Border 2 Movie Review & Rating: J P Dutta’s 1997 Border was equal parts a war film and a Bollywood film, with strong doses of action and emotion. Its strength came from Dutta’s penchant for patriotic cinema, and of course the elusive thing that no filmmaker knows beforehand — the fulsome embrace of the audience. Despite its occasional spurt of anti-Pakistan rhetoric, and the constant conflation of Ma and Dharti Ma, the original Border remains one of the most complete war films that Hindi cinema has made, and its musical sandese still echo in our movie memories.
My worry with this sequel was that it would be forced to drown the seriousness of the 1971 war and the valour of the armed forces with outsize jingoism, the flavour of the past decade. When it was made it ‘97, it was just another of Dutta’s films till it became his biggest blockbuster, a factor of time and place; this sequel comes in an atmosphere of heightened hostility amongst the two nations, when films are being greenlit and pushed into theatres to keep us in a constant state of unsettlement.
And I’m relieved to report that Border 2 holds on to the soul and spirit of the original, while giving us a much bigger canvas, showing conflict not just on land and air, but also water. It also brings back the biggest star of the original in Sunny Deol, introduced here as the ‘son of Dharmendra’ in the credits: he is far and away the biggest star of this one, towering over the rest of the ensemble, which includes Varun Dhawan, Diljit Dosanjh, Ahan Shetty (whose father Suniel had a major role in the original), and others.
In the recreation of their domestic spheres, I’d say this one goes one better in giving us details of their home lives — the villages where the jawaans leave their families, waiting in dread and fear, holding on to hope that their men will return. One of the best parts of the film is a flashback spent not on the front but during their cadet-apprenticeship where the steel-like ties of friendship are forged amongst Major Hoshiyar Singh Dahiya (Varun Dhawan), Flg Officer Nirmal Jit Sekhon (Diljit Doshanjh), and Lt Cdr M S Rawat (Ahan Shetty), who then disperse to fight for their nation, protecting their borders on land, air and ocean. In a film which has men rattles their sabres, women don’t have much to do, but Mona Singh, as the wife of Sunny Deol’s Lt Col Fateh Singh Kaler, holds her own, as do the others — Sonam Bajwa as Manjit, Nirmal’s wife, Medha Rana as the unlettered Dhanvanti as Hoshiyar’s wife, Anya Singh as Rawat’s wife, leaving an impact in their brief roles.
Of course Pakistan is still Enemy Number One, what else, and of course the jingoism is clear and present — no war film can be made without the ‘dushman’ being downsized and shown to be mean and small— but it is never allowed to overtake the film. And for that we have to now be grateful.
Of course, that 30-year-old ‘Border’ could have an Indian soldier diving into a burning hut to save a Koran, with a man saying in wonderment, ‘par aap toh Hindu ho’, or a dialogue from a troubled newbie, played by a startlingly youthful Akshaye Khanna (revelling thirty years on in ‘Dhurandhar’), ‘woh bhi kisi maa ka bachcha hai’ for his counterpart across the border.
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Of course, now those inclusions would be a stretch, But even so, Border 2 makes sure that our intrepid soldiers let the enemy jawans off when the latter remind them of their humanity even if that humanity is reserved only for ‘our’ men, theirs are full of bombast and pettiness, and only capable of using words like ‘halaal’, and calling Indians ‘buzdil’.
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In a few places, you feel the length of the film, wishing it would have been crisper. But in most parts, the film keeps you with it, even with Varun Dhawan making his Haryanvi accent feeling like work, and Ahan Shetty showing his rawness. But the others, which include strong turns from Anurag Arora and Paramveer Cheema, keep the flag flying, with a special mention for the daredevil pilot Diljit Dosanjh, who works so well with director Anurag Singh. The futility and devastation of war is part of the script too, with the lives lost and the grieving all round: I was moved to tears in many places.
Finally, who else do you want when Sunny Paji is around, even though he gets to give his vocals a bit of a rest as compared to the earlier film. One of the climactic iconic scenes from the original — him staring at a tank turret — is recreated in this one (as are remixed versions of the still-popular songs) and it is as much of a win: though he is shown a trifle weatherbeaten, the years have been kind to him, and the dhai kilo ka haath is up and running, single-handedly enough to keep the enemy at bay, and our borders safe and sound. Sandese ab bhi aate rahenge.
Border 2 movie cast: Sunny Deol, Varun Dhawan, Diljit Dosanjh, Ahan Shetty, Mona Singh, Sonam Bajwa
Border 2 movie director: Anurag Singh
Border 2 movie rating: 3 stars
