Entertainment
Movie Review: ‘Khamoshiyan’ lacks that zest
Film Khamoshiyan just made the audience feel wastage of time after it got all the negative response from the people who went to see the movie. Plot was not even on the average side.
The biggest puzzle in the public domain, besides the question, “Why US President Obama chose to mouth Shah Rukh Khan’s lines from “Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge’?” is, “Why does a sensible intelligent man like Vikram Bhatt chose to write such stupid shiver givers?”
“Khamoshiyan” makes you shiver. But not in fear. It just makes you shake in embarrassment for all the ghosts and spirits who are so royally snubbed and insulted by such travesties of terror. Maybe the spiritual world could sue for defamation. And then there should be an added penalty for wasting three talented young hopeful actors looking for a break.
All “Khamoshiyan” gives them is a pathetic plot where creaky doors and spooky apparitions get more playing time than the actors who have to look scared and shattered when they are probably laughing behind the camera wondering who in this day and age believes in such moronic mumbo-jumbo.
Not the progressive Mahesh Bhatt for sure. Why Mr.Bhatt who has made some of the most pathbreaking films in recent times would choose to back something so shrouded in the raga of the regressive is beyond comprehension.
But all is not lost. There is a brand new version in this fearful film of the Khemchand Prakash-composed classic “Aayega aanewala”, which launched the career of Lata Mangeshkar as the voice of the nation.
I’m not too sure what the Bhatts (brothers Mahesh and Mukesh and their protege Vikram) mean to achieve by mocking the melody from the film “Mahal” in this way. Whatever their motive, the new version of “Aayega aanewala” only serves to remind us how far the ghost drama has strayed from its original purpose of creating a world where the tenable and attainable cross one another’s world in pursuit of love and fulfilment.
In “Khamoshiyan”, the protagonists snub the spirit and focus on the body. Debutant Sapna Pabbi, playing a hotel receptionist with a serious face twitch and body itch, leads both the men not so gently in bedded perdition. We see Sapna and Ali Fazal kissing, writhing, moaning and…umm…erupting. We see Sapna and Gurmeet Choudhary kissing, writhing….you get the picture? Same-to-same.
Sex never looked more boring.
These are three bodies with no claim to a soul, grappling with a script in a power-piqued film that mocks every sensible rule of filmmaking. All the fearsome threesome does is make out in different locations and positions. Maybe they thought they were shooting for a condom ad. The characters certainly need protection….From the onslaught of idiocy that assails them from every nook of this misguided thriller, more idiotic than erotic, with a female protagonist who is more neurotic than enigmatic.
By the time we come to the….ahem….climax, we are past caring about these three abandoned souls. To their credit, the three actors manage to look appealing in spite of their unsavoury circumstances.
Ali Fazal playing a writer with a block tries to enjoy the suffering. Somewhere you feel the character’s pain has been superseded by the actor’s agony. Sapna Pabbi has a gamine-like charm which this film tries to turn into a pub-house of horny antics. Better luck next time, Sapna.
Pabbi is not just miscast, she is mess-cast.
As for debutant Gurmeet Choudhary, he definitely has a screen presence. One wishes he had chosen for his film debut a script that respected the audiences’ intelligence and tolerance level.
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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