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‘Hamari Adhuri Kahani’ – old-fashioned tragic saga
Film: “Hamari Adhuri Kahani”; Language: Hindi; Cast: Emraan Hashmi, Vidya Balan, Raj Kumar Rao, Amala Akkineni, Suhashini Mulay and Namit Das; Director: Mohit Suri; Rating: **1/2
Director Mohit Suri’s “Hamari Adhuri Kahani” is an anachronistic, tragic romance that touches an emotional chord, yet, makes you dismiss it as a regressive piece of art. The direction appears confused, with a present-day setting, while the treatment of the plot and characters belong to a bygone era.
The story, with its verbose, melodramatic and regressive dialogues, along with outdated metaphors and symbolism, fits into the 1970s’ mould perfectly. Sadly, the audience today will not relate to it.
An intriguing tale nevertheless, it is all about love. An engaging story of a married lady bound by the shackles of society, yearning for true love.
The dramatic prologue lays the foundation of the narration. It is 22 years that Vasudha (Vidya Balan) has left her husband Hari (Rajkumar Rao). Upon learning of her death, Hari, steals the urn as he is adamant about immersing her ashes in Bastar and not in the Ganges, to enable Vasudha attain salvation.
Hari’s truth — the story of his life is unravelled through a diary that he leaves behind for his son Sanjh to read.
Mahesh Bhatt has penned this semi-biographical convoluted saga, with well-etched characters which are intense and complex. High on emotional quotient, he leaves his imprint with the well-structured, tight and intelligently-woven script. But it is the cliched, archaic and effusive expositions that nail the narrative.
Recounted in a non-linear manner and packed with back stories, what holds your attention are the potent performances given by the ace star cast. Those are undoubtedly the key reason to watch the film.
Emraan Hashmi delivers a sensitive performance, quite contrary to his usual image. As Arav Ruparel, the sauve and successful businessman who owns 108 hotels and is emotionally drawn to Vasudha, he is convincing.
Vidya Balan as the protagonist, Vasudha, brings out the pathos of a distraught mother and abandoned wife seeking true love, through an emotionally intense portrayal. She does justice to her character, but expectedly so. Your heart bleeds for her at the treatment that fate has meted out to her.
With a broad spectrum of emotions, ranging from a possessive husband to a harassed victim of circumstances seething with anger to the subdued psychotic, Rajkumar Rao wows you with his power-packed and nuanced performance as Hari. He is a natural before the camera.
The other noticable character in a cameo is Apurva, Arav’s friend-cum-man Friday. With his spontaneity, tone and sense of timing, he lends a fresh perspective to the sardonic lackey, eliciting many a laughter at his “flight delay” dialogues.
Yesteryear’s actor Amala as Rohini, Arav’s mother, is a huge disappointment. Although the character allows her ample opportunity to perform, she offers nothing to make it memorable.
Technically, with excellent production values and decent music, the visuals by cinematographer Vishnu Rao are vibrantly brought to life by his meticulous framing.
Watch this one if you are moved by sad love stories. The good performances are an added bonus.
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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