Mufasa – The Lion King acts both as a prequel and sequel to The Lion King (2019) which itself is a remake of the original animated film going by the same name. Here is a thumb rule for classics – you DO NOT remake them, which is why it is all the more surprising of the studio going an extra-mile to green-lit its successor too. So as the title suggests, the film marks the origin story of Mufasa, the king of the jungle who had ruled the roosts until his demise that passed on the baton to Simba. Narrated entirely as a flashback of sorts, you are accustomed to the early life of Mufasa, including the bond that he shares with his parents until being woefully separated in the flood. This, until he suddenly turns into an ‘Outsider’ while befriending a sweet blue-blooded cub Taka, while willing to fight for the rights of his new found family. If you notice, each of these plot-points act as a checklist while seldom focusing on the underlying layer of emotions in the story. For instance, the pain of Mufasa separating from his parents needed to be felt – given that there is a life lesson of being brave in trying to survive in this big bad world. Alas! There was none!

I must admit though that this isn’t holistically a train-wreck, in fact the drama has a couple of intetesting anecdotes with respect to the characters of Mufasa and Taka. You notice that Mufasa is taken care by a group of lionesses after King Obasi bans him from the main group. As a result, you see Mufasa transform into a more empathetic being who cares for the animals around him, while being fully aware of what ‘power’ means to him. As a recall factor, you almost imagine Mufasa to be this earnest beast filled with his set of values that he would later pass on to Simba. In contrast, Taka remains hesitant and vulnerable by virtue of which he feels threatened or even jealous of all the adulation that Mufasa receives at regular places of the drama. His hesitancy further explains his reluctance to pull Mufasa up from a cliff during his death, a stark contrast to his urge to help him out during their first encounter despite having a continued thread of ‘reluctance’ against danger.

One of the biggest issues with respect to the writing remains its generic approach to the script. As a result, you see that the character dynamics are surface-level while specifically catering to the age demographic of under 10 years, that automatically limits the drama. In a sharp contrast, The Lion King (animated version) still has a lot to offer in terms of pearls of wisdom that is layered and directed to people from every age-bracket. The central conflict of Mufasa’s encounter with the the ‘Outsiders’, only to be on a run later on, felt superficial and binary with its approach that did not really have a pay-off with respect to his rise, and the eventual King of the Jungle. The entire drama felt like an elongated checklist of the activities to be performed as the characters ventured from Point A to Point B, including its final act that tried to be three-fold with its approach – of uniting all animals at the helm of things with Mufasa as the King Pin (that included a reunion with respect to Mufasa’s past), the eventual overhaul of Mufasa’s ‘Outsider’ nemesis, only to give rise to a jealous and hurt nemesis in the form of Taka transforming into Scar. It could so easily have been layered or even fleshed out to transform this generic tale into a memorable one, but was anyone even interested. The one compliment that I can give to its writing is that it ensures that the drama is ‘watchable’, nothing more, nothing less!