Naseer’s terror act
Subhash K. Jha

Debutant director Neeraj Pandey has almost completed his film Wednesday on the July 11, 2006, commuter train bombings that rattled Mumbai. The film puts Naseeruddin Shah in the role of the mastermind behind the blasts. "I took on this role because I’ve never played anything like this before," said Naseer.

Pandey has titled his "realistic thriller" Wednesday, because the gruesome catastrophe struck Mumbai on that particular day of the week. Anupam Kher plays a cop investigating the bombings. Naseer’s other film, Jagmohan Mundhra’s Shoot On Sight, is along similar lines. But in that film, he plays a Muslim cop whose 30 years of loyal service to the British police force is questioned after the July 7, 2005, suicide bombings in London.

The two back-to-back pictures give one of our most talented actors a chance to explore terrorism from both ends. They also prove cinema’s increasing interest in exploring the anatomy of global terrorism. Anurag Kashyap filmed the 1992 serial blasts in Mumbai in his controversial movie Black Friday which was released early this year. — IANS

HOME