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Secret Superstar movie review
Cast: Zaira Wasim, Aamir Khan, Meher Vij
Director: Advait Chandan
Rating: 3/5
A secret superstar is a story about Insiya (Zaira Wasim) who isn’t a bright student. She is struggling with her studies, her rage, domestic abuse, and an environment that may not let her take the leap of faith, ever.
Insiya thinks the world of her mother, Najma (Meher Vij). Together, they dare to dream of the times when they’ll stand on their own. But Insiya’s middle-class household in Vadodara is reeling under the terror unleashed by her violent father. Being financially dependent on him, years of conditioning have weakened the family. But they aren’t broken yet.
Insiya is quite mature for her age. She tries her best to convince Najma to go in for divorce. Given her condition, it seems like the right decision.
Insiya is aware of her singing talent, but she doesn’t have a plan of action. Director Advait Chandan tries to reason this out in one of the scenes, which has Zaira Wasim saying that the destination should be decided before the route.
Such stereotypical characters not only tell the audience what to expect but also hammer down the central idea of a girl being the underdog. Naturally, we begin considering Insiya’s father as the villain. Probably it’s the director way of balancing the story.
A well-meaning yet ambitious girl, a cruel father, a meek mother, and a loving younger brother. This movie has all the ingredients, with the exception of the comic character. And then, along comes Shakti Kumar and charms his way into the audience’s heart with his antics. You have seen some of it in the trailers, and the extension isn’t a lot different.
Despite being hinted of as a good guy in isolation, Aamir Khan never leaves the basic traits of the boisterous musician he enacts. That serves the film, considering how it starts looking tonally different in the second half.
Advait Chandan then introduces a cute school love story between Insiya and her friend Chintan. He is more of an ally who also tries to validate the director’s ideas of separation in marriages. It works to a limited extent, but such frills take the spotlight away from the central character.
Actually, it’s Aamir Khan’s arrival in the film that adds charm to Secret Superstar. His traits of superficiality and self-obsession evoke smiles. He controls the flow of Secret Superstar before it becomes a public service message on domestic violence.
The theme of an abused girl taking to music and the internet is intriguing. We are on Insiya’s side the moment we see her fingers caressing the guitar strings. Her dreamy eyes have stories to tell and we become aware of her often wavering self control. She punches the wall in anger and throws her laptop on the road. All this shows how the writer has taken care of her character, but he fails to do the same to other characters who are mostly monotonous.
Nothing wrong in being unidirectional but a drastic change of temperament comes as a jolt in such situations. For example, Najma’s sudden change in stance appears forced.
Also, the film has a typical Bollywood texture. Loud background score, slow motion running and a climax that’s not hard to predict. Secret Superstar is mostly about the evolution of a ‘hero’.
Secret Superstar will still make you laugh and cry with ease. Show some appetite for drama and you have an entertainer at your service.
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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