The movie is primarily about Afghanistan. As you know, it is a country devasted by wars from end of 70’s still struggling to get back to normal. The movie is also about the relationship shared by individuals of antagonizing nations namely India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and America.
Now to get back a brief idea of Afghanistan of yesteryears, you can briefly also look at previous hollywood and bollywood movies. Khuda Gawah, though a fiction, was based on a time, when that country was shifting from the old ways to the new, roughly around 50s -60s. Rambo 3 displays an Afghanistan ravaged by war, but high in spirits to drive out the Soviet Occupiers.
Afghanistan has been independent largely, but has been part of various civilizations including the Ancient Indian & Persian civilization. In modern times, everyone from British India, Soviets and eventually Pakistan & the Americans have made a lot of incursions into the Afghani World. Notably, never has the country succumbed to foreign rulers for a long time. This is a tribe of brave people, who have always been warlike moreso because of the geographical focal point they are. Yes, just look at the map an you will find that Afghanistan is a crossroad that connects the Central Asian, Persian, South Asian (Indian) & Chinese Civilizations to each other. The economies of all these 4 regions is boosting upwards after the end of cold war. It only adds to the fact, how important Afghanistan is for the future of Asia and the world.
The characters here come from different backgrounds, have different political thoughts, but they all end up as equal human beings. That is where bollywood certainly rules. We certainly have the ability to show the human side of our enemy in our movies. The concluding song of J.P.Dutta’s Border also acknowledged that those Pakistanis Soldiers, who died fought out of duty and had no evil intensions. The characters here fight it out over who is the best cricket all-rounder, who started the Afghan War, what are the actual intensions of America and so on. At the end though, all of them wanted to save their lives and ofcourse enjoy Bollywood.
Now the character, Imran Khan Afridi. I am not sure, whether any of the Talibanis fancied Madhuri Dixit. But this Pakistani Soldier did. Asked by his nation’s government to join the Taliban, Imran did not approve of was the celebrated victim-hero of the movie. The western media and even the Indian one have never given any human dimension to a Taliban Fighter post 9/11. This movie certainly breaks that chord. No it does not approve either of Talibani Ideas or their methods to enforce law. All it simply says is that those Talibanis are/were human beings too. They were no devils descended from hell. They can/could also feel the smaller human emotions of seperation from their loved ones. They could laugh and crack jokes, sing songs, smoke cigarettes (that too Indian) and enjoy Indian movies. Talibanis certainly are/were evil as an organisation. But would the individual foot soldiers be equally poisoned with the theocratic idiotism like their spiritual guides or were they simply doing their duty and earning a bread for their family. His cold-blooded murder by his fellow Pakistani armymen tells us about the divisions our loved neighbour is facing within itself. Though, it looks like the movie is one more Pakistan-Bashing bollywood flick, but nevertheless the world knows that what is shown here of Pakistan is a reality.
The movie had hints of a lonely journey styled travelogue. Cinematography is great mainly because of the locations, and is 90% authentic. The vast tracts of open mountainous lands, snow clas peaks in distant backgrounds, grand buildings of yesteryears shattered bye decades of wars. colonies of mud structures resembling newly found ancient civilisation, bursted tanks in middle of nowhere, groovy caves with a water body inside, all present a change in bollywood screens from European Greens and American cities.
Critically, the movie hasn’t found a good voice. I read through the reviews of some westerners. Most of their complaints about the movie are familiar. They don’t understand, how difficult it is for Kabir Khan to make a movie that caters to the art-starved international audiences, yet make is simple enough for average Indian to understand it. Though, I do agree that the actors performed bad. John was wasted.
The movie had a few touching scenes:
1) When John asks a nearby seated young boy to join him for some push-ups, the boy reveals his lost leg (For starters, Afghanistan is filled with a lot of landmines allover, where children playing in fields can loose their legs by stepping over an unused landmine)
2) The roadside killings of two Talibs by local Afghanis.
3) The meeting between the Talib Father and his daughter and his cry following his departure.
4) The killing of Imran Khan Afridi by his own troops against their own will, just to protect their country’s name in the “War on Terror”.
September 5th, 2007 by 
tapsboy
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