This Diwali, get set for four crackers (read movies) to burst for an entire week. And unlike majority of Diwali releases, this time around the releases are split across various days. While Heroes and Roadside Romeo take a conventional Friday route (24th October), Golmaal Returns and Fashion take a sideways route with their Wednesday release (29th October).

Four movies, four distinct genres; Pretty much reminds of the situation which was at the box office 4 years back when Veer Zaara, Aitraaz, Naach and Mughal-E-Azam clashed at the box office on the same day.

What turned out to be pretty heartening was the fact that except for Naach, each of the remaining three films went on to earn money at the box office. One hopes that October 2008 turns out to be even better with all four movies finding good audience for itself.

Let's go through the S-W analysis of Heroes, Roadside Romeo, Golmaal Returns and Fashion and see which cracker promises to be the loudest of all!

Heroes

Strengths:
- Star power- For a film buff, it is quite an excitement to see Salman Khan, Sunny Deol, Mithun Chakravorty, Bobby Deol and Preity Zinta to be coming together in a single film.

- Salman-Preity pairin - it is looking good especially with Salman Khan in a 'Sardar' get-up

- The film has a rich look to it with most stunning of landscapes across country being captured well on lens

- In light hearted roles, Sohail Khan has started earning a good standing for himself after Jaane Tu... Ya Jaane Na, Hello and God Tussi Great Ho

- Recent success of Hello means that audience is game for a movie as long as it has Salman Khan standing tall on posters. So what, if it is actually a cameo performance!

Weaknesses:

- The film is seeing a delayed release and has been pushed by almost a year

- Except for Salman and to an extent Preity, none of the other major actors (Sunny, Bobby) has seen a box office success for years.

- Music is quite average with 'Badmash Launde' being one of the worst you would have heard for a long-long time - Director Samir Karnik has two box office disasters behind him - Kyun Ho Gaya Naa and Nanhe Jaisalmer. He has a lot to prove.

Roadside Romeo

Strengths:

- Roadside Romeo promises to be the best ever when it comes to an Indian animation film. Visuals are superb and extremely likeable.

- The entire 'cool' factor. A Bollywood touch to the proceedings works even better for the film.

- Voiceovers of Saif Ali Khan, Kareena Kapoor and Javed Jaffrey are keenly awaited

- Right release timing since children would love to lap up the film this festive season

- Walt Disney association

Weaknesses

- After Bachna Ae Haseeno, YRF is back to its conservative ways when it comes to promotion of their films. - Average music. There isn't a single track that has in it to be a chartbuster.

- Shaky market for animation films in India. Roadside Romeo would have to be really good to make a mark amongst the audience since after Hanuman, there hasn't been a single animation film which has generated good revenue.

Golmaal Returns

Strengths:

- Golmaal franchise. The film is pretty much fresh in the mind of cine goers even two years after its release.

- Chemistry between the four lead actors - Ajay Devgan, Arshad Warsi, Tusshar Kapoor and Shreyas Talpade. It shows!

- Kareena Kapoor as an add-on star quotient

- Unpretentious 'masala' entertainment. The film has good music, boasts of very good visuals and promises loads of laughter and action

- Diwali period is just the right time for a 'dhamakedar' film like Golmaal Returns to arrive

- Golmaal Returns boasts of two BIG songs - 'Tha Karke' and 'Vacancy' - that should attract the eyeballs

- Director Rohit Shetty has more or less always got it right when it comes to entertainment. Zameen, Golmaal and Sunday are testimony to that

Weaknesses:

- Audience has been overexposed to comedy flicks this year. Though Singh Is Kinng, a comedy, remains to be the biggest money spinner of 2008, the fact is that at least a dozen odd (poorly made) products have fallen aside in the months gone by.

- Comparisons with Golmaal would be inevitable. Audience remembers the first in the series of Golmaal scene by scene.

- Expectations are huge with big films and in the recent past, expensive films have proven to be disappointments. Remember Drona and Kidnap?

Fashion

Strengths:

- The film's subject. A film can't promise to be more glamorous than this.

- Director Madhur Bhandarkar. He has never failed (Aan - Men At Work was hardly his film) and there is no reason why he shouldn't shock yet again.

- The entire 'expose' theme! Howsoever the makers may want to state that Fashion doesn't take the 'expose' route, this is what audience expects from Fashion.

- Female power. Priyanka Chopra and Kangna have made a name for themselves already while by the look of things, Mugdha Godse should be the welcome addition to the club.

- Good music. Frankly, for the first time, Madhur Bhandarkar has got it right. And he must thank Salim-Sulaiman for that!

- Publicity, controversy, sensationalism - Since the time Fashion went on floors (around a year back), it has done well in all the three departments.

Weaknesses:

- Strength of Fashion is it's weakness. Audience expects a fair amount of 'expose' and sensationalism in the film. If it isn't shocking enough, audience may be left disappointed.

- Identification with the theme. While there is no doubt about urban audience lapping up the film, the same is doubtful for smaller centers.

- Priyanka Chopra has delivered six back to back flops before Fashion. While it is just one film that is capable of reversing the trend, the fact is that she is going through a horrible patch.

- Clash with Golmaal Returns, which is bound to invade into 'mass' territory.