Entertainment
Remarkable year for new directorial talent in Bollywood (2017 in Retrospect)
By Subhash K Jha
Mumbai, Dec 27 (IANS) If during the year 2017, the scarcity of new acting talent was scary, the abundance of directorial talent instantly lifted the spirit and made sore expectations soar. Yes, there is hope for Bollywood.
Around 28 new directors made their debut during the year that was. Here’s looking at the finest directorial talent that broke into the Hindi cinema in 2017:
* Avinash Das (“Anaarkali of Aarah”): An astonishingly energetic adrenaline-pumping raunchy and ravishing debut by a director who knows the Indian heartland by heart, this was original and staggering in its deep empathy with the grasroot.
* Shubhashish Bhutiani (“Mukti Bhawan”): For a 24-year-old director, understanding the dynamics of death and decoding the irony of mortality with such warmth, vigour and compassion, was not only rare, it was miraculous. Bhutiani made a marvel of a movie whose message on life and death splashed against our senses like the holy waters of the Ganga.
* Konkona Sen Sharma (“A Death In The Gunj”): Konkona is a very quiet actress. To no one’s surprise, she made her directorial debut with a thriller with an eerie stillness at its heart. Besides being a remarkably poised film, “A Death In The Gunj” also gave us incontrovertible proof of Vikram Massey’s proclivity to assume character traits until he disappears into the person he plays. Can’t wait to see what Konkona makes next.
* Sunaina Bhatnagar (“Dear Maya”): A lovely fragile and far from flamboyant feel-good film about follies of youth and the search for love. Thank you, Sunaina, for a film so steeped in old-world romanticism and for giving Manisha Koirala a chance to show us again that given a chance, she is incomparable.
* Rahul Dahiya (“G Kutta Se”): This Haryanvi-Hindi drama on honour killing simply gripped my guts. Powerful and unforgettable, this film’s unabashed approach to sexual violence was something we have never seen before. Go for it. But next time, could the director please find a better title?
* Ravi Udyawar (“Mom”): How many directors get a chance to direct the mighty Sridevi in their first film? And how many come out of the trial by fire unscathed? Ad maker Ravi Udyawar managed this familiar rape-vendetta saga with tremendous restrain, eliciting remarkable performances from all from Sridevi to Abhimanyu Singh.
* Shanker Raman (“Gurgaon”): Cinematographer-turned-director Shanker Raman carved a riveting piece of Shakespearean cinema on a business empire soaked in blood and greed. If you haven’t seen this film in theatres, do catch it on a smaller format.
* Ashwini Iyer Tiwari (“Bareilly Ki Barfi”): Now here is a female director who proved that the era of the Basu Chatterjee/ Hrishikesh Mukherjee comedies was not over. Ashwini’s film sparkled with chuckles. It was engaging in a way we had forgotten comedies can be.
* Milind Dhaimade (“Tu Hai Mera Sunday”): This ad maker hawked his wife’s jewellery mortgaged his home and sold the last shirt off his back to make this tender sweet bitter but illuminating film about life in the metropolis. Sure, life sucks. But then we get films about life that make it worth the pain.
* Suresh Triveni (“Tumhari Sulu”): The story of a rather clumsy housewife who constantly dreams of outdoing herself, told in a way that was fresh stimulating and revealing. Triveni is a talent to watch.
* Advait Chandan (“Secret Superstar”): Though there was something way too obvious about this story of a middle-class girl’s realization of her dreams and though Aamir Khan gave his career’s worst performance in this film, there was something supremely sincere and pure in Advait’s storytelling.
* Devashish Makhija (“Ajji”): A dark grotesque tale of a grandmother’s revenge for her little grandchild’s rape, this one needed a strong constitution to be watched. But then our country needs that. A strong constitution.
–IANS
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Entertainment
Casino Days Reveal Internal Data on Most Popular Smartphones
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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