1971: Beyond Borders

Yhe wasn't India Pakistan war. It was Bangladesh and Pakistan war. India helped Bangladesh at some point. Only

If you look at Major Ravi's filmography, it is clear what his intentions are. However, none of his films are cinematically strong. They are like used bullet shells that have no use but are there to remind us about wars. This war drama is no different.

Sahadevan (Mohanlal) is a Major in the Indian army who speaks awful Hindi and English, and leads a team of largely Malayali soldiers at the border. It's 1971, and India is sporadically at war with East or West Pakistan (it's unclear). Although Sahadevan has a family back home, he is dedicated at his work and on the task at hand, which is to kill as many enemies as possible in the battlefield. With insubordination, arrogance, constant thirst for alcohol, and a large belly that prevents free movement of his body as weapons, he leads his battalion against a faction of Pakistani soldiers headed by Commander Akram Raja (Arunoday Singh), who (no prize for guessing) also has a family back home.

The narrative has no idea what it's doing because at one point, we see a soldier being sent to help a father grieve his father's loss and at another, we see Sahadevan reprimanding a young soldier for exchanging risqué pornographic love letters with his newly-wedded wife. To say the least, everything is all over the place. It looks like Director Ravi gathered all typical war elements in his hand, put it in a Preethi mixer grinder, and blended it till the time he was satisfied and was able to cook up a pretentious and pathetic story to decorate the blended mixture with. I'm not sure if the guarantee provided by Preethi was enough, because the final dish looks stale, smells ghastly, and tastes like human viscera. Throughout the film, the Indian soldiers are running and walking around the field in groups like they are in a treasure hunt. Just plain awful!

There's not a single good point to talk about 1971: Beyond Borders except Arunoday Singh's below average performance as a moral army man. Whatever the makers intended by creating such an ambitious yet floppy film is beyond me, because neither the technical aspects nor the writing is proper here. Mohanlal is a phenomenal actor but seeing him blurt out nonsense and play with a tank in a war field is excruciatingly painful. His character is a self-righteous pig who ogles at young married women when not at the war-front. While the supporting cast also disappoint with their unpolished performance, it is untalented Allu Sirish who becomes another pain in the neck portraying a soldier like he's a floozy.

Director Ravi is an awful director, and this film proves it once again. His intentions as a former army man may be novel, but it's a kind request from a serious cinema-watcher that he stop making us - the general, informed audience - put up with such ludicrous war films. I'm not even going to talk about those songs that are part of this 130-minute madness.

BOTTOM LINE: Major Ravi's "1971: Beyond Borders" is not a war film, but instead a mockery of war, picturised using painted characters that do not know anything about war just like the people who made the film. It is cringe-worthy, melodramatic, and purely imaginative. Skip for life!

Can be watched with a typical Indian family? YES

If you are someone so keen on movies having a message, 1971 Beyond Borders have messages written all over it. The ultimate one is that wars shouldn't be there. The format here is very simple. You can very easily predict who all are going to die in the war field and what will be that sentimental dialogue which will echo when they die. There is nothing tactically amusing about the war field that gets depicted here and there are a lot of "Sahadevan" worshipping scenes which looks too tacky. From the initial Georgia sequence to the 1971 story, there is this blatant India worshipping through dialogues which looks highly dramatic. If there was a natural feel in Pakistanis having respect for us, things would have looked a bit more real. Seeing our army getting respect is indeed a good feeling, but pushing it to a level where a stabbed Pakistani soldier's last words are "Maan Gaye" (meaning he agrees that you are great) is a bit awkward.

1971 Beyond Borders hasn't really explored the actor in Mohanlal in an attractive way. He has two tones in the film, one where he is the friendly guy in his hometown and the other where he is a strict officer in the border. In both versions he is playing this character that is being frequently hailed by everyone. Arunoday Singh who has mostly got forgettable roles in Bollywood looked more real and sensible in this film. Well Allu Sirish is the market widener for this film. The writing of that character isn't that smooth and for your information Sahadevan says "Thank You Buddy" to him in one scene. Asha Sharath, Sudheer Karamana, Renji Panicker, Devan, Saiju Kurup, Manikkuttan and several others are there in the elaborate cast with minimal roles.

The film is good. Film is based on a true story that happened around 1971 between India and Pakistan. The actions and Vfx effects are superb. The film is Lil bit lagging in between. Everyone in the film played their role very well. It is the only Indian military film in which a Pakistani soldier got respect from the audience. Overall the film is a one time watchable good movie.

The movie starts with Indian Army lead by Major Mahadevan (Mohanlal) helping Pakistan Army from the terrorist attack on the same day India celebrating victory above Pakistan. Pakistan Army comes to the celebration of Indian Army after Major Mahadevan invited them. All of sudden, both Army leaders find out that their fathers were related in the previous war and the story has started of previous war.

Mohanlal's dialogue deliveries and inspiration speeches are good. Even Ashutosh Rana has done a great work in a Malayalam movie. But, most of the war scenes shows that Mohanlal has become old to do a war movie. Even history repeats when Major Sahadevn's favorite Lieutenant Chinmay (Allu Sirish) died same as Major Mahadevan's favorite Havildar Jaykumar (Jiva) died in Keerthi Chakra.

This movie was not up to the mark compared to the director Major Ravi's previous Army movies and viewers need to think themselves whether they understood the message of the movie (Pakistanis are not a enemies and nobody want WAR).