By the time you read this, Ferrari Ki Sawaari would have released and the friendly multiplex near you will be screening three movies that present three distinct faces of Hindi cinema today. All are winners in their very differing ways, and which of them you are ready to offer your time, money and mindspace will slot you in a category of sorts too.

The three films I'm talking about, as you must have guessed, are Rowdy Rathore , Shanghai and Ferrari ki Sawaari .

If you've seen the first two and are planning to see the third as well — wow, you're the film industry's dream customer. You're a true Bollywood bhakt , you have an open mind and you're ready to see a good film or a promising one, regardless of genre, cast or director. Or perhaps your weekends are incomplete without a movie and you have to see the latest biggie regardless. Either way, film-makers and multiplex-owners love you (the latter will do so even more if you sink some more cash in their infuriatingly overpriced popcorn and snacks.)

If you've caught Rowdy Rathore and enjoyed it, you like true-blue or rowdy-red Bollywood masala and you enjoy the whole nine yards — a heroic hero, a desi beauty, songs, dances, comedy, action, emotion. Add on dialogue- baazi , a thumping climax and of course the mandatory item number and you have old-style formula, technically updated and stylish but with a heart that hasn't changed a bit. You like that you can more or less predict the storyline when you see the trailer. It's like the attraction of a McDonald's burger — you know exactly what you're going to get, there's no room for disappointment, it's a safe bet. “Massy” is the Indish term popularly used to describe this Bollywood genre that is the industry's bread and butter. And you dear viewer, are the industry's mainstay as well.

If you liked Rowdy Rathore , chances are good that you're also going to catch Ferrari ki Sawaari . As it's directed by Rajesh Mapuskar, who was associate director on 3 Idiots and Lage Raho Munnabhai , you know what to expect, here too. Especially as Rajkumar Hirani, the director of those two movies, has written the dialogue.

This film stays within the formula, but at the opposite end of the spectrum from Rowdy Rathore . It will be a fun movie, gentle, humorous, moving and heart-warming. But the basics remain pretty much the same, including an item number (by Vidya Balan). This is the updated version of the old “family entertainer”, filled with good, clean fun. It's one of Bollywood's staples too, but made with a different sensibility. Let me stick my neck out and say this one should do well at the box-office though it may not be a blockbuster.

Dibakar Banerjee's Shanghai is an entirely different piece of cake. It represents the brave new face of Hindi cinema — it springs from a more urban sensibility, it's quieter and subtler in its comment on our society and mores, and you're never sure how the movie is going to end. There are thrills and chills, but not the Rowdy Rathore kind. The storyline does have its share of heroism but not your typical hero. Plenty of greys but no black-and-white paint for the characters here. And the heroine doesn't believe too much either in makeup or nakhras . This kind of film is as disturbingly rooted in reality as the other two are in fantasy or an idealised world.

In short, it plays against type all the way. Beginning with its casting — Emraan Hashmi (quite the scene stealer in what is perhaps his best performance) plays a paan -chewing small-town photographer, while Abhay Deol is an understated but no less effective Tamilian bureaucrat.

It is a taut, gripping movie but not an “entertainer” in the formulaic style, even if it has, hold your breath, an item number too. If there's one glaring dissonance in this well-crafted film, it is that “Imported kamariya ” dance. What kind of pressure was Dibakar Banerjee under to let this sequence be included in his kind of movie? Remember, his Love, Sex Aur Dhokha , brilliant as it was, crashed at the box-office. A director who is one flop down doesn't hold too many bargaining chips in Bollywood.

So let's not undervalue commercial success, and ask: Which of the three will be the winner at the box-office? Safe to say it will be Rowdy Rathore — it's not a ‘massy' film for nothing. It's the kind of film that works equally well in glitzy multiplexes and grimy single-screens in thousands of villages. It has the widest appeal and collections, and can aspire for the Rs 100 crore club.

The film's producer, Sanjay Leela Bhansali, is the last man you'd expect to put his money and name behind such a film. But after two of his overly ‘artistic' films — Saawariya and Guzaarish — bombed, Bhansali the producer has clearly decided: bye-bye art, hello mart.

You could argue that Saawariya and Guzaarish crashed not because they were too aesthetic or weren't “massy” enough, but because they were simply tedious, overindulgent films. But then, that same description could fit Rowdy Rathore if you're not a fan of that genre or kind of film.

So what's the difference? “Entertainment, entertainment, entertainment,” as Silk would have told you. It's difficult to define in this context, but like pornography, you know it when you see it. If you leave the hall with a smile — it could be one of pure fun, admiration or awestruck wonder — it means you have been entertained in the broadest possible sense. Even if you're smiling through your tears. Remember how you felt when the final credits rolled for Ram Lakhan , Munnabhai MBBS or Satya ? Three very different films, all winners in their own distinctive way. Luckily for their directors, producers and actors, all three romped home at the box-office. How one wishes the same fortune would visit the three films running today.

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