Hindi
Raja Natwarlal…The con is on you!
MUMBAI: Raja Natwarlal is yet another Emraan Hashmi fare where he plays a street smart guy who walks on the other side of the law. In his other films, he ends up in romance with an educated/ well placed girl but never lives to tell his story. Here, for a change, he wins it all, his life, his loot as well as his girl and even lives to threaten you with a sequel as is the norm nowadays. There has been a recent con movie in Special 26 (a comparison would be sacrilege) but, Raja Natwarlal is a lift from the 1973 Paul Newman- Robert Redford movie all the way, The Sting, which was about conning people in the name of horse racing, while this one is about doing the same in the name of cricket, the only sport all of India identifies with.
Raja, Emraan Hashmi, is nowhere close to the legendary, Mithilesh Kumar Srivastav aka Natwarlal, the ace conman recorded on Indian police’s history. This guy is a petty conman who picks pockets, or lures vulnerable passer bye on a Mumbai road to gamble on the new version of Rani dhundho, a three card game. Only he changes it to Deepika dhundho as against two cards displaying late Nirupa Roy (bad taste). His partner is these petty tricks is Deepak Tijori, also his mentor and ‘like’ a brother.
In a seedy Mumbai beer bar, Hashmi overhears about an 80 lakh cash transaction between two shadowy people sharing a table next to his. Hashmi smells a major breakthrough to graduate to bigger cons. After all, he needs money as his Rs 10 notes he showers on his love interest, Humaima Malik, in a dance bar where she performs, always looked small compared to a Marwari, also besotted by her who dealt in bigger currencies when it came to pleasing her.
However, Tijori is not very forthcoming with this proposal of Hashmi of planning an 80 lakh hit and he knows the goons dealing in that kind of money can be very dangerous. Hashmi manages to convince Tijori averring to him as this being their first step towards big times. So, the deed is done, 80 lakh is lifted from the goons’ car. It is made to look as easy as removing a car stereo system. Both share the loot equally. While Hashmi goes to the dance bar to shower Rs 1000 notes on Mallik and Tijori spends some on buying gifts for his beloved wife, the victims are soon on their trail.
Tijori is wise enough to know he has been cornered by his victims, he offers to return his share of the loot which he does and gets a few bullets in his chest even as Hashmi watches from a distance. It is revenge time for Hashmi and the idea is to get to the big boss of the guys who killed his friend. The big shot, Kay Kay Menon, who made it big from being a petty con himself, has made it big and to keep away from the Indian police, stays put in Cape Town, South Africa.
But, before taking up this adventurous trip, Hashmi approaches Paresh Rawal, a retired con wizard. Rawal has retired in the land of the Dalai Lama, Dharamshala, for no apparent reason (just a change of location for you). Rawal logs in with Hashmi, because, after all, Tijori, who was killed by Kay Kay, was his kid brother.
The gang of Hashmi and Rawal descends on South Africa which, while it may not offer much else, does try to please you with a change of location. Kay Kay has one weakness, cricket and its memorabilia. They plan to exploit this weakness but Kay Kay reads them like an open book and the insipid one-upmanship continues till the climax when, unconvincing as it may sound, the heroes win! Not to mention there are no heroes in the whole setup because it is one conman against another and may the better conman win. They have cleaned out Kay Kay wealth amounting to 1500 crore.
Lifting ideas from Hollywood classic is a crime when one taints it, degenerates it and deforms it beyond recognition. Raja Natwarlal is one such. The film has a mediocre script and the ‘I got it’ direction approach. The film takes its audience for granted most of the time but the makers seem to realise their folly and try to explain in last few minutes what happened all along and why and how; some story telling this!! . Musical score, a vital part for a Hashmi film, is a let down here. So does the renowned Hashmi kissing scenes as he might as well be kissing a mannequin instead of Humaima. This film needed a great dialogue track which is just mediocre here. Background music is on familiar tracks.
While Hashmi does his usual stuff one is familiar with from his past many films, Paresh Rawal and Menon land some credibility to the cast and deliver to expectations. Humaima is a bad choice as the heroine as well as the one deserving of the famous Hashmi kisses. The collective star cast does well though some of the casting (as in Mumbai corrupt cop) is out of place.
Raja Natwarlal is a poor fare having opened to poor opening response. In Mumbai, Maharashtra Gujarat, CP, parts of CI and Marathwada in Nizam circuits will be further affected due to the 11-day Ganpati festival starting on the same day as the film’s release.
Producer: Siddharth Roy Kapoor.
Director: Kunal Deshmukh.
Cast: Emraan Hashmi, Humaima Malik, Paresh Rawal, Kay Kay Menon, Deepak Tijori.
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.
