Entertainment
‘Vivegam’: Ajith shines in an underwhelming film (IANS Movie review)
By Haricharan Pudipeddi
Film: Vivegam; Language: Tamil; Director: Siva; Cast: Ajith, Kajal Aggarwal, Vivek Oberoi, Akshara Haasan and Karunakaran; Rating: **1/2
“Vivegam” is Ajith’s show all the way, and the star in his best physical self, is a joy to watch on screen as a secret agent set out to save the world on the brink of a nuclear attack. His charismatic screen presence is the film’s saving grace, apart from great action which unfortunately isn’t complemented by good writing. In hindsight, the film needed a good writer, tighter screenplay with more tension and edge-of-the-seat moments.
Director Siva and Ajith, in their third consecutive collaboration, go all out to present a film on an international scale and going by the standards they’ve set, it’s truly remarkable. The attempt is ambitious and the team’s effort is commendable, but what’s the point of all this hard work when it is not backed by an engaging story. Despite going international, in terms of scale and vision, Siva’s filmmaking style is still loud and over-the-top mostly. It defeats the whole purpose of giving the story an international touch.
Siva, very consistently, has been raising the bar for action in his films. Except for the introduction action sequence, the film is high on top notch action stretches and the portion involving Akshara, in a road chase on the streets of Serbia, is truly exceptional.
If only these action scenes were well-backed by solid drama, we could have empathized more with the characters. Akshara, for instance, is introduced as the widely popular hacker, and she is wanted by the Interpol. When we meet her, we learn very little about her and who she really is. Similarly, we don’t quite understand why Vivek turns rogue, and despite turning in an earnest performance, the caricaturish portrayal of his character is a big letdown.
In a surprisingly good role, Kajal Aggarwal plays her part aptly. She plays Ajith’s wife and their chemistry works well, ticking the right emotional note wherever necessary. However, it also goes overboard at times. For instance, when Ajith is being chased on the streets of Serbia, Kajal calls and asks him if he wants to listen to their baby’s heartbeat. Seriously? It is silly scenes such as these that spoil the sporadic thrills the film has to offer.
Ajith’s physical transformation deserves special praise, and he has worked really hard, despite shooting in extreme climatic conditions. He carries the film on his shoulders and turns in a never seen before kind of performance.
–IANS
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International online casino Casino Days has published a report sharing their internal data on what types and brands of devices are used to play on the platform by users from the South Asian region.
Such aggregate data analyses allow the operator to optimise their website for the brands and models of devices people are actually using.
The insights gained through the research also help Casino Days tailor their services based on the better understanding of their clients and their needs.
Desktops and Tablets Lose the Battle vs Mobile
The primary data samples analysed by Casino Days reveal that mobile connections dominate the market in South Asia and are responsible for a whopping 96.6% of gaming sessions, while computers and tablets have negligible shares of 2.9% and 0.5% respectively.
The authors of the study point out that historically, playing online casino was exclusively done on computers, and attribute thе major shift to mobile that has unfolded over time to the wide spread of cheaper smartphones and mobile data plans in South Asia.
“Some of the reasons behind this massive difference in device type are affordability, technical advantages, as well as cheaper and more obtainable internet plans for mobiles than those for computers,” the researchers comment.
Xiaomi and Vivo Outperform Samsung, Apple Way Down in Rankings
Chinese brands Xiaomi and Vivo were used by 21.9% and 20.79% of Casino Days players from South Asia respectively, and together with the positioned in third place with a 18.1% share South Korean brand Samsung dominate the market among real money gamers in the region.
Cupertino, California-based Apple is way down in seventh with a user share of just 2.29%, overshadowed by Chinese brands Realme (11.43%), OPPO (11.23%), and OnePlus (4.07%).
Huawei is at the very bottom of the chart with a tiny share just below the single percent mark, trailing behind mobile devices by Motorola, Google, and Infinix.
The data on actual phone usage provided by Casino Days, even though limited to the gaming parts of the population of South Asia, paints a different picture from global statistics on smartphone shipments by vendors.
Apple and Samsung have been sharing the worldwide lead for over a decade, while current regional leader Xiaomi secured their third position globally just a couple of years ago.
Striking Android Dominance among South Asian Real Money Gaming Communities
The shifted market share patterns of the world’s top smartphone brands in South Asia observed by the Casino Days research paper reveal a striking dominance of Android devices at the expense of iOS-powered phones.
On the global level, Android enjoys a comfortable lead with a sizable 68.79% share which grows to nearly 79% when we look at the whole continent of Asia. The data on South Asian real money gaming communities suggests that Android’s dominance grows even higher and is north of the 90% mark.
Among the major factors behind these figures, the authors of the study point to the relative affordability of and greater availability of Android devices in the region, especially when manufactured locally in countries like India and Vietnam.
“And, with influencers and tech reviews putting emphasis on Android devices, the choice of mobile phone brand and OS becomes easy; Android has a much wider range of products and caters to the Asian online casino market in ways that Apple can’t due to technical limitations,” the researchers add.
The far better integration achieved by Google Pay compared to its counterpart Apple Pay has also played a crucial role in shaping the existing smartphone market trends.
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