Entertainment
‘Raazi’ film review: Alia Bhatt shines in a muddled and improbable spy thriller
Film: “Raazi”; Director: Meghna Gulzar; Cast: Alia Bhatt, Vicky Kaushal, Soni Razdan, Jaideep Ahlawat, Rajit Kapur, Shishir Sharma, Arif Zakaria; Rating: ***1/2
Director Meghna Gulzar’s “Raazi” based on Harinder S. Sikka’s novel, “Calling Sehmat” is not a conventional espionage thriller, but it does depend upon surprises, thrilling moments and unexpected revelation of characters and they grow naturally out of the story.
Set in the early 1970s just before the India-Pakistan war and inspired from real events, “Raazi” is the tale of a Kashmiri girl, Sehmat Khan (Alia Bhatt) whose life changes after she gets to know her dying father’s last wish. As a dutiful daughter, she can do little but surrender to his passion and patriotism and follow the path he has so planned for her.
So from an ordinary, college-going girl she is trained by an Indian intelligence agent Khalid Mir (Jaideep Ahlawat) to become a deadly spy. She is then married off to Iqbal Syed (Vicky Kaushal), the son of the well-connected Pakistani Brigadier Parvez Syed (Shishir Sharma) and her mission is to regularly pass information to the Indian intelligence.
How Sehmat survives her stint in Pakistan, forms the crux of the tale.
With perfect infusion of sentiments in a gripping plot, the story touches one’s heart especially because of Alia Bhatt’s power-packed performance. In an author-backed role, she is natural and undoubtedly captures your heart with her restrained and mature act.
Vicky Kaushal as Iqbal Syed has little to do on screen. But, within the given screen-time he shines brilliantly, especially at the end when he realises that his marriage was just a farce and he earnestly asks Sehmat, if the moments which they spent together were for real?
Among the supporting cast; Rajit Kapur as Sehmat’s father Hidayat Khan, Shishir Sharma as Iqbal’s father Brigadier Parvez Syed, Soni Razdaan as Sehmat’s mother are all effective and effortless.
The only odd one out was Arif Zakaria, portraying Abdul, the family help of the Syeds. With his standoffish get-up and mysterious demeanour, he stood out like a sore thumb and seemed cliched.
Also, Sanjay Suri’s guest appearance is a clever ploy by the director to stamp a loaded statement.
With excellent production values, Jay I. Patel’s cinematography captures the performances and the era to perfection. Shankar- Ehsaan-Loy’s music elevates the viewing experiences.
Overall, Raazi offers a subtle dose of patriotism that makes you root for the film as it brings to life the story of the unsung heroine of the India-Pakistan war.
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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