Pakistani cinema rarely produces movies that can be termed a social commentary, but the Donkey King is just that and a lot more. Even though the theme may be highly political, it does well to criticise our current social system and the way we choose our leaders.

Produced by Talisman Studios and directed by Aziz Jindani, the CGI animated feature revolves around Mangu (voiced by Afzal Khan, our very own Jan Rambo from PTV’s Guest House comedy series aired during the 90s), a donkey living in a place called Azadnagar, where wild as well as domesticated animals are seen behaving in human-like ways. Kids, the word for this is anthromorphic, which means attributing human behaviours and emotions to anything not human.

Back to our story; in the power echelons of Azadnagar, Badshah Khan (voiced by Ghulam Mohyuddin) is planning to retire and hand over the reins of the kingdom to his bratty social media–indulgent son, Shahzada Khan (voiced by Adeel Hashmi). Enters the king’s trusty but cunning advisor, Fitna Begum (voiced by Hina Dilpazeer), who advises democracy in Azadnagar (“Just like the human do!”) so as to put in a lame-brained ruler who will eventually make way for the king’s son. What ensues is a political and media ruse, which only goes on to serve Fitna’s ulterior motives.

Ripe with analogies; “Hum Azadnagar ko naya Azadnagar banaein gay!”, “Hamein deewar say lagaya jaraha hai!”, “QasmTRPki”, “Bura suno bura dekho bura kaho…kyun ke bura he bikta hai!” and a hippopotamus called Donald Crump (voiced by Shafaat Ali) who reads out his Twitter message; the film leaves no stone unturned in taking a dig at the current state of democracy in Pakistan, the covert tactics used to elected representatives and the manipulative role of the media.

The satire does not stop there; I was particularly amused by the use of Urdu proverbs and idioms, such as “Beta bhains kay aagey been bajao!”, Changu’s (voiced by Javed Sheikh) advice when Mangu is fighting a bull named Tsunami; how aptly areas of Karachi fitted into the film’s storyline, i.e. Bandar Road, Bhains Colony, Machar Colony, Nagan Chowrangi, Geedar Colony, etc. as well as references from other films and TV programmes.

At the technical end, each actor has executed the voiceovers extremely well, carrying appropriate emotions required for the dialogues. The expressions that we have seen in Pakistani animated features have certainly gotten a higher benchmark now with Donkey King, although certain subtleties still need work. The storyline, although very well-rendered, is quite predictable and the music definitely has a catchy tune to it even though it is not much to write home about.

Published in Dawn, Young World, November 3rd, 2018