Entertainment
‘Darling’ a crowd-pleasing tale of horror
Film: “Darling”; Cast: G.V Prakash Kumar, Nikki Galrani, Balasaravanan, Karunas and Rajendran; Director: Sam Anton; Rating: ***
“Darling”, a faithful remake of Telugu hit “Prema Katha Chitram”, is better than its original for the simple reason that it manages to entertain with a new set of actors. It wouldn’t have mattered so much if the same film featured Santhanam instead of Karunas and maybe Soori in the place of Bala. The comedy would’ve worked, but you wouldn’t have been completely taken by surprise because you already know what to expect from a film featuring seasoned comedians.
Even composer-turned-actor Prakash and Nikki, who are making their acting debut, bring something fresh in terms of their performance for the audience.
Cashing in on the current trend of horror-comedies in Tamil, there’s not much creativity, story-wise, in this remake as most of it stays true to its original. But there’s enough creativity in the lines and humour to keep you hooked from start to finish. Almost every scene featuring Karunas, especially the little set piece involving him inviting the ghost for dinner, is a laugh riot. And there are a few hilarious scenes linked to his bad eating habit. All this proves why he’s one of the most underrated comedians in the industry.
Karunas is aptly supported by Bala, who makes a great sidekick to heroes. It’s finally time to give Santhanam and Soori a break to just breathe, but not because they’re bad actors.
It would’ve been awesome if the makers kept the role of Rajendran as a surprise but it’s understandable they used it to create some buzz. He plays an exorcist, Ghost Gopal Varma, who comes to the rescue of a group of youngsters who believe to be living in a haunted bungalow where they’ve come to commit suicide. The film’s best moments, although short, are with him and you can’t deny it. The scene where he takes the ghost head on, and the following moments, are extremely well-directed.
With a disappointing first half, the film bounces back strongly post-interval. One wonders why spend all the time on explaining with a flashback, what forced the hero to decide to end his life. A simple one-line explanation would’ve sufficed instead of weaving a backstory that’s mostly irritating. In fact, I wonder, why even tell audiences why the characters want to end their lives? It could be a story about a few characters on the brink of committing suicide. This is where remakes should show some creativity and not blindly reproduce a hit story.
Director Sam Anton has proved there’s so much one could achieve with a new group of actors. While Prakash does struggle in the romantic portion, he’s good otherwise. It’s a great debut for someone who’s spent all his life composing music. When it comes to the music, he hits the bull’s eye with songs as well as background score in “Darling”.
Nikki, the pretty damsel, has played her part really well as the ghost too.
Despite its flaws, “Darling” turns out to be a crowd-pleasing tale of horror. While there aren’t many thrills to send chills down your spine, the comedy gives you company throughout.
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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