then Bombay) on 19.03.1987. The specialty of the loot was that the robbers had posed as CBI officers giving the loot the look of a CBI raid on the showroom, taking away jewellery worth millions in the shape of the forfeiture of the unaccounted goods. For this purpose, the robbers had used 26 fake probationers of CBI, 'recruiting' them through a fake interview just one day before and telling them that this raid was a 'practical test' for them. This incident gave Neeraj Pandey,the filmmaker a plot to make a thriller movie which has come in the form of Special Chhabis.

Neeraj Pandey has shown that there is a group of four conmen who pose themselves as CBI officers or income tax officers and conduct sudden (fake) raids on the business houses and residences of corrupt govt. officials and ministers. The 'confiscated' currency notes and jewellery is their booty with which they vanish in the thin air without the robbery being reported to the police because of its being black money. They are fond of slapping people also while conducting the raid nay robbery. And they are very much proud of this act of theirs too as if they were doing something laudable. Coming from different cities, they assemble only for this joint venture of themselves whenever it is planned by their leader - Ajay (Akshay Kumar). After such a raid at the residence of a minister in Delhi on the Republic Day of India in 1987, the matter reaches the real CBI and an honest and dedicated CBI officer - Wasim Khan (Manoj Bajpayee) starts trailing them. By taping the phone of one member of the gang - P.K. Sharma (Anupam Kher), he comes to know of a big robbery planned to be conducted in the jewellery showroom at the Opera House of Mumbai (Bombay) and also the drama of recruitment of 26 youngsters to use them as ignorant accomplices in this loot. But despite his knowledge of everything, the loot takes place. His team of 26 cops proves to be the Special 26 for the robbers (and not the recruitees) which is used by the mastermind as the ignorant accomplice for the job. Instead of the showroom, the workshop of the owners gets looted where the jewellery of the showroom had been shifted by the real CBI.

First let me jot down the pluses of the movie in a nutshell (because their trumpet has been blown by several reviewers quite loud). The filmmaker has created the period of the eighties with almost perfection on the screen which is a great job and deserves high accolades. The performers have done exceedingly well especially Manoj Bajpayee who from every angle, appears to be a no-nonsense CBI officer. The movie contains good humour and Ajay's demonstrating his quick-wit in an unexpected adverse situation is highly impressive. The director has maintained the momentum of the narrative throughout keeping the audience hooked (with the exception of the utterly superfluous romantic track). It's a very interesting movie, no doubt.

Almost all the viewers and the reviewers got so much carried away by the entertainment value and the bringing the era of the eighties alive on the screen that they (perhaps unknowingly) bypassed the minuses of this movie which are no less in number than the pluses.

The filmmaker has not bothered to explain the reason behind this robbery act of the characters except a (probably false) explanation furnished about Ajay's failing to make it to the CBI years back which led him to become a fake CBI officer. Very less is told about the personal lives of these foursome except the family life of P.K. Sharma containing his wife and several children. Besides, he has glorified the crime as if it were some noble cause.

The real CBI officer shifts the jewellery of the showroom to the workshop, replacing it with imitation jewellery. Why ? When the robbers were going to be caught red-handed, what's need for that ?

Neeraj Pandey has tried to create an unexpected twist in the climax of this movie in order to give a shock treatment to the audience. However since in case of this movie, the story is a real life incident, he had to amend it to create the desire shock value. This shock is less for the real CBI officer who has been made a fool by the conmen, more for the audience who has been fooled like anything by the filmmaker. It is revealed in the end that the cops who were posing as the ignorant accomplices of the con-gang are actually fake and their real accomplices. How can one digest it because the fake cop (Jimmy Shergill) himself brings the case to the real CBI and himself furnishes the identity and the Chandigarh address of P.K. Sharma (Anupam Kher) enabling the real CBI officer (Manoj Bajpayee) to tape his phone and thereafter trail and nail him ? This is as good as hitting axe on own foot. Besides, when the actual address of Sharma is known to the CBI,how can he escape now ? He has a very large family and establishment behind him. Neeraj Pandey has challenged the intelligence of his audience and fooled them.

