Border 2 Movie Review: Sunny Deol and Varun Dhawan’s war-actioner is aggressive but not incendiary

In yet another addition to the plethora of patriotic war-dramas comes Border 2, a sequel to JP Dutta’s 1997 magnum opus Border. Set during the oft-portrayed 1971 Indo-Pak war, Border 2 is less a follow-up and more an expansion on its predecessor. While the original was limited to the on-ground Battle of Longewala, part two goes above and beyond, with aerial and marine warfare, during the battles of Arabian Sea and Srinagar airbase, also being explored. The famed Battle of Basantar, which involved tanks, is also not omitted.

Cast: Sunny Deol, Varun Dhawan, Diljit Dosanjh, Ahan Shetty, Mona Singh, Sonam Bajwa, Medha Rana and Anya Singh

Directed by: Anurag Singh

Writers: Sumit Arora and Anurag Singh

The film kicks into action with Sunny Deol’s reverberating roar. “Main kara doon Border paar?” (Should I get you across the border?)” asks Sunny, albeit not in the tone of a helpful Dunki agent, to a bunch of pheran-wearing terrorists trying to hop over towards Pakistan. Post Pahalgam the politics is palpable. It's a promising action set-piece though as Sunny kills, catches or blasts off the terrorists before they cross the border, while also ensuring he himself doesn’t step on a landmine. What if even if he does? It’s Sunny Deol.

In the tradition of a true-blue ensemble, the initial scenes are all about hero introductions. Our men on the ground are the aforementioned Fateh Singh Kaler (Sunny Deol) and Hoshiar Singh (Varun Dhawan). Commanding the sky is Air Force officer Nirmaljit Singh Sekhon (Diljit Dosanjh) while navigating the waters is Navy officer Mahendra Rawat (Ahan Shetty). A flashback, triggered by Hoshiar nostalgically looking at a sepia-toned photo, informs us that he, Nirmaljit and Mahendra all trained together at the defense academy, under the commandership of Fateh. The academy sequences provide a much-needed softness and nuance to an otherwise textbook war film. The friendly competitiveness between Varun’s Hoshiar and Diljit’s Nirmaljit makes for an entertaining watch. Director Anurag Singh and writer Sumit Arora also take duly-needed time to flesh out the backstory of each soldier. Fateh lost a young son to the 1965 war, Hoshiar is an orphan whose wife is expecting, Nirmaljit is newly-married while Mahendra is father to a young daughter. The at-home scenes are not merely glossed over, hence the outcome of each soldier’s fate in the war obtains gravity.

Border 2 is old wine in a new, possible-to-be-molotoved bottle. It starts sappy and sentimental but soon snowballs into thundering nationalism. There is no going back once the battle goes full blazing. A decibel-duel ensues between Sunny Deol and the background music blaring, “Hindustan, hindustan!.” There is gunbattle, mortar-shelling, grenade-throwing, bayonet-stabbing, everything. The soldier who read a letter telling him he has become father of a daughter will die, so will that one who was the butt-of-jokes, but of course in the arms of the one who picked on him the most. The only cliché which was (thankfully) skipped was soldiers dancing around a campfire while swaying drinks (They do shake a leg though on a rendition of ‘Sandese aate hai’).

The VFX might not be but the performances are still competent. Contrary to the opinions of social media trolls, Varun Dhawan is suitably stoic as Hoshiar while Diljit Dosanjh, glides easily between being a goofball and a daredevil. Newcomer Ahan is green but not unbearable and Sunny Deol is the ever-dependent He-Man who does most of the metaphorical and literal heavy-lifting (he even fires a bazooka).

Border 2 might be simping for the defense forces and the country but it doesn’t house blind-hatred. It belongs to the ethos of old school Bollywood where Pakistan is the enemy and not Pakistanis. There is no mention of modern war-film buzzwords like ‘ghar mein ghus ke maarna’ and ‘naya Hindustan’. A Punjabi soldier keeps a diya burning for the people who had to abandon a village because of the war, one like his mother left in their pre-Partition home. In a scene, Diljit’s Nirmaljit, before taking-off for the battlefield, seeks his mother’s blessings to demolish the enemies. “I can’t do that,” she says. “They are also someone’s sons.” Mothers know best.