Mufasa: The Lion King‘s cinematography and the VFX will take your breath away. But it’s not just a film that relies on visuals. It has a great story to tell and for that, the makers deserve kudos. After all, it’s a risk to tell the prequel to a tale which we have grown up watching and which is close to our hearts. But the risk pays off. On the flipside, the two characters look similar for wide shots while the final fight is underwhelming. The English version fails with the jokes of Timon and Pumbaa. On the other hand, these jokes work big time in the Hindi version. But the Hindi songs are poor and the decision to change ‘Bye Bye’ with ‘Chayein Chayein’ (or whatever it was) is bad. On the other hand, the English tracks are way better. As for voiceovers, Aaron Pierre replaces the legendary James Earl Jones and he does a great job in voicing Mufasa. Kelvin Harrison Jr (Taka) is the next best followed by Mads Mikkelsen (Kiros), John Kani (Rafiki) and Tiffany Boone (Sarabi). Blue Ivy Carter (Kiara) is adorable. As for the Hindi version, Shah Rukh Khan rocks the show. Aryan Khan yet again is great while AbRam Khan is lovely as young Mufasa. Shreyas Talpade (Timon) and Sanjay Mishra (Pumbaa) bring the house down. Meiyang Chang (Taka), Makarand Deshpande (Rafiki) and Mamta Gurnani (Sarabi) are impressive. All in all, both the Hindi and English versions of Mufasa: The Lion King are worth watching, that too in the largest screen possible, preferably IMAX.
My rating – *** ½ out of 5!