In no review of this movie (except the one on Koimoi.com) did I find this flaw of the movie being highlighted. What does it mean ? Do we enjoy being made fool just because the filmmaker has entertained us very much ? And is this why that instead of complaining, we start going ga ga over the movie and singing praises for the conman, i.e., the filmmaker ?

As I read somewhere in threads some users have point out that ---

"After Waseem found out what the plan was, they changed their Plan A" !!!!

It was not the pure Luck of real CBI that Waseem found out their Plan. It was deliberately done. As you can understand from the things that Jimmy was accompanying them and he find out the Anupam kher records. Also when Manoj Bajpayee got to know from the Jewelers' owner that Fake CBI have raided their workshop -- Bajapayee understood all their plan in flashback scenes. So they had deliberately involved CBI in this raid….

Thus it was indeed the plan to involve CBI, now there are lots of plot holes here like ---

1) What was the need of involving Real CBI? I could understand that Akshay Kumar wanted to show them that he is smarter than real CBI guys , but still it involved lots of risk.

2) How could you be sure that the real CBI will definitely not arrest you before your final attempt to rob the jewelers shop? It could have been a good logic in US/UK where you have to caught the thief red handed to prove their crimes but here in India the Real CBI could have under- arrested the whole gang and then with normal torture/practice would have made them accept their robberies. Even few Businessman/Netas could have made to identify them. "So it was a stupid idea to involve real CBI that too by sending your own goon". Otherwise you could easily have gone at the jewelers shop and have looted that. There is no point of taking this much of risk to show that you are smarter than the real one!!!!! (I would have liked the movie if the Jimmy character would have been genuine as then it shows that the Real CBI worked hard to get behind those cons and finally in the end these cons were too smart and fooled them. But it this case it' bulls**t !!!!!

3) OK. I accepted.....you want to fool real CBI that' why you involved them. But then again --(god knows from where they got this intuition/ surety that)the real jewellery would be deposited in workshop.... This is not understandable. As lots of ppl have made this point that the better option was to keep the jewellery at some place in showroom like any vault. So again you have jeopardized your last raid by involving the Real CBI that too by yourself.......

4) It was never shown how they were able to siphon-off the money they looted to other country. As after these fake raids they would have amassed lots of Money/jewellery which was not that easy to siphon-off. I know in terms of Movies or even real world it' small thing but they should have shown that where and how they were dumping the money esp. the raids outside of Delhi/Mumbai where one of the four con was located.

5) Again the real CBI case - by involving them they have risked their family. At-least as shown in the movie (don't know the background of real con from where this movie is inspired) but here they have shown the big family for Anupam Kher & Joginder (Rajesh Sharma) and even for Iqbal (Kishor Kadam). Only Akki was the man with only a dumb sweetheart. So their family could have been an easy target of CBI esp. since you fooled their best officer.

6) Last the Jimmy Shergil plot --- To make it feel genuine what director has shown (i) The Politician would definitely have called the SP after the fake raid even as shown in the Movie. So now either I should assume that SP was also fake or they all were so dumb to know that Jimmy was a fake Inspector. Even that fake Inspector can be suspended!!!!! And then this fake Inspector can go to CBI and told their top boss that he himself is investigating the case with 19 such sort of cases. So in all this process the whole REAL CBI/ REAL police was so dumb to find out that he was a Con ………

Overall the first half was very beautiful and engaging but the 2nd half/End and suspense was very stupid....

For me --expectations were very high - As I watched movies mostly on the base of directors and not on the base of Star Power so had high expectations from Neeraj Pandey after "Wednesday". But was disappointed.Let'see with the next director Abhishek Kapoor -whose 2nd Movie is also releasing next week -Kai po che! after the marvellous début with "Rock On"

No kidding, Akshay Kumar has finally broken his self-imposed jinx and has taken up a film which doesn't demand him playing an overtly boisterous character. "Special Chabbis" is a welcome relief from the usual gibberish we've come to expect from the Indian film industry and a film that lives up to every promise it makes. Literally. From the fresh breed of young filmmakers that took over the new phase of the industry, director Neeraj Pandey's voice soared higher than anyone else's with his stunning debut "A Wednesday" four years back. And now, with "Special Chabbis", I can solemnly state that he could well be the next big thing.

