A review on Pakistani Double Feature length Animated films, 3 Bahadur (2015) and 3 Bahadur: The Revenge of Baba Balaam (2016). The Production Houses are Waadi Animations, SOC Films & ARY Films Productions while its Distributor is ARY Films.
+ Crew
- Directed & Produced by Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy
- Cinematography & Written by Kamran Khan
- Edited by Husain Qaizar
- Music by John Angier
- Co-Produced by Salman Iqbal and Jerjees Seja
+Note
3 Bahadur is set in a fictional town called Roshan Basti (Town of light). Equipped with courage and super powers, they battle against the odds and stand up to injustice to restore peace and harmony in their once thriving community and live a very happy life. Hollywood actor, Jude Law voiced as Mangu in US.
Two times Academy award winner documentary film-maker, Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy has directed and produced both of these films. It became the highest-grossing animated film and 7th highest-grossing film of Pakistan at the local box office which grossed ₨6.63 crore (US$630,000) after 50 days of successful run in cinemas.
This time in 3 Bahadur: The Revenge of Baba Balaam Saadi’s Mother is voiced by Sarwat Gilani and Teeli voiced by Ali Gul Pir. Zeba Shahnaz has first time voiced in an animated movie. Besides Sarwat, Fahad Mustafa, Ahmed Ali Butt and Salman Shahid also lend their voices in this sequel.
The sequel grossed over ₨6.75 crore in total.
+ Main Cast (of 3 Bahadur)
- Zuhab Khan as Saadi
- Muneeba Yaseen as Amna
- Hanzala Shahid as Kamil
- Nadir Siddiqui as Baba Balaam
- Behroze Sabzwari as Deenu Chacha
- Aly Khan as Young Mangu
- Khalid Ahmed as old Mangu
- Farhan Qureshi as Saadi’s father
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+ Supporting Cast
- Abu Rashid Khan as Kamil’s father
- Kulsoom Aftab Ahmed as Saadi’s mother
- Mustafa Changazi as Tony
- Badar Qureshi as Sannata
- Wasif Arshad as Teeli
- Bassam Shazali as Pateeli/Chapta
- Hammad Siddiqui as Gutka/Shikra
- Joel Frenzer as Gabru
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+ Main Cast (of 3 Bahadur: The Revenge of Baba Balaam)
- Zuhab Khan as Saadi
- Arisha Razi as Amna
- Hanzala Shahid as Kamil
- Fahad Mustafa as Imran
- Fahim Khan as Baba Balaam
- Behroze Sabzwari as Deenu
- Ahmad Ali Butt as Gola
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+ Supporting Cast
- Sarwat Gilani as Saadi’s Mother
- Zeba Shahnaz as Parrot
- Ali Gul Pir as Teeli / Lolly
- Hammad Siddiq as Ghutka / Shikra
- Bassam Shazli as Pateeli / Chatpa
- Qadim Sahm as Sr. Animator
- Mustafa Changazi as Tony
+ Plot (of 3 Bahadur)
Three extraordinary children rise from the most unlikely of places to save their town from the evil that plagues it.
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+ Plot (of 3 Bahadur: The Revenge of Baba Balaam)
Three extraordinary children return with a task of defeating Baba Balaam who is rising again.
+ High Points
i – The level of animation produced by Pakistani animated industry, this is a good job done.
ii – The direction by Oscar winner, Sharmeen Obaid is cleverly presented.
iii – The cinematography shots are nicely executed.
iv – Good, talented work on voice acting by entire cast.
v – Effective work on its film editing.
+ Low Points
i – The target audience is strictly for children. As for the adults / families, they most likely would not find it enjoyable.
ii – The plot is as mentioned before, childish… too simple for superhero kids’ film.
iii – Except for few, most of the characters are under developed.
iv – The songs were hardly memorable.
v – The entire film is too predictable including its end.
vi – There was no reason to change the existing actors who lend their voices in previous installment such as Kulsoom Aftab voiced for Saadi’s Mom. This time Sarwat Gilani was introduced for the same character. Similarly few characters’ voice actors were changed with well-known celebrities. It is only due to star power they were changed, otherwise a very satisfying performance was already given previously.
Clearly, Kulsoom is far better actress than Sarwat. I would give my lifetime money’s worth on her but here in our film industry, star popularity what really counts and is given more importance than to who can better perform. If we do not promote these (under rated) talented performers towards the limelight, then our film industry would always be left behind than to all other performing foreign film industries. There would never be truly any revival of our film industry and talented stars that still need a strong push out in the market to make name for themselves.
+ Overall
3 Bahadur & its sequel, 3 Bahadur – The Revenge of Baba Balaam are smart, funny and have dazzling special effects for the kids. Though, still has a long way to go to impress the family audience.
Rate: 2.75 out of 5 stars
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