Entertainment
Google’s Doodle tribute to Bollywood singer Mukesh
Mumbai:Google on Friday paid tribute to one of Bollywood’s leading playback singers, the late Mukesh on his 93rd birth anniversary.
Acclaimed as the “voice of actor Raj Kapoor”, Mukesh Chand Mathur was born on July 22, 1923, in Delhi and left behind a rich treasure trove of songs in a musical career that spanned barely four decades.
The Doodle is largely inspired by a romantic scene from Yash Chopra’s iconic movie, “Kabhie Kabhie”, and shows an illustrated, smiling Mukesh in the foreground holding a microphone.
Mukesh’s voice was discovered by Motital, a distant relative and a former Bollywood character actor, when he (Mukesh) sang at his sister’s wedding and brought him to Mumbai.
Motital arranged for the young teenaged Mukesh to be trained under Pandit Jagannath Prasad and in 1941, he even bagged a singer-actor’s role in a film, “Nirdosh”.
Later, he gave his first playback for Motital in 1945 in the film “Pehli Nazar” and the first Hindi song was “Dil jalta hai to jalne de”.
A fan of legendary black-and-white era singer K.L.Saigal, in his early days, Mukesh stylised himself after his idol, many times confusing their fans.
Later, it was the iconic composer Naushad Ali who gradually helped Mukesh come out of Saigals’s singing shadow and develop his own, independent style given his slightly nasal voice.
Within a short period, Mukesh’s unique voice and style came to be ranked alongside two other Bollywood’s greatest playback singers – Mohammed Rafi and Kishore Kumar.
The trio had a rare recorded number – “Humko tumse, ho gaya hai pyaar kya karen” (Amar Akbar Anthony) – along with Lata Mangeshkar.
Mukesh attained fame primarily as the singing voice of ‘The Showman’, Raj Kapoor, starting from “Andaz” (1949), and later followed it up with a string of films, including “Awara”, “Barsaat”, “Shree 420”, “Anari”, “Chhalia”, “Mera Naam Joker”, with some of the most memorable numbers of Mukesh mouthed on-screen by Raj Kapoor.
Besides these, 40 years after his death, Mukesh is remembered for his songs “Chandan sa badan” (Saraswatichandra), “Chal ri sajni, ab kya roke” (Bambai Ka Babu), “Kabhi kabhi mere dil me khayal aata hai” and “Main pal do pal ka shayar hoon” (both – Kabhie Kabhie), “Kya khoob lagti ho, badi sunder dikhti ho” (Dharmatma), “Sab kuchh sikha humne, na sikhi hoshiyari” (Anari), “Sawan ka mahina, pavan kare sor” (Milan), “Hothon pe sachhai rehti hai” (Jis Des me Ganga behti hai).
There was also the soft, lilting fast but melodious song, “Kai baar yunhi dekha hai” (Rajnigandha), which bagged him the National Award for Best Male Playback Singer in 1974, among many others.
Mukesh passed away following a massive heart attack while on a concert tour in Detroit, US, on August 27, 1976, aged just 53.
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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