Not many people expected a lot from this small budget film. After all, it didn't have any real big stars, it had a new director (Rajkumar Gupta) at the helm of things and add to it the fact that it was released in the same week as biggie Sarkar Raj. However, once the first show was done, people came out praising this sensitive film about a man who is unknowingly and unwillingly made to commit a heinous act of terrorism. The film was appreciated by critics and the paying public and soon T.V.'s blue eyed boy Rajeev Khandelwal had established himself as an actor to watch out for in the near future.
Shiney Ahuja is known more for his intense roles in films like Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi, Woh Lamhe and Life…In A Metro, but with his latest release Hijack, he gets to do some heavy-duty action. As the name suggests, Hijack directed by noted ad filmmaker Kunal Shivdasani talks about a plane hijacked by a group of terrorists who have certain demands. Shiney plays the chief maintenance officer at the airport and gets involved in the proceedings as his small daughter is in the hijacked plane. While Hollywood has seen some really good films revolving around the theme of hijack, Bollywood has only superficially touched upon the topic in films like Yeh Dil Aashiqana and Zameen. Hope this one indeed promises to have some hi-octane, adrenaline pumping action.
Besides the above mentioned films there were many other films which touched upon the topic of terrorism in some form or the other- Hope And A Little Sugar (spoke about a family's turmoil post the 9/11 terrorist attack ) Maan Gaye Mughall-E-Azam (despite being a comedy, showed a theatre troupe trying to sabotage a terrorist attack), Tahaan (depicts the life of people in the valley of Kashmir through the eyes of a small boy) Mukhbiir ( speaks about terrorism and underworld as seem from the point of view of secret informers ) and Chamku ( spoke about a Naxalite hired by the RAW to carry out secret operations).
Strangely out of all the films released this year that depict terrorism in some way or the other 3 of them have been from the stable of UTV. First came Aamir (UTV Spotboy to be precise) then Mumbai Meri Jaan and now UTV Motion Pictures presents A Wednesday. The film, directed by debutant director Neeraj Pandey, is a fast paced, edge of the seat thriller where the story unfolds on a particular Wednesday. The film brings together two of the finest actors of our industry Anupam Kher and Naseeruddin Shah who would be seen sharing screen space after a really long time.
After Shootout At Lokhandwala, director Apoorva Lakhia decided to make a film on international terrorism and its repercussions. It's quite a strange coincidence that the day his film Mission Istaanbul opened across cinema halls (July 25th) the city of Bangalore witnessed around 7 serial blasts. In fact the very next day, even Gujarat (Ahmedabad) was rocked by bomb blasts. With the country facing such a grave situation, the last thing people wanted to do was go out and catch a flick depicting terrorism. Hence, Mission Istaanbul which had stars like Vivek Oberoi, Zayed Khan, Suneil Shetty besides clones of George W Bush and Osama Bin Laden fell in to the category of films that just came and went almost unnoticed.