Entertainment
Kesari is the best war film India has produced
Film: “Kesari”; Cast: Akshay Kumar, Parineeti Chopra; Director: Anurag Singh; Rating: *****(5 stars)
21 soldiers holding off thousands of invaders… Sounds very filmy, no? But here is the thing. Life’s lessons learnt from history prove that truth can indeed be stranger than fiction. And why just stranger? Truth is far more stimulating and enriching too. Kesari proves it. Digging out a little known uncelebrated chunk of unbelievable bravery, it makes us proud not just as Indians but also as a country that produces cinema of the highest calibre.
So take bow, Anurag Singh for directing a film which will be remembered by many generations of Indian moviegoers as a turning point in the war genre of cinema.
Unlike the imposters that stalk the silver screen with their phoney nationalism and exasperating jingoism Kesari puts its money where its mouth is. The actors playing the 21 incredibly courageous Sardarjis who took on the Afghani invasion, speak of the pride for their country with no effort to create an impression. These soldiers mean business. When pitched against the worst odds, they know they are destined to die. And yet they fight to their last breath. Why? Because there is a country to be protected.
Kesari doesn’t valorise death. But it certainly throws the idea of patriotic pride at us at a pitch we’ve never seen or heard before. And I don’t just mean Raju Singh’s background music which unnecessarily compounds the intrinsically dramatic action scenes. That’s not the only irrelevant augmentation that this flawlessly-written film suffers, Parineeti Chopra as Havildar Ishar Singh’s phantom-wife serves no purpose except to add a touch of muliebrity to this pointedly masculine film.
Kesari is an astonishing achievement. Like Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Padmaavat the second-half of the nerve-wracking drama is devoted entirely to the battle between the 21 Sikh soldiers against thousands of Islamic invaders who are shot like crawling insects in aerial shots that turn the turgidity of war into a sharply aesthetic celebration of war sentiments.
This is not a film for the pacifists. Kesari tells us, when you got to fight you’ve got to give it your best shot even when you know the outcome. No amount of praise is sufficient for the cast. Every actors playing the 21 Sikh soldiers seems to own his part in the way the girls in Shah Rukh Khan’s hockey team owned their parts in Chak De.
As for Akshay Kumar, is there any doubt that he is today’s finest star-actor in Hindi cinema? The restrained passion (evident in his transformed body language and his propensity to state the truth without demur) that he brings to Ishar Singh’s part is sure to get him the National award this year. I am sure if Ishar were be alive he would have wanted to convey nationalistic valour with the same muted ruggedness as Akshay Kumar.
Of course these men who fought the battle of Saragarhi were spectacularly brave. But the men behind this film also display exemplary courage and confidence. Kesari is nearly flawless in its rendition of a battle of unequals where one man’s obstinacy becomes a nation’s abiding pride and honour.
Don’t miss this film even if you watch only two films a year.
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.
Content provided by Adverloom
Cheers and Cheers: Barzilla’s Joyful Ode to Inclusivity and Celebration
Casino Days Reveal Internal Data on Most Popular Smartphones
Meghalaya Reserves Legalized Gambling and Sports Betting for Tourists
Lockdowns in China Force Urban Communities to Defy Censorship and Vent Frustration Online
What monkey fled with a bag containing evidence in it: Read full story
IPL 20202 UPDATE: KXIP vs MI IPL Dream11 Team Prediction for Today Match, Update Point Table of all Team.
In a Live debate AAP leader Syed Asad Abbas hurls abuses to BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma.
‘India’s Most Wanted’ trailer out Arjun Kapoor on hunt of Osama-Bin-Laden
Time to move on: Sonakshi on Shatrughan’s joining Congress
