Border 2 movie review and rating: JP Dutta’s Border (1997) was equal parts war film and Bollywood film, with heavy doses of action and emotion. Its strength came from Dutta’s penchant for patriotic cinema and, of course, from something elusive that no filmmaker knows in advance: the generous embrace of the audience. Despite its occasional outburst of anti-Pakistan rhetoric and the constant conflict between Ma and Dharti Ma, the original Border remains one of the most complete war films Hindi cinema has ever made, and its musical sandese still resonates in our cinematic memories.
My concern with this sequel was that it would be forced to drown out the gravity of the 1971 war and the valor of the armed forces with excessive jingoism, the flavor of the last decade. When it was made in ’97, It was another Dutta film until it became his biggest box office success.a time and place factor; This sequel is produced in an atmosphere of growing hostility between the two nations, as films are greenlit and pushed into theaters to keep us in a constant state of unease.
And I’m relieved to report that Border 2 retains the soul and spirit of the original, while also giving us a much broader canvas, showcasing conflict not only on land and air, but on water as well. It also brings back the original’s biggest star in Sunny Deol, introduced here as ‘Dharmendra’s son’ in the credits: he’s by far the biggest star of this one, towering above the rest of the ensemble. which includes Varun Dhawan, Diljit Dosanjh, Ahan Shetty (whose father Suniel played an important role in the original) and others.
In recreating their domestic spheres, I would say this one goes even better in giving us details of their home lives: the villages where the Jawaans leave their families, waiting in trepidation and trepidation, clinging to the hope that their men will return. One of the best parts of the film is a flashback not to the front but during their cadet apprenticeship, where bonds of friendship of steel are forged between Major Hoshiyar Singh Dahiya (Varun Dhawan), Flying Officer Nirmal Jit Sekhon (Diljit Doshanjh) and Lieutenant Commander MS Rawat (Ahan Shetty), who then disperse to fight for their nation, protecting its land, air and sea borders. In a film where men rattle their sabers, the women don’t get much to do, but Mona Singh, as the wife of Sunny Deol’s Lieutenant Colonel Fateh Singh Kaler, holds her own, as do the others – Sonam Bajwa as Manjit, Nirmal’s wife, Medha Rana as the illiterate 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 (you can’t make a war film without the ‘dushman’ being reduced and shown as petty and small), but it is never allowed to overtake the film. And for that now we have to be grateful.
Of course, that 30-year-old ‘Border’ could have an Indian soldier diving into a burning hut to save a Quran, with a man saying in amazement, ‘par aap toh Hindu ho’, or a dialogue from a troubled newbie, played by a surprisingly young Akshaye Khanna (revealing himself thirty years later in ‘Dhurandhar’), ‘woh bhi kisi maa ka bachcha hai’ to his counterpart across the border.
Watch the Border 2 movie trailer here:
Of course, those inclusions would be overkill now, but still, Frontier 2 makes sure that our intrepid soldiers let the enemy jawans go when the latter remind them of their humanity, even if that humanity is reserved only for “our” men, theirs are full of bombast and meanness, and are only capable of using words like “halaal” and calling Indians “buzdil.”
Story continues below this ad.
In places, you feel the length of the film, wishing it had been sharper. But for the most part, the film keeps you there, even with Varun Dhawan making his Haryanvi accent feel like a job and Ahan Shetty showing off his rawness. But the others, including strong turns from Anurag Arora and Paramveer Cheema, keep the flag flying, with a special mention for Daredevil pilot Diljit Dosanjh, who works so well with director Anurag Singh. The futility and devastation of war is also part of the script, with the lives lost and grief everywhere: in many places I was moved to tears.
Finally, who else do you love when Sunny Paji is around, even though she may give her voice a bit of a break compared to the previous film? One of the iconic climactic scenes from the original, him looking up the turret of a tank, is recreated in this one (as are the remixed versions of the still-popular songs) and it’s a big win: although he’s shown as a bit weathered, the years have been kind to him, and the dhai kilo ka haath is up and running, enough on its own to keep the enemy at bay and our borders safe and sound. Sandese ab bhi atate rahenge.
Cast of the movie Border 2: Sunny Deol, Varun Dhawan, Diljit Dosanjh, Ahan Shetty, Mona Singh, Sonam Bajwa
Director of the film Border 2: Anurag Singh
Border 2 Movie Rating: 3 stars