Border 2 Movie Review: The film revisits the 1971 war with new heroes, but the only person constant is Sunny Deol. But it makes me wonder, yet again as to why does Bollywood attempt war movies without proper research?
Director: Anurag Singh
Language: Hindi
Cast: Sunny Deol, Varun Dhawan, Diljit Dosanjh, Ahan Shetty, Anya Singh, Mona Singh
This year’s highly anticipated sequel to the 1997 blockbuster Border, Border 2, has not evolved much with our truly evolved and refined audiences. Border may have been a blockbuster then, but now with the kind of exposure the viewers have to war films, it doesn’t really give us goosebumps. Filmmakers and craftsmen need to understand that our audiences were different in 1997, now they have much more exposure with the digital platform coming in with the OTT boom. Patriotism is one thing and chest-thumping patriotism is another thing.
Though Sunny Deol still continues to impress with his fitness even at this age, but just wished that the film was a little less noisy and a little subtle when it came to dialogue baazi. The film could have been a heart wrenching homage to the Indian Armed Forces and a tribute to their sacrifice, especially those who didn’t make it home. But somehow, I feel there was a gap in the intent of the film and its execution. Courage can be silent, but some filmmakers fail to understand that.
Not running down the efforts of the filmmaker and the actors, when the backstories were shown of each of the central characters, some how I felt emotional and could relate to lot of it. You do feel sad for the families, especially the children who miss their fathers while they are at war. But heart does bleed to see the sacrifices made by the families. In fact, rather that the defective war scenes, that should have been the focus of the film.
Cinematic liberty is one thing, but one should understand that too much cinematic liberty can also be called poor research. And that’s exactly what happened to an extremely long, over-stretch film like Border 2. Have you ever seen the naval officers on war patrol fighting in their blue uniform or rather going for sailing in their blue fitted shirts and navy-blue trousers? Well, this film will show you how the naval officers are fighting and even swimming this particular uniform. This isn’t the case, actually they fight in their dungarees or overalls. That poor was the research of the film.
Border 2 could have emphasised on the inner battles that each of the soldiers’ fight, but I guess it relies entirely on its previous glory. Out of due respect to each of the soldiers who fought for our country, I sat through the entire film. If you want to watch could war films, I suggest one should watch Ikkis, but definitely not Border 2.
Rating: 2 out of 5
WATCH the trailer of ‘Border 2’ here:
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