Entertainment
Ram Charan Teja transforms in ‘Rangasthalam’ (Review: Rating ***)
By Subhash K. Jha
Film: “Rangasthalam”; Director: Sukumar; Cast: Ram Charan Teja, Samantha Akkineni, Jagapati Babu; Rating: ***
There is something enormously endearing about a superstar trying to shed his image to get into the skin of his character the way, say, Uttam Kumar did in Satyajit Ray’s “Nayak” or Rajesh Khanna in Basu Bhattacharya’s “Aavishkar”.
In “Rangasthalam”, Ram Charan Teja transforms in front of our eyes. It is almost like watching a magic show where the entire appearance of the actor undergoes a sea change as we gawk in open-mouthed amazement. Except that here Ram Charan is not ostentatious in his mutation. He changes his personality, yes. But in doing so he makes sure he merges into the rustic rugged violent milieu of injustice and inequality where one man plays an evil God.
Jagapati Babu, filled with sound, fury and a flurry, as the underhand God is so larger-than-life you fear the frames will crack open under the spell of this self-appointed God’s heavy ego. Ram Charan Teja suffers no such anxieties. As the partially disabled docile, shy and goodhearted Chitti Babu he is a hero unlike any other: vulnerable and sensitive, prone to defeat if push comes to shove but not embarrassed to be pushed against the wall, willing to take the punch on the chin.
Most of the dramatic conflict is generated in tandem, with Ram Charan sharing screen space unconditionally with his screen brother, played by Adhi Panisetty. When Ram Charan is with his brother he is tender. When he is with his beloved, he is super-tender. Emotions are not concealed in a false sense of machismo that screen heroes often suffer from.
There is no effort to take over the show, to emerge as unvanquished conqueror. Ram Charan remains almost flawlessly in character: diffident and disarmingly disingenuous, valiant but not fearless. This underplayed heroic dimension to large-screen heroism is the film’s greatest strength.
For the rest, this lengthy yet tightly-edited melodrama plays itself out with a karmic velocity giving the main characters a chance to grow without revelling in their dazzle.The rural landscape with its toasted-brown virility is sturdily captured by cinematographer Rathnavelu who treats the landscape with lensed casualness.
And yes, there is the pretty Samantha Akkineni as the doughty female protagonist. She tries hard to blend into the rural fabric of this pitch-perfect morality tale. Charming, yes. But Samantha doesn’t quite blend into the bucolic with the ease of Ram Charan.
The film keeps back some surprises right to the end. Though “Rangasthalam” has nothing startlingly new to offer in its content, it is a warm sincere effort to give its leading man a new image.
This is a film from the heart. It delivers its punches with sincerity and without flourish.
–IANS
skj/sug/bg
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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