Let’s review: King Chaang (کنگ چانگ) (King Chang) – 1973

Plot Summary

King Chaang begins at Jameson & Zafar’s residence when Ali Imran arrives – angry and distressed. He’s sick of Joseph’s near-impossible wishes that he wants to visit Tahiti. That conversation is rather fun and it shows Ibn-e-Safi’s skill to make the most mundane scene interesting. The scene that follows is more hilarious as Joseph insists that a boss like Imran can do anything for him; Suleiman complains about Joseph’s wails as Ali Imran is… just being Ali Imran. The first 26-27 pages are dedicated to the idiosyncrasies and is super fun.

The scene changes quickly as a black woman comes and announces herself as Joseph’s (the Prince) wife. Imran let’s Joseph go, and asks Zafar to follow. Zafar and Jameson are captured and soon on the flight to Tahiti. Great!

Imran knows there must be some shit going on so he is busy tracing his fellows with safdar and Juliana. As it turns out Joseph is taken to be a fake prince and there is some King Chaang who’s also aiming for the royal monies. Luisa, one of the French counterparts of X2 team is solely appointed to accompany and flirt with Zafar and Jameson. They run into bad men “Deadly Frog” in the flight itself and are arrested the moment they arrive at the airport. Luisa goes missing but is captured by the frog himself.

But, of course, Imran saves them just in time. I love his surprise entries 🙂

Imran meets Deadly Frog in his well-known Pablo Neruda disguise and uses his most-oft used name Dhump. Now these references you will get only if you’ve read Ali Imran a million times. Dhump is legend.

Anywho, so Deadly Frog claims to be King Chaang but Dhump turns around the situation using his quirks. Awesome!

They venture out on a voyage and Dhump now meets Deadly Frog in his original avatar – the innocent and handsome and naive Ali Imran.

Review

First of all, I apologize to go out of order. I began reviewing Jasoosi Duniya, then jumped to Imran Series and now it’s all over the place. But, so is life. Bear with me.

Second of all, this one is a series and we know how I hate series. I mean, just finish one story in one novel, no?

I stand corrected: series are not always bad. Remember Shola Series? But more on that later.

Third of all, this is just the exposition for the five part series. But boy this was good.

I must admit that every time Ibn-e-Safi goes international and gives us Geography lessons, I like it. I mean, imagine the amount of research he must have put in. In this day and age, when everything is available on fingertips, research is still a pain, you know where. In his time, he must have read several books in the library to research. Salute to Ibn-e-Safi!

That is my review of the 68th story of Imran Series. What do others feel about this story? Please comment.

Shabana Mukhtar