Hindi
A Gentleman: Sundar, Susheel, Risky: Dream native and act Hollywood
The title of the film needs some elaborate explaining. A film’s title says a lot about the film. When did you last hear somebody use the word Gentleman? It is a phrase from history, the British era. And, what is more, does the title say anything at all about the film? It does not, nothing at all.
A Gentleman seems to be a film inspired from all the popular action movies from the late 20th Century James Bond, Bourne Identity and such. The idea is to dream native and act Hollywood.
Director-duo Raj and Dk’s films like Go Goa Gone and Shor in the City are mostly made on alien themes. A Gentleman is also one of those where there is action galore, justification be damned.
The character of Sidharth Malhotra, living in Miami, works for a force called National Security Council, headed by the character of Suniel Shetty. Though dealing in violence, at heart he is a simple man with simple dreams of having a home and family. He wants to settle down with his love played by Jaqueline Fernandez, to a quiet life and bring up kids! As the film’s tagline says, he is Sundar, Susheel, Risky.
Towards this end, Sidharth plays a simple man, Gautam, with no hint of his other side as the undercover operative, Rishi. He wants to get out of this business to live a tranquil life. But, the Group and Shetty won’t let him. He will be hunted down by Shetty’s men. What follows is mayhem. It is the stylish, Bond kind of action with guys dressed in tuxedos spraying bullets.
The flavour is that of a light comedy as dialogues laced with humour are thrown around. It is mainly all about Sidharth and Jacqueline hanging around driving fast cars and pole dancing.
Being a Hollywood type film made by Indians, the location is the picturesque Miami, the style is like a Bond film. Humour and action are the mainstay of the film. The emphasis is on style rather than content.
The direction is slick. Cinematography captures the locations very well. But, stretching a film on such a genre, with not yet established faces, to 133 minutes takes its toll. Things get monotonous. The film could have done with some trimming. Songs don’t help much.
Sidharth passes the sartorial test but is yet to polish up his performance. Jacqueline provides the glamour quotient. Shetty gets little worthwhile to do.
Amit Mistry and Hussain Dalal make their presence felt. Rajit Kapoor and Supriya Pilgaonkar are okay.
A Gentleman has not been able to arouse any curiosity through its pre-release promotions while the title is also uninspiring. Faces poor prospects.
Producer: Fox Star Studios.
Directors: Raj and D K.
Cast: Sidharth Malhotra, Jacqueline Fernandez, Suniel Shetty, Darshan Kumar, Hussain Dalal, Supriya Pilgaonkar, Rajit Kapur.
Hindi
India’s telecom subscribers cross 1.32 billion in February 2026
Broadband base swells past 1.06 billion as Jio and Airtel tighten grip on the market.
MUMBAI: India’s telecom sector is ringing in steady growth once again adding millions of new connections every month while the race for broadband supremacy continues to heat up like a fiercely contested cricket match. According to the latest data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on 1 April 2026, the total telephone subscriber base in the country reached 1,321.31 million at the end of February 2026. This marked a net addition of 7.31 million subscribers during the month, translating into a monthly growth rate of 0.56 per cent.
Wireless subscribers (including mobile and Fixed Wireless Access) stood at 1,273.31 million, registering a net addition of 6.97 million and a growth rate of 0.55 per cent. Within this, urban wireless connections grew to 730.75 million (growth 0.70 per cent), while rural wireless subscribers reached 542.56 million (growth 0.35 per cent).
Wireline subscribers, though much smaller in scale, showed slightly faster growth. The total wireline base increased to 47.99 million, with a net addition of 0.34 million and a monthly growth rate of 0.70 per cent. Urban areas continued to dominate wireline connections with a share of 89.41 per cent.
Overall tele-density in India improved to 92.66 per cent. Urban tele-density stood at 150.68 per cent, while rural tele-density edged up to 60.02 per cent.
The broadband subscriber base crossed a significant milestone, reaching 1,059.05 million at the end of February 2026. This reflected a healthy net addition of 6.33 million subscribers and a monthly growth rate of 0.60 per cent from January’s figure of 1,052.72 million.
Segment-wise, mobile wireless access continued to drive the majority of growth with 996.52 million subscribers. Fixed Wireless Access (including 5G FWA) added 16.51 million, while wired broadband stood at 46.02 million.
Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. maintained its commanding lead with 519.64 million broadband subscribers. Bharti Airtel Ltd. followed with 364.14 million, Vodafone Idea Ltd. with 129.36 million, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. with 28.70 million, and Atria Convergence Technologies Ltd. with 2.38 million.
Together, these top five players command a massive 98.60 per cent share of the total broadband market.
In the wireless (mobile) segment, private operators continued to dominate with 92.59 per cent market share, leaving public sector undertakings (BSNL and MTNL) with just 7.41 per cent.
Out of the total 1,257.29 million wireless (mobile) subscribers, 1,177.60 million were active on the peak Visitor Location Register (VLR) date, representing an impressive 93.66 per cent activity rate. Bharti Airtel led in this metric with 99.42 per cent of its subscribers active.
Meanwhile, 14.47 million subscribers submitted requests for Mobile Number Portability (MNP) in February, indicating healthy competition and customer churn across zones.
While urban areas still lead in absolute numbers, rural connectivity is slowly catching up. Rural wireless tele-density stood at 59.46 per cent, compared with the much higher urban figure of 142.32 per cent.
Fixed Wireless Access using 5G technology also showed promising traction, growing to 11.93 million subscribers. Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel are the primary players driving this segment.
The data paints a picture of a maturing yet still rapidly expanding telecom ecosystem. With total telephone subscribers now well past the 1.32 billion mark and broadband users comfortably above 1.06 billion, India continues to solidify its position as one of the world’s largest and most dynamic digital markets.
From bustling city streets to remote villages, more Indians are staying connected than ever before proving that when it comes to telecom, the country’s appetite for growth shows no signs of hanging up anytime soon.
