1971 : Beyond Borders (...and beyond comprehension)

Film makers make films they are passionate about. If a director can create a larger than life character as a flag bearer of this passion and rope in a super star to play it, it will be easier to find a producer sympathetic enough to bet his/her money on this 'passion project.' 1971: Beyond Borders is  the latest installment of Major Ravi's exploration of his primary passion : Indian military and his secondary passion - Lt.Col Mohanlal.

Major Ravi's moral bulletin of all humans being bros, not defined by borders and political, religious or racial interests is a commendable message to propagate through the medium of cinema. As a member of not-his-target audience my grouse is the cliche-laden story, the script that could have benefited from having a script writer, the casual and incorrect use of conversational English and the overwhelming presence of our 'complete' actor Mohanlal.

And what were black people doing as rebels in Georgia? This is one of the former states of the USSR, the nation on the Black Sea coast in Europe. Did Abkazians export troops from Africa to fight their civil war? Anyway who cares about real facts when Mohanlal is about to set the history right for Georgians, Pakistanis and Indians especially Malayalis.

I set out on watching 1971 : Beyond Borders knowing very well that the workings of Major Ravi's brain will be beyond my comprehension and I should not even more for a second nurse the hope that I will like this movie. Nor did I entertain the false illusion that this film while time traveling back to the seventies will give us back the Mohanlal of the eighties. Sad to say, I was not proven wrong in any of these aspects.