/> 3 films. 3 different perspectives on the same theme. Last week's releases Hijack, Wednesday and Tahaan were portraits of identical themes in contrasting shades. All 3 dealt with different facets of terrorism, and had a slick spin to offer.

Of course the spin got more sick than slick in Hijack, a tacky take on the Hollywood terrorists with Shiney Ahuja playing the larger-than-life pilot-turned-ground-engineer who sneaks into a hijacked plane and rescues the hapless passengers.

Shiney, I am told, charges Rs 2 crores per film. If so, then Sanjay Dutt has every reason to charge Rs 15 crores as his very-efficient CEO tells me.

The price war is going to be the death of commercial Hindi cinema as we know it. The good thing about the film boom is that everyone gets a fair chance to have a say.

Neeraj Pandey's Wednesday was very American in format and style of storytelling. Santosh Sivan's Tahaan is more Iranian in tone and texture. It's a film that must be seen for its exceptional lyricism.

Not all cinematographers-turned-directors are able to balance out visual and emotional beauty. Poor Anil Mehta made Aaja Nachle and entrusted the task of cinematography to a colleague so he could focus on the direction.

But Santosh wouldn't hand over the DOP's job to anyone.To him the camera and the directorial vision are yoked. Tahaan is as stunning from the inside as it is on the surface.

A colleague complained it was 'slow'. Movement, brisk or otherwise, is for locomotives, not motion pictures.

One aspect of Hindi cinema's current tryst with terrorism that invites attention is the sheer volume of 'action' that underlines the drama. Characters somersault nimbly into the horizon to beat the baddies. And you wonder if terrorists are the latest villains in masala kingdom after smugglers rapists and politicians.

Let's not get carried away. No need to reduce terrorism to a formula specially when the films on the theme are not doing well. What we get finally in these films is a fine gallery of performances.

Tahaan has not just the wizkid Purav Bhandare but Anupam Kher, Rahul Bose, Victor Bannerjee and Sarika doing the darndest not to act.Such is the naturalness of their performances.

Effortlessly Anupam Kher went from playing the urbanized jaded cop in Wednesday to the rural Kashmiri merchant in Tahaan on the same Friday. But the strong week at the movies belonged to Naseeruddin Shah.

As the workingclass could-be bomb blaster in Wednesday he reminded me of Michael Douglas in Fallen. But far more controlled. Douglas had gone berserk in the loathsome city with a baseball bat. Naseer did it with bombs.

One man against a merciless city is a theme that has fascinated our filmmakers forever. Naseer's character goes back to the Charles Bronson Death Wish series where the wronged man goes on a rampage against the scummy elements in the city.

The face of the villain has changed. But the 'scum' total of the vigilante's vendetta remains unchanged. The main reason why these films on terrorism don't appeal to as wide audience as they should is their masculine vision.

None of these films have room for fleshed-out women characters. Hijack somehow squeezes in Esha Deol and Kaveri Jha both of whom come and go in a rustle of delicacy during times of explosive exuberance. In Wednesday Naseeruddin Shah's wife is a voice on the phone. And in Tahaan Sarika isn't even that. She's mute.

Star Of The Week: Naseeruddin Shah in Wednesday. He's cool. He's crisp. He's articulate and fluent. And he's direct. Is there a better actor than Naseer in our country today?