Does anyone care about the line-up of films leading up to Diwali? Barring a Morning Raga, which has nothing to do with the Diwali mood, all the films that are being released in the hiatus before festive Diwali-Eid week are stop-gap arrangements. And that?s how the audience is treating them. How else do we explain the plight of films like Kis KisKi Kismat and Inteqaam? If sex and sleaze are no longer selling, then whodunits, too, seem to be on the way out.

The miserable failure of Inteqaam means bad news for Manoj Bajpai who has been trying to establish himself as a conventional leading man for as long as we can remember. After Shool and Ghaat, where he played working-class heroes he tries to do a Michael Douglas in Inteqaam and fails miserably. His accent and body language don?t support his heroic ambitions. Now before the year ends Manoj will be seen as the main antagonist along with Shamita Shetty in Dharmesh Darshan?s Bewafaa. There he?ll be far more comfortable than in Inteqaam. Manoj must accept the fact that he?s a character actor and not a conventional romantic hero. And what is wrong with that?

Diwali also has Naach with Abhishek. He has been stationed in Varanasi and then Kanpur shooting with Rani Mukherjee for Shaad Ali?s Bunty Aur Babli. Abhishek has just said ?yes? to Mira Nair?s prestigious The Namesake. The only problem was a nude scene in which Abhishek was expected to take off his clothes and jump into a pond. Apparently, Abhishek has said ?no? to nudity. Mira is looking at ways of circumventing the skin thing. So after Naach?no nanga Naach.