Hindi
‘Kick’ …Get a kick out of it!
MUMBAI: Other films may have done more business at the box office but 2009’sWanted created a new slot for Salman Khan; that of a walking talking killing machine, a Superman (but without his sartorial taste of wearing his underwear over his pants). Being a Hindi film hero, he also has to simultaneously carry out the tougher job of maintaining and placating a girlfriend, and sing and dance with her in garish club sets. Ever since Wanted, films are made for Salman to fit in that same mold which assures success. The planned Eid release, something which now seems like a fixed slot for Salman starrer, adding hugely to the film’s prospects.
Salman is on a mission; he needs to find a person who, he thinks, is responsible for a certain crime despite being in high position in politics. Meanwhile, he notices Jacqueline Fernandez, a psychiatrist, when she is wearing horn-rimmed glasses and looks like a nerd—though she changes to tiny dresses when she is ready to romance and dance the jig with the hero.
Impressed with Salman and very much in love with him, Jacqueline ‘s love story with Salman is not quite convincing and uses up most of the first half offering nothing except a few songs on the viewer. Then, Salman is taunted by Jacqueline about his monetary status. He vows to spend his time on making money and turns into a contemporary Robin Hood. It is another matter that a little later his cause for raising money is a small kid suffering from cancer. He makes raising monies for children needing medical attention his life’s mission.
There is a little girl who is dying of cancer and, unable to meet the expenses of her operation, her parents commit suicide. Salman takes up the cause of that child and approaches the big shots of the town for help. One of the big shots (and a minister), Nawazuddin Siddiqi, along with a bunch of his sycophants, makes the mistake of insulting him by donating Rs 100 while he needs Rs 11 lakh for the child’s survival. That is a reason enough for Salman to eliminate the gang of Nawazuddin one after the other.
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Director: Sajid Nadiadwala. Cast: Salman Khan, Jacqueline Fernandez, Randeep Hooda, Nawazuddin Siddiqi, Mithun Chakraborty, Saurabh Shukla, Vipin Sharma, Sanjay Mishra, Archana Puran Singh, Kavin Dave, Sumona Chakravarti and an item number by Nargis Fakhri. |
Producer: Sajid Nadiadwala.
Meanwhile, the action has shifted to Poland and an Indian cop, Randeep Hooda, is following Salman’s tracks. He is willing and ready to shoot Salman but never does so when Salman is around him because he comes in the guise of a friend, Devi Lal while the thief Hooda is chasing is called Devil (al)!. While Salman and Hooda play cops and robbers, a lot of Nawazuddin henchman millionaires back in India are being robbed. Nawazuddin is exasperated and desperate to find the culprit and add his death to his reputation.
The film turns into a caper as Salman carries out a number of heists in varied ways maintaining his humour all the while. These missions are serious business for Salman and his romance with Jacqueline has been called off, while Hooda, who has come to Warsaw chasing Salman, happens to be her family friend and it is left to her to look after him. A sort of triangle is formed. Though predictable and seen earlier, now the sequence is such that Salman is hunting for Nawazuddin and Hooda is hunting for Salman the Devil. These are the parts that make Kick interesting as would be expected from a Salman action thriller.
The script, as should be apparent, is a bit messy .There is nothing solid happening in the first half except a romance without chemistry. All the action is in the second half where there are some sudden jumps and locations unexplained. You don’t know whether you are in Delhi or Europe, whether one is in past or in present as the things unwind. Sajid Nadiadwala’s foray into direction considering these glitches in the script is satisfactory. What matters is that it will go down in the record books as ‘A super hit on debut’ for him. The film has competent cinematography by Ayananka Bose. The film’s music is not up to the mark and adds to the tedium of the first part. The one song which has popular appeal is ‘Jumme ki raat…’ Dialogue has the usual Salman one liners laced with humour.
The film belongs to Salman Khan all the way and he is in full form. Randeep Hooda comes in a different role and justifies it. Nawazuddin as a maniacal villain, the kind you see in a Bond film or a super hero film, may not come across as strong enough against Salman but looks sinister enough to be slayed. Jacqueline is okay. Mithun Chakraborty as Salman’s father complements him well. Kavin Dave and Sumona Chakravarti lead the supporting cast of able actors like Saurabh Shukla, Vipin Sharma, Sanjay Mishra and Archana Puran Singh.
Kick has taken a thundering opening despite coming on the last Friday of Ramzan and Kavad processions in the North as a Maha Shivratri ritual. The film is expected to break first day records and enjoy a ‘10 day weekend’ at the box office and creating more records.
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.
