Entertainment
‘Neerja’ – A memorable homage to a real “Indian Heroine”
Film: “Neerja”
Director: Ram Madhvani;
Cast: Shabana Azmi, Sonam Kapoor, Shekhar Ravijani and Yogendra Tikku;
Rating: ***1/2
Neerja, a biopic, based on the life of Neerja Bhanot, head purser, Pan Am flight 73, which was hijacked in Karachi in September 1986 where she lost her life heroically, trying to save the passengers.
Set inside Pan Am Flight 73 and Bombay’s Navjeevan Society, this is a well made, crisp film that takes the audience through Neerja’s short life of 23 years. And as Neerja, a die-hard Rajesh Khanna fan used to say, “Zindagi badi honi chahiye, lambi nahin (Life should be grand, not long)”. She lived her life to the fullest and brought joy to those whose lives she touched, till the very end.
Director Ram Madhvani adroitly showcases Neerja’s life and the actual incident of the plane getting hijacked in a brilliant narrative. He gives viewers a peak into her life with her family, her strong bond with her mother, her attachment to her father, the lessons she learnt from them and her traumatic marriage, in a smooth flowing plot, the focus of which never wavers.
The hijacking incident and the manner in which Neerja attends to the passengers, rescues them with single-minded devotion and confidence, remains the centre stage of the film. Yet, we get glimpses of her life, which tell us the kind of person she was.
Sonam Kapoor as Neerja Bhanot slips into the role with ease. Whether it is playfully mouthing the dialogues of her favourite superstar Rajesh Khanna, chiding her mother for her unnecessary concern, or staring adversity in the face as a composed flight purser, she makes it all look effortless as an actor.
But it is Shabana Azmi as Rama Bhanot, Neerja’s spirited and loving mother, who steals your heart with a natural and heart-rending performance. She is every inch Neerja’s mother whether it is waking her up lovingly before a flight or promising her a yellow salwar kameez for her birthday. The last scene where she gives an emotional speech on the first death anniversary of Neerja, is easily one of the highlights of the film.
Shekhar Ravijani, of the Vishal-Shekhar music director duo, makes his debut as an actor and plays Neerja’s love interest, Jaideep, who dotes on her. Unfortunately the character does not offer him much scope by way of performance.
The actors playing the hijackers too are competent and display their anger, frustration, nervousness and unleashing of terror, in a convincing manner. The rest of the actors too are natural, not indulging in unnecessary histrionics.
Nothing in the film appears staged or artificial. It is truly a slice of Neerja’s life.
The only aberration in this otherwise well told engaging tale, is the jerky camera movement and poor lighting, which barely allows you to see the face of the actors with clarity, giving it the feel of a film with compromised production values.
The music has been skilfully used to create the right mood in certain scenes and does not seem out of place.
Overall, Neerja is bound to engage you emotionally owing to the nature of its subject and its adept treatment.
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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