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‘Raman Raghav 2.0’: Cleverly crafted, compelling
Film: “Raman Raghav 2.0”; Director: Anurag Kashyap; Cast: Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Vicky Kaushal, Sobhita Dhulipala, Amruta Subhash, Ashok Lokhande and Mukesh Chhabra; Rating: ****
“Raman Raghav 2.0” is Anurag Kashyap’s take on the psychotic serial killer Raman Raghav who terrorised Mumbai during the late 1960s. He had apparently bludgeoned 41 people to death using a bent iron rod.
This is not a biopic but a twisted fiction that encapsulates the life of two soulmates; the scar-faced serial killer Ramanna who also called himself Sindhi Dalwai, and the addicted to drugs Police Inspector, Raghavendra Singh Ubbi who was initially investigating the killings.
Narrated in a linear fashion and set in 2013, the narration begins in a nightclub with pounding music and free flowing drugs. Raghavendra, high on drugs, leaves the nightclub with a woman he picked up that night.
En route to his residence, he stops in Kidwai Nagar to pick up more drugs. But when he lands up at the residence of his drug supplier, he realises that the old man has been attacked brutally. Raghavendra does not hesitate to take advantage of the situation by stealing his drug supply, but not before murdering another intruder who lands up at the crime scene minutes later.
This scene forms the prologue to the drama, which is encapsulated in eight chapters that unfurl with gripping flourish of how Ramanna stalks Raghav and their lives are intertwined. It also overturns expectations in the finale, to create an impactful and convincing drama.
The story, written by Anurag Kashyap and Vasan Bala, is typically Anurag’s overture. Their plot is packed with grisly crime, dark characters in forbidding territory and dialogues that humourously engage the audience. It broadly deals with the morality of killing, which is seen from two aspects; that of an unhinged killer and the other from the view of a lawkeeper.
But it is Nawazuddin Siddiqui as Ramanna and Vicky Kaushal as Raghavendra who bring life to the writing. While both of them are powerfully natural and earnest, as they effortlessly essay the complex and muddled characters, Nawazuddin steals the thunder with his intensely disturbed, scavenger look and his tongue-in-cheek lines, which he delivers with a straight face.
They are efficiently supported by Sobhita Dhulipala as Smrulika Naidu aka Simmy — Raghavendra’s long-standing and tormented girlfriend –, Anuschka Sawhney as Ankita, Raghavendra’s one-night stand who slips from his clutches, Amruta Subhash as Raman’s distraught sister Laxmi, Ashok Lokhande as Laxmi’s husband. They all manage to evoke sympathy with their effective portrayal.
The film is astutely mounted with fine production qualities that make the entire setting appear ordinary and regular. This is brilliantly captured by Jay Oza’s camera work. Especially dramatic are his visuals captured in claustrophobic spaces.
What adds to the viewing experience is Ram Sampath’s frenzied and adrenaline-packed background score, which is efficiently layered by Aarti Bajaj’s crisp editing.
Overall, “Raman Raghav 2.0” is a cleverly crafted and compelling film.
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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