T-Series Films and J.P. Films’ Border 2 (UA) is the second film in the Border franchise. Like Border, this film also talks about the 1971 Indo-Pak war but this one deals with another side of the war.
Fateh Singh (Sunny Deol) and Hoshiyar Singh (Varun Dhawan) are in the Indian Army. Sekhon (Diljit Dosanjh) is a fighter pilot while Rawat (Ahan Shetty) is a top Navy officer. How the four fight valiantly in the 1971 Indo-Pakistan war forms the crux of the drama.
Nidhi Dutta’s story is quite interesting. The screenplay, written by Sumit Arora and Anurag Singh, is nice. The first half is devoted to establishing the characters and to the romantic/wedding tracks of Hoshiyar Singh with Dhanvanti (Medha Rana) and of Sekhon with Manjit (Sonam Bajwa). The post-interval portion is devoted to the war scenes and hence it moves at a much faster pace than the first half. While the war scenes afford thrill and excitement, the drama stretches in the last around 35 minutes. Besides, since the computer graphics and visual effects are not very good and the scenes have been probably shot in dark lighting, the visual appeal of the last 35 minutes (climax) is lesser than what it ought to have been. The emotions in the first half and early part of the second half make the audience weep at a number of places. The weak-hearted will cry buckets. The light moments in the pre-interval portion are also excellent. Sumit Arora and Anurag Singh’s dialogues are very good but there should’ve been more clapworthy dialogues.
Sunny Deol breathes fire into the character of Fateh Singh. He is fantastic as the brave army officer. Varun Dhawan is good in the role of Hoshiyar Singh but he falls short of expectations at places. Diljit Dosanjh is remarkable as fighter pilot Sekhon. He is super-endearing in light scenes and extraordinary otherwise. His every nuance and expression is so outstanding that acting-wise, there are very few who can touch him. Ahan Shetty is fair an Navy officer Rawat, but he needed to immerse himself more into the character. Mona Singh shines in the role of Fateh Singh’s wife, Simi. She delivers a supremely restrained performance. Sonam Bajwa makes her presence felt in a brief role as Sekhon’s wife, Manjit. Anya Singh is quite alright as Rawat’s wife, Sudha. Medha Rana is cute and impresses as Hoshiyar Singh’s wife, Dhanvanti. Guneet Sandhu stands his own in a brief role as Fateh Singh’s son, Angad Singh. Vansh Bhardwaj (as Santram), Anurag Arora (as Subedar Ram Singh), Paramvir Cheema (as Nishaan Singh), Saad Baba (as Ved Prakash), Ali Hassan (as Lt. Col. Zaheer Khan), Ajay Sharma (as Sajjad), Sandeep Sharma (as Hoshiyar Singh’s father-in-law), Ashwani Oberoi (as Hoshiyar Singh’s uncle), Amit Bharadwaj (as Rajnish Singh), Sanjiv Chopra (as Prem Khanna), Hardeep Singh Gill (as Tarlok Sekhon), Neeta Moindra (as Harbans Kaur), Ishika Gagneja (as Sukhminder Kaur), Jasmine Khurana (as Sushma), Asif Rehman (as Rawat’s captain), Atul Singh (as Ramesh Vijayan), Gaurav Puri (as Pakistani Hangor sailor), Shahid Latif (as Pakistani Hangor captain), Vimarsh Roshan (as the Viper pilot), Ujjwal Gauraha (as Shamsheer), Umar Sharif (as Pashtun), Heeral Bhojwani (as Ameeta Rawat), Madhur Arora (as Yahya Khan), Ajay Mehra (as Zafar Ahmad Chaudhry), Karan Chibber (as Muzaffar Hassan), Soumyarka Gupta (as Abdul Hameed Khan), Hari Om Kalra (as Lt. General Sher Khan), Aryaman Srivastava, Abaan Mughal, Azaan Qureshi (all three as the Kashmiri kids), Shom (as General Abdul Hameed Khan), Vaquar Shaikh (as Pakistani Col. Khalid), Pranav Vashishtha (as 2nd Lt. Ajit Singh) and the others provide fair support.
Anurag Singh’s direction is very good. He narrates the story with elan and succeeds in arousing not just patriotic feelings but also appropriate family emotions among the audience. Music (Anu Malik, Mithoon, Vishal Mishra, Sachet-Parampara and Gurmoh) is excellent, thanks mainly to Ghar kab aaoge and Ae jaate huwe lamhon, the two songs of Border (both composed by Anu Malik, and reimagined by Mithoon). Lyrics (Javed Akhtar, Manoj Muntashir, Kumaar, Kausar Munir and Anurag Singh) are weighty. Of course, the two best lyrics are by Javed Akhtar (Ghar kab aaoge and Ae jaate huwe lamhon) and reimagined by Manoj Muntashir. Raju Khan and Ganesh Acharya’s dance choreography could’ve been better. John Stewart Eduri’s background music is impactful. Anshul Choubey’s cinematography is lovely but the dark lighting in the last 35 minutes is a minus point. Dr. Ravi Varma, Nick Powell, Parvez Shaikh and Alan Amin have done a fine job of the action and stunt scenes. Mayur Sharma’s production designing is appropriate. Manish More’s editing is sharp but the film could’ve done with crisper cuts.
On the whole, Border 2 is a box-office winner. It will keep its producers and distributors quite happy, and the exhibitors smiling.
Released on 23-1-’26 at Inox (daily 11 shows) and other cinemas of Bombay thru AA Films. Publicity & opening: excellent. …….Also released all over. Opening was excellent at many places but was adversely affected in East Punjab due to heavy rains.