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‘Dil Dhadakne Do’ – pulsates with fine performances

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Film: “Dil Dhadakne Do”; Cast: Anil Kapoor, Shefali Shah, Priyanka Chopra, Farhan Akhtar, Ranveer Singh, Anushka Sharma, Rahul Bose, Zarina Wahab and Parmeet Sethi,; Director: Zoya Akthar; Rating: ***/12

Narrated from Pluto, the omnipresent family dog’s point of view, “Dil Dhadakne Do” is a classic and an oft-seen tale about love, freedom and hypocrisy in a dysfunctional family.

The story is the usual, run-of-the-mill; a family meets for a grand occasion followed by a catharsis. Here it is to celebrate the 30th wedding anniversary of Kamal (Anil Kapoor) and Neelam (Shefali Shah) Mehra, the most envied couple in Delhi’s high-flying society.

To keep up with his standard and image, Kamal Mehra sponsors a cruise to Turkey and Greece for his family and friends. But unknown to the rest of the world, Kamal Mehra and his family are battling their own demons.

The senior Mehras are an estranged couple, Kamal is a shrewd businessman, whose every move in life revolves around his business. His wife Neelam leads a pretentious life. Son Kabir (Ranveer Singh), a good-for-nothing in the eyes of his father, desires to take up flying, but is expected to take the reins of his family business. Daughter Ayesha (Priyanka Chopra), married to Manav (Rahul Bose), is a promising entrepreneur locked in an unhappy marriage.

The rest of the troupe too, come with their own baggage of grouses and heartbreaks.

On the cruise, the inevitable happens. It is fascinating to observe the layers of their persona and drama unfold with stimulating performances from the ensemble cast.

Ranveer Singh as Kabir and Shefali Shah as Neelam Mehra outshine the other actors. Ranveer is a complete package, with a blend of a restrained, as well as an exuberant performance. He steals your heart, as he plays the charming Kabir with panache.

On the other hand, Shefali Shah emotes with her expressive eyes. Her expressions are worth a freeze, especially in the scenes; when she is depressed and binging on the chocolate cake and when Ayesha tells her about her intention to divorce.

Farhan Akhtar, in a special appearance as the journalist Sunny Gill and Anushka Sharma as the dancer Farah Ali, play Ayesha and Kabir’s love interest. With limited on screen time they both leave an indelible mark — Farhan with his controlled and understated performance and Anushka with her usual vibrant and uncomplicated demeanour.

Ridhima Sud as Noorie Sood makes an impressive debut. She is cast opposite Vikrant Massey and they make a competent pair.

Anil Kapoor as Kamal Mehra walks through his performance in the first half of the film but breathes life into some intense scenes in the latter half. Priyanka Chopra had her share of wow moments as Ayesha, while Rahul Bose as Manav, her stiff-upper-lipped husband, is his usual self and offers nothing spectacular.

Among the character actors, Zarina Wahab as Manav’s mother and Ayesha Raza Misra as Indu, Kamal’s sister-in-law, have their moments to shine.

Treated as a family drama and mounted on a wide canvas, the writer duo Reema Kagti and Zoya Akhtar maintain a perfect pulse of humour and drama, balancing the well-etched character graphs to the plot. They succeed in presenting the dichotomy in the relationships. With spurts of entertaining and poignant moments, they hit the right notes and emotions, but falter at places by taking cinematic liberty in certain scenes with respect to the point of view.

The dialogues by Farhan Akthar are as quirky as the characters in the film and they liven the scenes.

The voice lent to Pluto, is that of Aamir Khan, which you realise only once the credits roll.

The music and background score is well-meshed into the narration. It is the cinematography by Carlos Catalan that is impressive. His one-take shot of the entire song “Gallan goodiyaan” is remarkable.

With a run time of nearly three hours, the pace of the film is slow, but it’s entertaining!

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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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