In the late 1980s, a group of four con-men dress up as fake CBI officers and conduct raids on corrupt ministers and run off with millions before the unsuspecting ministers figure out that they have actually been robbed. Since the money involved in these raids is brought in by scams, no one dares to report this to the police. The group consists of Ajay (Akshay Kumar), the real brains behind the raids, the timid Sharmaji (Anupam Kher), Joginder (Rajesh Sharma) and Iqbal (Kishor Kadam). While the group commits daring daylight robberies, the helpless CBI cannot do anything but look on. Finally, SI Ranveer Singh (Jimmy Shergill), a disgraced police officer who had helped the felons in one of their raids oblivious to the fact that they're actual robbers, agrees to help CBI officer Waseem Khan (Manoj Bajpai) to track them down. Ajay and Sharmaji agree to commit one last robbery- their biggest- and then disappear. But unbeknownst to them, Khan is eavesdropping on their telephonic conversations and wants sufficient evidence to nab them. The game of cat-and-mouse boils down to a tense climax where no one wants to be the one on the losing side.

Bringing a real-life incident to the big screen is never easy but Pandey, working from a wonderfully twisty script, handles the camera with assured confidence which is evident from the way he builds the suspense. Recreating the events that transpired in great detail, the urgency with which the film is narrated is a perceptible sign of a man who knows what he's doing. The story is smoothly told with a consistently flowing narrative and the infusion of wry humor only helps to add to the delightful pleasures of its marvelous execution which can only be relished. The film is supremely funny in parts which, I admit, was an unexpected surprise from the director who had last directed a thriller which strived on palpable tension.

In a film which boggles us with its sheer energy, a romantic angle threatens to cripple the narrative. That has unabashedly been the tragic biography of thrillers in the Indian film industry for decades and it's no different now. I cringed at the unnecessary use of songs and a half-baked romantic plot which is completely trivial to the story. So, why lace the film with them? No idea. I reckon the makers couldn't resist banking on the love story to set the cash registers ringing a little loudly than they would've ringed otherwise.

Of the performances, Akshay Kumar is reliably excellent, as is Manoj Bajpai. Anupam Kher is terrific in the role of the timid Sharmaji, providing much needed chuckles with his mousy demeanor. Jimmy Shergill does well in a small role. Kajal Aggarwal's role is a trivial one, vastly underwritten and a balmy decision on the part of its director.

"Special Chabbis" is a smart film which greatly respects the intellect of its audience and which audaciously attempts to bring an arduous anecdote to life and succeeds in keeping us hooked for 150 minutes, a film whose superb script triumphs over the credentials of its makers. How can anyone resist that?

Special 26 Directed by Neeraj Pandey is a thriller drama you can't afford to miss. Its about a gang of four people conducting heist posing as CBI officers.

The thriller is greatly directed, well performed with Manoj Bajpayee doubtlessly being the best being followed by Anupam Kher. The rest of the cast also performed well.

But there are some major flaws in the movie 1. Firstly, why the unnecessary love angle between Akshay and Kajal. I mean it would have been ok even if it was brief but it actually is carried with romance, emotions and four songs, I mean why??

2. The lack of depth provided into the heists of the officers as in how they got the information, how did they convince people about them being CBI officers, They are living a complete mediocre lifestyle after conducting about 50 raids, How did they got the paper verification done???, etc.?

3. Her, we are being made to route for the bad characters, but why by showing the actual CBI not smart. In the last segment, they didn't kept any trusted security in the warehouse. We know they were sure about the raid that would be conducted in the actual shop, but still if they are shifting gold at the warehouse, it turns out quite silly that they didn't keep any strong security at warehouse.

4. There are also wrong historical references.