Did you know? Sajal Aly, Ahsan Khan, Wahaj Ali & Dananeer Mobeen are the voiceover artists for the animated characters of Team Muhafiz. The animated series is set to release on 23rd June on GEO. It will be aired in 10 episodes with each episode around 12 minutes long. Scroll down to find out more about the characters, story, & OST!
Buckle up, folks! Pakistan is launching an animated series called ‘Team Muhafiz’ that features teenage characters fighting social evils in our society. The series aims to inspire the youth by clearly highlighting the problems plaguing our society today, and invoking in them a national narrative of peace, harmony, and progress. Team Muhafiz is a comic book series that was launched in Pakistan in 2015. This show is an animated adaptation of it.
Relatable Heroes Much?
The animated series seeks to inspire Pakistani teenagers by giving them a set of heroes to relate to and look up to.
Get To Know Team Muhafiz
Team Muhafiz features a group of 6 characters with diverse ethnic backgrounds but a sole purpose; to safeguard our society and fight crime. Let’s get to know them, shall we?
1. Parinaaz – Call Sign: Rahbar
Parinaaz hails from Pattoki, Punjab, and is immensely passionate about Hockey. Her father, a renowned Hockey player, has a lot to do with her love for the sport as being an only child, she is determined to fulfill her father’s dream.
Parinaaz is a mature, dependable, organized, and analytical girl. However, she can come across as stubborn and assertive at times!
2. Reza – Call Sign: Nishandar
Reza is a son of a foreign office diplomat. Much to his dismay, his love for music didn’t garner the approval he wanted from his parents, which led him to become extremely frustrated. However, during his father’s posting in Beijing, he met with a famous Chinese Archer, who completely reformed Reza. Now, Reza also enjoys archery and considers it his passion. His qualities include being empathetic, calm, and focused.
According to Reza’s teacher (Yu Hai Tao), “Archery is the measure of a man, but Music is ranked even higher than archery in the six noble competencies of traditional China.”
3. Badshah Khan – Call Sign: Baseer
Badshah Khan is a CPTR genius, who loves coding and programming. He studies data structures and algorithms. Badshah belongs to the Matta district of Swat. In an unfortunate incident, he lost a leg due to an IED blast and wears artificial limbs. Nonetheless, his zest to go good is stronger than ever.
4. Aarya – Call Sign: Toofan
Aarya is an energetic young girl who has a deep fondness for yoga and stick dancing. But, she finds it difficult to trust others ever since her parents were cheated out of their land in Umerkot, Sindh. Now, she’s a tutor so she can contribute towards her siblings’ education financing.
5. Mahnur – Call Sign: Cheeti
Hailing from Hunza Gilgit Baltistan, Mahnur has done her region proud by becoming the first female Martial Art Champion of GB. She’s also a Taekwondo coach at the youth club. Her passions include Kick-boxing, Fashion designing and Taekwondo.
6. Zane – Call Sign: Shahsawar
Like most Pakistanis, Zane is a cricket lover. He’s courageous, aggressive and a man of few words. Tolerating injustice is not his forte ever since he lost his parents in the Quetta church attack.
And The Story Takes Us…
Season one is expected to air in 2 parts, with each part spread over 5 episodes. The first story arc includes a threat to a national sporting event and will tackle themes including timber mafia and drug abuse. Whereas the second arc, wherein there will be a danger of a mega project’s launch being sabotaged, will cover topics that resonate with the youth and young adults like human trafficking, child labor, and street crime.
What sets Team Muhafiz apart from previous Pakistani animated series targeting social issues is the fact that it is more inclusive. It has characters from various ethnic background within Pakistan as well as a Chinese character named Yu Hai Tao.
Team Muhafiz’s list of voice over artists includes big names from the industry, such as Sajal Aly, Ahsan Khan, Wahaj Ali, Nayyar Ejaz, Syed Shafaat Ali, Dananeer, among others.
Team Muhafiz is a collaboration between ISPR and Geo Entertainment. Its OST ‘Dil Fatah Karain’ was recently released featuring the vocals of Soch The Band, Karakoram, and Young Stunners and the composition of Soch The Band and Sherry Khattak. The video of the theme song was released on both ISPR and GEO’s Youtube channel. Apart from the vocalists, we can also see snippets of the animated series in the videos. Listen to it here;
From the bits we have seen, Team Muhafiz looks promising and it may be able to catch the attention of our youth, however we’ll only know once it releases. We are waiting to see how this will manage to grab mass appeal and how young children will be able to connect with the characters and adopt them as their very own superheroes!
