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‘Chef’ movie review

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‘Chef’ movie review

‘Chef’ movie review

Cast: Saif Ali Khan, Padmapriya Janakiraman, Svar Kamble, Dhanish Karthik, Chandan Roy Sanyal, Milind Soman

Director: Raja Krishna Menon

Rating: 2 stars

 

 

‘Chef’ is a good-looking film, with good-looking people. The ingredients have been carefully assembled. Khan is ripe for real difference, playing a divorced, middle-aged man and a father to a young boy (Kamble), who is a natural. The leading lady (Janakiraman) has a smile that reaches her eyes: she feels organic in a way no one else does. And there’s a solid supporting cast: we see Chandan Roy Sanyal having fun, and an all-too brief turn by the deliciously salt-and-pepper Milind Soman.

 
 There are some interesting flavours here, but ‘Chef’ feels derivative, and doesn’t come together as a fully satisfactory dish. And that’s got to do with the uneven, stodgy writing. The smoothness that should have been part of a first-rate spread is evident only in some parts: the others are awkward and stilted and contrived, and that impacts the entire film.

This is the kind of film which lends itself to different languages and inflections. Roshan’s ex is a Malayali, so for her to break into her native tongue is natural. That’s true for her son as well, and he does best. Roshan himself is heard speaking perfectly passable Angrezi but they all affect a strange, plastic English Hindi mix, created solely in Bollywood.

And the way the food on display is handled is a disappointment. Kalra claims he is a great chef (did I hear three Michelin stars mentioned somewhere?) but is to be seen twirling his fork around some pasta, mostly. It’s a mystery why Kalra has been written so blandly.

A man who loves food literally dives into, takes deep swallows of it, sniffs the aroma, eats with contagious pleasure. Yes, he seems to have lost his mojo, we are told, but what is it that brings him back to the table, all guns firing? I kept waiting for the tipping point. The film does make a stab at depicting the sensuousness that comes with the true enjoyment of cooking and savouring colors and tastes, but it remains, just that, a stab: no one, including Kalra, gets their nose really busy.

Still, this is where Saif Ali Khan needs to be, this zone, where he can be a flawed person in search of his true self. Here he plays, variously, a failed husband, a father not very good at parenting, and a man not knowing what he wants. And he could have made a meal of it, if this was a better realized film.

Entertainment

Casino Days Reveal Internal Data on Most Popular Smartphones

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CasinoDays India

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.

CasinoDays India

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.

 

CasinoDays India

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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