It's actors versus actresses as "Dus", "Fareb", and "Matrubhoomi" hit the silver screen Friday.

Sanjay Dutt, Suniel Shetty, Zayed Khan and the hot-hot-hot Abhishek Bachchan line up on one end in "Dus", while the ladies - sisters Shilpa and Shamita Shetty in "Fareb" and Tulip Joshi in "Matrubhoomi" - queue up on the other.

Anubhav Sinha, who has so far directed small-time actor Priyanshu Chatterjee in "Tum Bin" and "Aapko Pehle Bhi Kahin Dekha Hai", suddenly leaps to the big league with the slick suspense thriller "Dus".

It is already a much talked-about flick because of the presence of Abhishek Bachchan, who last week hit bull's eye with "Sarkar" in his father's company, and also for the title song where Bachchan Jr and Zayed Khan are seen grooving in the TV promos.

Shilpa, a whopping winner with Abhishek in last year's "Phir Milenge", is back twice over this week. She not only features as one of the seductive protagonists in "Fareb" but is also in an out-and-out action role in "Dus".

"Dus" is expected to get a roaring opening.

The week's second release, "Fareb", could have some curiosity value for the audience, thanks to the presence of sisters Shilpa and Shamita. Unfortunately, director Deepak Tijori's combination with Shilpa earlier this year in "Khamosh" was a disaster. It could only have become better since then.

Even more unfortunately, leading man Manoj Bajpai has no market at all. And it's a proven fact that the audiences come to see the men first.

That's also why Manish Jha's multiple award-winning "Matrubhoomi" could have a problem getting itself a sizeable audience. Interestingly, producer Boney Kapoor is releasing this scathing raw and real film, with graphic scenes of sexual violence, in six languages - Bhojpuri, Gujarati, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu and of course in Hindi.

The multiplicity of languages doesn't seem to help the cause-motivated film's cause much. The film, set in Bihar, hasn't got itself buyers there. Two prints in Bhojpuri (spoken widely in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh) are being released in Mumbai.

But the incisive and jolting film could spread its wings by word of mouth. After all, this is the year of different films. And the growing difference in perception between mainstream and non-mainstream cinema could help "Matrubhoomi" attain long-delayed critical, if not commercial, success.