Hindi
Sarbjit…Insufferable
Wanting an easy way out, the run for biopics continues. The fact that biopics rarely work in India; an odd one which works to an extent, needs to be fictionalized in parts or more. If such films on Gandhi (which had just scrapped through in English original version but failed in its Hindi version) as well as films on Bose, Patel, Nehru, Savarkar, Ambedkar have all passed unnoticed, to think that Sarbjit was the least of a real life story to be adapted for a film!
Sarbjit Singh, played by Randeep Hooda, is a farm hand in the village of Bhikhi wind in Punjab near the India Pakistan border. His upbringing has mostly been under the aegis of his older sister, Dalbir Kaur, played by Aishwarya Rai. As he comes of age, he falls for the village belle, Richa Chaddha, and soon becomes the father of two daughters.
Fond of wrestling, Hooda is engrossed in the sport one day when Rai watches him from a passing street bus. For whatever reason, she is angry with him. The film or the script does not bother to tell you why for, in a small village, youth do indulge in such harmless sport for pastime. However, Rai decides to punish Hooda, married and father of two, for his indulgence as if he was a school kid. He is banished from house even as he keeps bantering from outside the main door. The scene has been prolonged unnecessarily and makes little sense.
This is when a friend of Hooda enters the scene and flashes a quarter of alcohol (180ml) at Hooda and both vanish in to nearby fields to share the drinks. And, in no time, both are beyond themselves totally inebriated. Imagine, 90 ml of alcohol each doing that to two Punjabis! Leaving his two-wheeler for his friend to tend to, Hooda decides to amble home. Instead, he ambles into Pakistani territory where the rangers are ready to pounce on him and consign him to a jail. He is branded as an Indian terrorist, Ranjeet Singh, who bombed various locations in Pakistan killing many.
The treatment meted out to Hooda in a Pakistani jail is inhuman to say the least. On the Indian side, Rai is desperately looking for her brother to no avail. She soon learns that he has landed in a Pakistani jail. There on starts her ordeal and, that of the viewer of this film, as she bangs on every possible door to come to help her get her brother released. She sits on fasts, leads numerous candle light marches (which have become popular in our films more than they happen in life) and these things get repetitive all through the film.
Rai yells at people all around, may it be in Indian officialdom or in Pakistan jails as if her brother was the only Indian languishing in Pakistani jail and, as if, India did not have any Pakistanis in its prisons. Her approach as shown in the film, lacks logic or normalcy.
The film is titled after the so called victim, Sarbjit, but it is all about Rai. She is in each frame as a crusader on a mission to get her brother freed. Neither does she convince the authorities nor the audience with her tirades nor her overacting.
To think in its perspective, Sarbjit was not a subject to turn into a film; it is a local story with no identification with all India audiences. It is an inconclusive story where nothing positive comes out in the end. The other mistake was to cast the glamorous Ms Rai as the protagonist who neither looks nor convinces as Sarbjit’s sister, Dalbir Kaur would expected to be. She also lacks the native Punjabi twang as most of the time she mouths Hindi. In fact, Rai, expected to be the star and draw for this film, is its major drawback.
In this film about Sarbjit, Hooda playing Sarbjit is sidelined as isRicha Chadha, playing his wife. The script is wonky and, at 131 minutes, intolerable. Direction is below par. Editing is poor. Cinematography is fair. Music had no place in this film except for one song in the beginning when Hooda and Chadha romance; the rest of the numbers are forced in. The film’s dialogue lacks spark. Richa, despite a much curtailed secondary role, stands her ground. Hoodagives into poor substance.
Sarbjit is insufferable. Tax Free tag in a couple of states notwithstanding.
Producer: Vshu Bhagnani, Jackey Bhagnanai, Sandeep Singh, Deepshikha Deshmukh, Omung Kumar, KrIshan Kumar, Bhushan Kumar.
Director: Omung Kumar.
Cast: Randeep Hooda, Richa Chadha, Darshan Chadha, Ankita Shrivastav, Shiwani Saini.
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.
