Looks like a troubled week at the movies. Shyam Benegal's "Bose: The Forgotten Hero" is surrounded by controversy with some protesting even its title, and Sikhs are supposedly furious about the alleged vilification of their sacred chants in "Jo Bole So Nihaal".

Is this a publicity gimmick to boost the film's box office potential at the last minute? Are director Rahul Rawail and his leading man Sunny Deol jittery about their product?

According to exhibitors and distributors, there's no need to fear failure for the Rahul-Sunny team, which gave us several hits in the past, including Sunny's debut "Betaab" and one of his most cherished performances in "Arjun". True, the team didn't click in "Arjun Pundit".

But a full-on action-comedy with Sunny dressed as a Sikh for the third time in his career (after "Border" and "Gadar", both hits) seems just like what the box office doctors would prescribe as a success formula.

What's the reason for Sunny's fascination for playing turbaned Sikh characters? Dad Dharmendra also played a Sikh in "Jeevan Mrityu", but it was only a character pretending to be a Sikh in order to get even with his enemies. For all practical purposes, Sunny is our only leading man to play a Sikh character thrice over, and that too very successfully.

The film doesn't have much of a face value beyond Sunny. Singer Kamal Khan makes his debut as the arch-villain. Considering how the acting career of another singer, Sonu Nigam, has gone recently, Khan should stop dreaming of being another prosperous member of the Khan-daan in Bollywood.

What could really boost "Jo Bole So Nihaal" at the box office is the rollicking resurgence of comedy last week.

Ekta Kapoor's raunchy "Kya Kool Hain Hum" has shattered all aesthetic considerations to become what looks like a successful comic sleazy sojourn.

"Jo Bole So Nihaal" will contain none of double-meaning vulgarity of the previous film. Sunny is known to be very careful about the words he utters on screen.

Despite a sure-shot avoidance of crassness, "Jo Bole..." will benefit from the mood of mirth last week. Notwithstanding his embarrassing cameo in "Rok Sako To Rok Lo" and the long-delayed "Lakeer" in 2004, this will also be Sunny's first full-fledged release in two years.

Though several of his recent films have been commission earners, the Punjabi dynamo has had only four bona fide hits -- Raj Kanwar's "Jeet", J.P. Dutta's "Border", Guddu Dhanoa's "Ziddi" and Anil Sharma's "Gadar" -- in the last decade, and only one success, "Gadar", in the last five years.

Will "Jo Bole So Nihaal" turn the tides for him? And what about director Rahul Rawail, whose last film, a comedy called "Kuch Khatta Kuch Meetha", turned into a box office tragedy? Can this film revive the old "Deol-Rawail" magic?