Entertainment
‘Rock The Kasbah’: Does not rock, but is an easy watch (Movie Review)
By Troy Ribeiro
Film: “Rock The Kasbah”; Cast: Bill Murray, Kate Hudson, Bruce Willis, Danny McBride, Scott Caan, Zooey Deschanel; Director: Barry Levison; Rating: **
Barry Levison’s “Rock The Kasbah,” follows Richie Lanz, a down-on-his-luck Hollywood agent and music manager who lands in Kabul, on a USO tour of Afghanistan, along with a pathetic wannabe singer, Ronnie (Zooey Deschanel), with the hope of making some money and fame.
What follows are the misadventures of Richie Lanz after Ronnie robs him of his cash and passport and leaves him stranded in a war-torn country.
With a wry sense of humour and luck on his side, he gets his way through, stating, “I am not a fighter, I am a deal maker.” He cracks deals by pulling the strings, offering a percentage and shaking hands with war-lords, mercenaries, arms dealers Nick (Danny McBride) and Jake (Scott Caan) and ultimately the village-head of a Pashtun village, where he meets a young woman, Salima (Leem Lubany), who can sing beautifully.
Richie envisages Salima to be the voice of Afghan Star, a talent show modelled on the lines American Idol. Unfortunately, he finds the villagers and seemingly much of the country not interested in having a woman sing in public. How he overcomes these issues, forms the crux of the tale.
The film is Bill Murray’s journey and he does not stretch himself, a wee bit, playing the jolly old opportunist with a heart, who is pompous and rude at times. He is natural, unwittingly funny and convinced of his own greatness.
Beejan Land as his driver, translator and well-wisher Daoud who is in awe of the American, is charming. His subtle and timely warnings to Richie make you chuckle.
It is the Palestinian beauty Leem Lubany who is striking as the singer Salima. Unfortunately, her character like the rest of the characters in the film is poorly etched.
Kate Hudson as the hooker Merci, Bruce Willis as the Mercenary Bombay Brian, Taylor Kinney as army Private Barnes, Danny Mc Bride and Scott Caan as the arms dealers, make their presence felt, though in measured roles.
This film is dedicated to Setara Hussainzada, a female contestant of the third Afghan Star show. Setara was the first to be eliminated in the final round and during her farewell performance she danced uninhibitedly, which was considered socially inappropriate.
Depending heavily on cultural cliches and crisp one liners, this comedy drama written by Mitch Glazer is an easy watch. But the issue with the script is that it switches from an adventurous tone to a moralistic tale halfway through the narration. The change is sudden, unforeseen and completely derails the film from its original track and goal.
With minimalistic production values, and with the war-torn country as the back-drop, the visuals are shades of grey making the entire atmosphere seem dull and cluttered.
Overall, this film only faintly rocks the Kasbah!
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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