Hindi
Not so bossy after all
MUMBAI: Boss reminds you of a brand of hand mixer of the same name. It is a blend of similar films from 1970s and 80s with two brothers, a principled father and a misunderstanding where brothers are parted. Traditionally, one takes the illegal route while the other is the father’s blue-eyed boy. The brothers come together to prove blood is thicker than water a decade and a half later. How is the film contemporary? In those days, a mother slapped her elder one and threw him out, here it is done by the father; the hero does not have a childhood sweetheart pining and waiting for him to return; the music is louder and lyrics make no sense most of the time and mainly, the fight is over the villain’s sister.
The film starts in an old-fashioned way, trying to set the pace of the film with action by various artistes for the first 40 minutes before it introduces Akshay Kumar with yet another action sequence, a greedy one because it refuses to end! The only action hero of yore who does not have a fight scene is Mithun Chakraborty.
Akshay Kumar, who has been banished from his home in Banaras by his father, Mithun, ends up in Haryana in nick of time to save the local don and Big Boss, Danny. Seeing honesty mixed with anger in the young lad, Danny takes him under his wing to make him his heir, and names him Boss. Big Boss’s front is as the owner of a transport fleet but otherwise he is a supari contractor. On the other side is a policeman, Ronit Roy, who wants to be the commissioner of police and to achieve this, he handles the dirty deals department for the wannabe CM, Govind Namdeo.
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Producer: Ashwin Warde
Director: Anthony DSouza. Cast: Akshay Kumar, Mithun Chakraborty, Danny Denzongpa, Ronit Roy, Shiv Pandit, Aditi Rao Hydari, Johny Lever, Parikshit Sahni, Govind Namdeo, Sanjay Mishra |
It is time to work on a family story and to absolve Akshay of his childhood act which led to his ouster from home. Akshay’s kid brother, Shiv Pandit, is romancing Aditi Rao Hydari, the sister of Ronit. Ronit wants her to marry Namdeo’s son in exchange for the Commissioner’s post. Namdeo wants an outsider to kill Shiv so fingers don’t point at him. The contract to kill him is given to Akshay. At the same time, Mithun gives a contract to save Shiv to Akshay. The brothers combine to foil all the evil plans of the villains through expected twists and turns with no pretence of logic or justification. It is supposed to be old-fashioned entertainment after all!
A remake of the 2010 Malayalam movie, Pokkiri Raja, the film maintains its south flavour in treatment and even the choice of fighters and junior artistes. It also sticks to south style of action and stunts which is too much in vogue with Hindi films lately. Action and light banter of Akshay is what the film counts on to entertain the viewers. Direction is fair. The photography is good. Some one-liners are funny, some flat. Music is a lot of noisy stuff which makes following the lyrics tough. Akshay is his usual self in the roles he plays on regular basis now; a carefree character with unbeatable energy and fighting power. Shiv gets scope to showcase his action prowess and also his romantic side. Aditi Rao Hydari is okay. Mithun seems miscast in an Alokenath kind of role. Parikshit Sahani’s presence in the film is unexplained since he just has to hang around Mithun. It is nice to see Danny on screen after a long time. Ronit makes a perfect villain against Akshay. Johny Lever and Sanjay Mishra are okay with their comic input. Govind Namdeo is the usual villain like his many such roles before.
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.
