Border 2 music review: Little original thought as nostalgia uses her wily charms to convince you otherwise

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Just like its predecessor, which came out when Rachel and Ross were on a break (the jury is still out), Border 2 is tackling something which is deeply personal for a country like India — patriotism. It’s a word that has been associated with the good, the bad and the ugly, but at the very core of it, the word represents something very pure. If you think about it logically, love for a geographical location is arbitrary, but Indians don’t look at it like that. It’s more than that for us, and that’s why the J. P. Dutta directorial Border (1997) was so important, and that’s why its songs became so iconic.

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From the get-go, you start listening to the soundtrack of Border 2 with a little disdain in your heart, because there are fresh voices singing the lyrics you grew up listening to. However, the critic has to keep that aside and judge the songs on their individual quality and identity. But it gets extremely challenging to judge these songs based on their identity, because most of them don’t have a very clear one. The ones who don’t take from the previous film sound formulatic and tracks which you wouldn’t be able tell apart from so many that already exist.

The very first track is ‘Ghar Kab Aaoge’, which is a remake of the original with the same name, and apart from some subtle differences and the addition of Arijit Singh and Vishal Mishra as singers, there isn’t much to decode. These are accomplished singers, and they aren’t giving me a chance of critiquing their scale and tempo, but the song in itself is just an expensive bootleg of the real deal. You feel warmth when you hear Roop Kumar Rathod’s original vocals from the 28-year-old song, which they also use for the track ‘Jaate Hue Lamhon’ — a remake of the track ‘To Chalun’.

‘Mohabbat Ho Gayi Hai’ is another remake, and while Sonu Nigam retains his spot as the male voice, Alka Yagnik has been replaced by Palak Muchhal. The song doesn’t change much from that point onwards, except for the addition of a few musical elements, which help the track feel more 2026 while maintaining some of its original charm (the outro is different and surprisingly pleasant). The next on our remakes list is ‘Hindustan Meri Jaan’. You might remember this song from the Republic Day or Independence parade at your school, and they haven’t messed around a lot when it comes to this track.

The composition by Anu Malik and the lyrics by Javed Akhtar clearly don’t need to be changed, as they stay true to the theme of the movie. It is the war cry of this war film, as it was 28 years ago, and the new kids on the block have avoided any possibility of screwing up this perfect track. If you loved the original, chances are you’ll like this one as well, because it doesn’t deviate from its purpose — the purpose of inspiring men clad in armour preparing to lay down their lives.

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The original voyages that have been attempted for this album are ambitious, but the vessels carrying them aren’t apt enough. ‘Pyaari Lage’ by Vishal Mishra is a functional track, ‘Tara Rum Pum Pum’ is a decent attempt at a friend’s anthem, and ‘Mitti Ke Bete’ does its best to move you to tears. The problem lies in the fact that the makers have used so much from the previous film, in order to draw attention and play at your strings, that these newer pieces seem outgunned in front of them (maybe pun intended). They crumble under the weight of what those other songs mean to the listeners — it’s like having a ridiculous head start.

All in all, the album works, from a business point of view. The lack of original thought means more things the listener can feel nostalgic about, which ultimately helps the songs get out there and make some serious dinero on streaming platforms. But it also tells you how unwilling production houses and music labels are when it comes to experimenting and making quality music. The best this album can achieve is make you want to listen to the original one, and that might end up being the case for the movie too. It’s rerun of a great story, the recitation of a great ballad, but it’s still something re-told, re-hashed, and hardly re-imagined.