Hindi
Blue Mountain….Lost cause
MUMBAI: Blue Mountain is a film about the ambitions and aspirations of the young, the teenagers. The youth at that age have a new aim and ambition about what they wants to do with life and with each passing day. While, often, parents’ unfulfilled desires are forced on children, like wanting the child to accomplish what a parent could not, at other times a child is expected to follow a family tradition.
Blue Mountain is about a young lad accidentally discovering his hidden talent which, it turns out, is in his genes.
A group of four school friends, played by Yatharth Ratnum, Simran Sharma, Vaibhav Hanshu and Rishabh Sharma (the mandatory fat character fond of food and always munching in this kind of groups), spend their spare time riding their cycles around the picturesque hills of Shimla. They aim high and race to the tallest peak, the blue mountain.
All four have different ambitions but one, Vaibhav, aims to become a musician/ singer and, to this end, he has entered his name for the auditions of a famous reality show on TV, Ragarocks. When the auditions are on and his turn comes, Vaibhav develops cold feet. He asks Yatharth to take his place.
At the auditions, Yatharth decides to croon a classical number he always heard his mother, played by Gracy Singh, hum around house. He qualifies. As it turns out, the number he sang has many fans. It was originally sung by his mother, Gracy, who was a renowned singer but gave up her career after marrying the character of Ranvir Shorey.
As Yatharth proceeds to Mumbai to participate in the reality show with Gracy, a wedge opens in the family since Ranvir is against Gracy forcing her ambitions on their son. He has bigger ideas for their son.
The film then proceeds to take a cursory look at the behind-the-scene happenings of a reality show while Yatharth goes on winning round after round till, for no apparent reason, he croaks while singing in concluding the round and is disqualified.
The outcome is that Yatharth is broken, suicidal, snaps at everybody and sulks to the world. While he sulks endlessly, which consists of almost the entire second part, the film sinks to its lowest, never to recover. The makers then decide to force in a happy ending but the cause is lost by this time.
Blue Mountain is an amateurish enterprise which comes across as neither a children’s film nor for mature viewer. The reality show set up is patchy. Music is little help though the intentions are to promote Indian classical music.
Except for the snow-clad Shimla, there is little else to watch here.
Producers: Rajesh Kumar Jain.
Director: Suman Ganguli.
Cast: Gracy Singh, Ranvir Shorey, Rajpal Yadav, Arif Zakaria, Mahesh Thakur, Amit Behl, Vinod Nagpal, Yatharth Ratnum, Simran Sharma, Vaibhav Hanshu, Rishabh Sharma, Mehul Kapadia, Madhvi Shrivastava, Lisa-Marie Rettenbacher, Lamira Faro.
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.
