Hindi moviegoers are in for a variety of films this week, all indicating the direction in which Hindi cinema is ready to move this year.

Mahesh Bhatt's murderous efforts to simulate erotica in "Zehar" collides with Mani Shankar's undercover war saga "Tango Charlie". There is also the promising "My Brother...Nikhil" by new director Onir.

It seems unlikely that Bhatt's sophisticated sleaze "Zehar" will encore the success of his "Murder" for the simple reason that it lacks its USP -- Mallika Sherawat.

"Zehar" had been offered to Sherawat who said a firm no (in favour of what, one has no clue). In stepped Udita Goswami, Mahesh Bhatt's daughter Pooja's discovery in "Paap". Goswami is paired with Bhatt's nephew Emran Hashmi whom the family has been trying desperately to push up the audiences' throats with tailor made roles in "Footpath" and "Tumsa Nahin Dekha".

But to no avail. Hashmi has been projecting himself in interviews as a ladies' man who has had the "privilege" of "making love" to all his heroines in films.

No one has been biting the bait. And it seems unlikely "Zehar", inviting people into theatres with Goswami's bare back on the posters, would make a lasting impact. Shilpa Shetty's baby-sister Shamita Shetty, who plays the other angle in the "Zehar" triangle, is said to be the film's USP.

Evidently the Bhatts have long since given up the fight to set high standards for themselves. Their next film is called "Blue"! While giving out porn signals it also cashes in on the craze generated by the colour-centric "Black".

Mani Shankar's "Tango Charlie" is a war film with a difference. Treating the tricky subject of prisoners of war, it has two action heroes Ajay Devgan and Bobby Deol fighting the common enemy.

Nandana Sen, in the news after her career-defining appearance in "Black", does her first full-fledged masala movie with the same producer-director team of Nitin Manmohan and Mani Shankar who last year fashioned the different but undecipherable "Rudraksh".

"Tango Charlie" also features its leading man Ajay Devgan's sister-in-law Tanisha who was evidently signed on his say.

With Emran Hashmi and Shamita Shetty in "Zehar" and Tanisha in "Tango Charlie", Sanjay Suri in "My Brother...Nikhil" fights a lone battle as the archetypal outsider battling clannish prejudices.

The real fulcrum of hope this week is the small yet big "My Brother...Nikhil". Like "Zehar" which is directed by debutant Suri, "My Brother..." gives us a new director, and a very promising one at that. Onir, as he calls himself, is an erstwhile assistant to Kalpna Lajmi. He has dared to venture into an area of starkness generally denied to Hindi cinema.

The film's hero Sanjay Suri plays an HIV positive gay character -- a first for Hindi cinema, and hopefully a new beginning for outdated concepts of celluloid heroism. The success of "My Brother...Nikhil" could further signal the maturation of Hindi cinema in 2005.

The process began with Madhur Bhandarkar's "Page 3" and reached a crescendo with Sanjay Bhansali's "Black". Will "My Brother...Nikhil" take mainstream cinema towards that distant shore which "Black" has so vividly indicated?