Box Office: ‘‘Mufasa: The Lion King” Trails With $13.3 Million
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- Mufasa: The Lion King collected Rs 22.50 crore in two days in India
- The film collected Rs 13.70 crore on Day 2 alone
- Directed by Barry Jenkins, it is a prequel to the 1994 film, The Lion King
Mufasa: The Lion King seems to be benefitting from the lack of big releases this week. The film, that tracks the origin story of Mufasa and serves as a prequel to the much-loved The Lion King, has collected Rs 22.50 crore in two days, according to early estimates.
According to the website Sacnilk, Mufasa: The Lion King has collected Rs 13.70 crore on Day 2. The numbers are based on early estimates. The English version contributed Rs 5.50 crore, while the Hindi version raked in Rs 4.50 crore. The Telugu and Tamil versions contributed Rs 2 crore and Rs 1.7 crore respectively. The film saw a 55.68 percent jump in its collection as compared to the opening
Shah Rukh Khan breathes life into the Hindi version of Mufasa: The Lion King, while Mahesh Babu lends his voice to the Telugu adaptation. Globally, however, the film has been trailing at the box office, primarily due to competition from Sonic the Hedgehog. Nevertheless, Mufasa is expected to gain momentum in the international market, having been released worldwide simultaneously with its US debut, whereas Sonic the Hedgehog is yet to open internationally, scheduled for a Christmas release.
Directed by Barry Jenkins, Mufasa: The Lion King serves as a prequel to the iconic 1994 film The Lion King. It explores the humble beginnings of Simba’s father, chronicling his journey from an orphaned cub and outsider to his rise as the cherished leader of Pride Rock.
Mufasa The Lion King Hindi movie review: It makes perfect poetic sense to cast Shah Rukh Khan as the voice of the titular character, the mighty father of Simba, in Barry Jenkins’ prequel to the 2019 blockbuster. He not only lends his signature thinking man’s vulnerability to a young Mufasa, but also steeps the Disney fable in flavours both deeply local and eerily personal. Mufasa’s origin story is that of Shah Rukh himself – a lost soul in search of his parents destined to rule a kingdom far far away.
In the cult 1994 animated Lion King, the late James Earl Jones lent unparalleled gravitas to Mufasa through his booming, textured voice. In fact, Mufasa: The Lion King pays tribute to that man and that voice right at the beginning. Given the beats of the origin story, if there was any Indian actor who could effortlessly slip into the character’s paws, it’s Shah Rukh Khan. Like Mufasa, the actor also lost his parents at a very young age, and somewhere seems to be in perennial search of them.
In the process, he enters a kingdom days away from his own, where he’s rejected by the lions, but embraced by the head lioness and her cub, Raka. She sees a prince in him, although Mufasa claims that unlike his newfound brother Taka, he doesn’t wish to be scared of principles and burdened with responsibility. Yet, as his journey takes its course, Mufasa becomes exactly that – a king of his dream kingdom, if not by choice, then by destiny. Shah Rukh could very well be the Mumbai counterpart of Mufasa.
It also makes sense that Shah Rukh’s sons – Aryan Khan and AbRam Khan – are also a part of the voice cast. While Aryan’s Simba returns only for a cameo, AbRam shines as the ebulient cub version of Mufasa. The film also tells the story of four generations – from Mufasa’s parents to Simba’s daughter Kiara. It underscores that every generation feels lost, thanks to fear of abandonment, but as Raka’s mother puts it, “You need to be lost first in order to find your way home.” Shah Rukh has often talked about how lost souls always have an edge over others. The resonance becomes more uncanny when at multiple points, Mufasa reassures his loved ones with “Main Hoon Na.”
But one can’t say that Shah Rukh is the only saving grace of Mufasa: The Lion King. The film pretty much stands on his own. If John Favreau had the Herculean task of bringing to tangible life the 1994 animated classic in The Lion King (2019), Barry Jenkins also does a fine job of giving Mufasa his own past, fears, journey, and value system. And unlike most Hindi dubbed versions of Hollywood films out there, the dialogues and even the songs land fairly smoothly throughout. Fortunately, the Hindi isn’t contemporarised or dumbed down for the Gen-Z. It flows seamlessly, yet also offers lines you’d remember for long.
When Taka wants to go hunting like his mother and Mufasa, his father dozes off and says, “Humare khwabon se hi riyasat mehfooz rehti hai” (Our kingdom is protected only by our dreams), which reflects the double standards of the lions, who merely sleep and posture as kings of the jungle, while it’s the lionesses who actually do the work – hunt and raise cubs. The father also says, “Fareb toh nawabo ka hathiyar hota hai” (Treachery is a king’s strength). Or when Mufasa describes his dream land as “manzil ke pas, nazar ki hadh se pare” (close to destination, beyond the limit of the sight). These are dialogues that have not just been translated, but crafted with a lot of thought and skill.