Hindi
Talaash: A futile search
MUMBAI: ‘I will come back to haunt you‘ must be the oldest phrase used in a relationship. It bears no logic but makes one wary. It is a supernatural shrap (curse). A lot of rumours have been spread about the ‘the end‘ of Talaash during its pre-release publicity; all suspected to be the makers‘ own PR gimmicks. But no gimmick is worth a cinema ticket costing 300 rupees. If gimmicks made money, why make films?
Three young men go on a joyride, meet with an accident and dump the victim, who they presume is dead. Then the victim comes back to seek revenge! Whichever way you look at Talaash and whatever the efforts to ‘Indianise‘ it with supernatural and life-after-death angles, the ghost of ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer‘ haunts the film all through. Rest is all an exercise in convolution. The usual ‘inspirational‘ Hollywood films run for 100 minutes or less; so Talaash has a parallel story of Aamir Khan, and his spouse Rani Mukerji eternally pining for their son who died due to drowning. This helps stretch the film to 140 minutes. It is also the film‘s undoing.There is a lot of speculation about which foreign film has inspired Talaash. From the look of it, Talaash seems to have got its genes from the Hollywood film ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer‘, itself badly panned by media there but lapped up by moviegoers.
Like any metro-oriented film, Talaash establishes its base city, Mumbai, in its title song. This is mainly the seedy side, the underbelly of the city, which includes the whores, the pimps, the nightlife and the violence. Then it goes on to establish its protagonists. This affirms that it is going to be a long-winded film.
Three years after the joyride accident, a top film star dies in a freaky car accident on the same spot when his car swerves suddenly on an open road late one night and lands in the sea. Khan is a reputed encounter specialist but he is called in to investigate the accident since it involves a high-profile star. There are no evident clues and he is told that this is not the first time such an accident has happened at this spot. When not investigating the case, Khan, in tandem with his wife, Mukerji get into bouts of depression and brooding over their dead son. Khan thinks it was his fault but keeps punishing Mukerji by keeping away from her or avoiding communicating. He does not even want another child. Mukerji on her part is under psychiatric treatment until a neighbour, Shernaz Patel, acquaints her with a message from her dead son. "He wants to talk to his dada," she says.
Being a mother, Mukerji tags along to communicate with her son through Patel. This leads to another flashpoint between the couple, Khan and Mukerji. Khan would rather have nothing to do with such mumbo jumbo.
In the process of his investigations, Khan meets a prostitute, Kareena Kapoor, whose pimp was the last person to communicate with the dead film star. The pimp, who is suspected of blackmailing the star and who collected rupees 20 lakh from him just before the accident, is missing. Khan expects Kapoor to lead to him. Instead, she is only interested in leading him to a seedy hotel room with an invitation to make out!
As some more bodies fall and some more red herrings are dropped, the film meanders on and on till it springs what the makers think is a surprise element. The mystery is solved the way it was created.
Talaash is such a dry and insipid film that it becomes a drain on the viewer. It lags in almost all aspects. As the script is weak, the director never gets a grip on the film. Music is no help in the absence of romance. Farhan Akhtar‘s dialogue is generally mundane. His forte being wit, the film offers him no scope. Preferring to project the dark side of the metro, visually too the film provides no relief except, ironically, the accident site. The seafront location is pleasing to eye. And why choose red light area whores? Kapoor could very well have been a high class one and the film could have had some glamour and finesse! Khan has no historic moments and does nothing to satisfy his fans. Kapoor looks too glamorous for the kind of joint she works at. Mukerji, as a totally deglamourised housewife, does well. Among others, Nawazuddin Siddiqui shines. Patel, Raj Kumar Yadav, Suhasi Goradia and Subra Dutta lend fair support.
Talaash is disappointing fare, for Khan fans as well as for box office prospects.
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.
