/> All three releases this week Hijack, Tahaan and Neeraj Pandey's A Wednesday deal with various facets of terrorism and extremism.

And two of them are directed by debutant directors. But Neeraj Pandey is not worried.

""I haven't seen Hijack. I'm sure it will be good. But I've seen Santosh Sivan's Tahaan. I don't know much about the dynamics of economics, but it seems it's made for a niche audience. Tahaan is a totally different territory from my thriller.I strongly recommend it."

It isn't known whether Santosh Sivan reciprocates his Friday-rival's generosity. But Neeraj Pandey' s hard-hitting film on bombs, terrorists and the common man, is being talked about for all the right reasons.

Neeraj Pandey's counter-terrorism film A Wednesday is formated as a thriller, thereby ensuring a wider audience participation than the other films on the theme.

Says the debutant director, "I think the thriller format gives the film an edge. That was the whole intention. I wanted to convey the story in the most interesting format possible. The story stems from whatever is going on around him. At some point of time we all wonder what it would be like if we do away with all the extremist elements."

A Wednesday is Neeraj's first feature film. "Before that I was doing stand-alone television programming, mostly telefilms. A Wednesday was originally produced by my banner. UTV eventually took over.No one was willing to put money on A Wednesday. I don't blame them. On the surface it doesn't sound like the most commercial of ventures."

A Wednesday shows a hapless middleclass man played by Naseeruddin Shah, taking on himself the task of getting hardcore terrorists eliminated for good.

Neeraj clarifies that he doesn't mean to endorse any kind of self-invented fascism. "All I'm saying is that our system of governance needs a serious repair job and pretty fast.

Otherwise the common man would be compelled to take to what you call fascism. I feel there's a lot of resentment and anger in the common man in Mumbai for the acts of violence that are inflicted periodically on the city. But they've no choice but to move on and pretend that resilience is a voluntary option.

When the middleclass gets effected beyond an impersonal point, it will react."

The selfappoinent social cleanser in Neeraj's film, played by Naseer, seems to be a bit of a puzzle regarding his motivations. Laughs Neeraj, "I think we need to know more about this man. Who is he? How angry is he? And why? I didn't do much research before making A Wednesday.

I was in touch with some people in the police force. But most of the material came from my imagination. But yes, I did read a lot of newspaper and magazine reports on acts of terrorism."

About the brilliant casting Neeraj says, "I didn't know Naseer at all. I just sent him a copy of the script. He responded in a month saying he was on without discussing the remuneration. The same happened with Anupam. I don't think A Wednesday could've been made with any other two actors."

At the moment Neeraj is working on another script. " I need some more time on that. It's completely different from A Wednesday.Whether it's a serious or not I'd want my next film will be as entertaining A Wednesday. I look at A Wednesday as a commercial entertaining and cathartic."