Hindi
Raabta…..Intolerable
Reincarnation has worked when it is made around emotional bonds. There have been some memorable films made on reincarnation and there have been some rejected as utter thrash. There are writers in English language like Brian Weiss and Dr Ian Stevenson among others who specialize on reincarnation cases. And, some recent filmmakers have even been inspired by their work weather it suits Indian beliefs or not.
While the reincarnation films that worked are Madhumati, Mahal, Milan, Neel Kamal, Karan Arjun, there are also those which did not, like Kudrat, Mehbooba, Karz (was okay in Bombay Circuit.).
Raabta is a reincarnation story which, in this case, is incidental. Because, as the film proceeds, you do think that the same story could have been told even without the reincarnation angle. But, then, the reincarnation theme only gives the luxury of stretching the story to look like a complete screenplay. Also, what is sad is that, instead of keeping the film simple, the makers try to make the film spectacular when they deal with the previous birth and take it to a medieval period. It would make more sense to keep it more identifiable with the audience.
The character of Sushant Singh Rajput is a compulsive flirt. He is a charmer and ethics or morals are not for him. He is in Belgium where he comes across with the character of Kriti Sanon.
A romance grows between Rajput and Kriti. Love stories are all same but, what usually works is the chemistry between the leads coupled with melodious music. Here, sadly, that chemistry is not given time to build.
Love stories need a hurdle in some sort of a villain. Here, the villain is from Sushant and Kirti’s previous birth, a thousand years ago. It was a love story that turned into a love triangle which ended with a tragedy.
Now, Sushant, Kriti are reincarnated and so is the villain from previous birth, played by Jim Sarbh.
Jim Sarbh is a liquor baron, who commutes in a personal helicopter and thinks he own all of Europe. There is a belief in filmmaking that to make your hero look like a hero, you need to make your villain strong. In this film, Sushant humiliates and makes fun of Jim soon as they come face to face so the villain’s character becomes a caricature.
The film passes its first half with only Sushant and Kriti on screen with the only relief being European locations. That makes the first half boring. And, if one thought the first half was boring, the second half when the film goes into flashback of a thousand years ago, it is sheer torture. The fact that the villain, Jim, enters the proceedings adds to the tedium.
Raabta is a poorly conceived film with equally poor execution. The music is poor and the one popular number, Mera tujhse….., filmed on Deepika and does not help either. The cinematography is competent making for pleasant viewing in the first half while the medieval era camouflaged in darkness is taxing. Editing is poor.
Counting on just three actors, Rajput, Sanon and Sarbh, is getting rather ambitious since none of the three commands a draw or are known for their histrionics. They fail to carry the film through.
Raabta is poor in all respects with box office prospects being poor.
Producers: Dinesh Vijan, Homi Adajania, Bhushan Kumar, Krishan Kumar.
Director: Dinesh Vijan.
Cast: Sushant Singh Rajput, Kriti Sanon, Jim Sarbh.
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.
