1971: Beyond Borders Review: A War Tale That Leaves You Unmoved
Sethumadhavan
Major Ravi is credited with making Major Mahadevan a popular character in Malayalam cinema, featuring the character in films like KeerthiChkara (2006), Kurukshetra (2008), Kandahar (2010) and now in 1971: Beyond Borders. It’s a character that has seen Mohanlal do justice to it, though not all the films in the franchise have gone on to be commercially successful. In fact post the failures of Kandahar and KarmaYodha (2012-not part of the war franchise) Major Ravi managed to silence his detractors to an extent with Picket 43 (2015), which saw him return to his favourite genre but with Prithviraj instead of Mohanlal. With the announcement of 1971: Beyond Borders it looked like the director had regained confidence, so much so that he wanted to take one more shot at bringing back Major Mahadevan on screen. So does 1971 go on to really make an impact and does Major Mahadevan still manage to be an endearing character?
With 1971: Beyond Borders we see that Major Mahadevan is now Colonel Mahadevan and as part of an UN peacekeeping mission he comes across a Pakistani military official who happens to be the son of Muhammed Akram Raja (Arunoday Singh).Lt.Col. Raja was a star of the 1971 Indo-Pak war, ending up getting ultimately killed on the battleground by Major Sahadevan, the father of Colonel Mahadevan. As Colonel Mahadevan warms up to Lt.Col.Raja’s son, we go on to hear of the war in 1971 and how the unique bond between Major Sahadevan and Lt.Col.Raja got forged. Back during the 1971 Indo-Pak war both Indian and Pakistani troops were out to take control of the Basantar area. The Indian side was led by Major Mahadevan and the Pakistani side by Lt.Col.Raja, both of them being similar in their thoughts-they treated their prisoners of war with respect and had a humanitarian approach overall. The major chunk of the film is about the fictionalized recreation of the Battle of Basantar and how it goes on to impact the lives of both Major Sahadevan and Lt.Col.Raja.
For a film which came with some amount of promise it is very disappointing to see Major Ravi’s approach to the whole film. Be it in terms of the writing or the writing, the output is far from satisfactory and that’s quite strange. One would assume that for someone who is a veteran in this space and who has decided at giving the franchise another go, Major Ravi would have been extremely sure in terms of the objective and its impending impact. Unfortunately what we get to witness is largely a dull outing on screen, there is hardly any character development and whatever little exists also isn’t something that goes on to impress us. What’s even more shocking is the way the war sequences unfold on screen; they clearly appear to lack the spark and give you the feeling of an impoverished budget all through the film. SujithVaassudev’s cinematography thankfully is a highlight, at least lending the film the look and feel of a period military tale.
The film has a huge ensemble cast, but very few actors actually get adequate scope. It’s strange to see someone like SudheerKaramana portraying a Tamil army man, his Tamil accent sticking out like a sore thumb. RenjiPanicker, Krishna Kumar, Asha Sarath and SaijuKurup get noticed but don’t really have much to do. Allu Sirish as Lieutenant Chinmay gets scope while again his Tamil doesn’t sound authentic. SrushtiDange features as Chinmay’s love interest but has nothing more to do apart from featuring in a song. Arunoday Singh manages to register an impact, fitting the role well. Mohanlal this time plays a dual role, that of Major Sahadevan and Colonel Mahadevan and while he is earnest here as well, he doesn’t manage to swing the fortunes of the film much. 1971: Beyond Borders is perhaps a film that looked good on paper but the final output doesn’t really satisfy.
Bottomline
1971: Beyond Borders is mostly a dull and insipid film, one that is definitely a let-down from Major Ravi. It’s probably time that Colonel Mahadevan goes on to hang up his boots now.
Rating: 2/5