1971: Beyond Borders is a 2017 Indian war drama film written and directed by Major Ravi. It is the fourth instalment in the Major Mahadevan film series, with Mohanlal reprising his role as Colonel Mahadevan and an additional character of Major Sahadevan. It also features Arunoday Singh and Allu Sirish. The film, set in two time periods is based on the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 and acts as a prequel as well as a follow-up to the series. Originally made in Malayalam language, the film will also have dubbed versions in Telugu and Tamil. Mohanlal's and Sirish's characters were modelled on Hoshiar Singh and Arun Khetarpal, both of whom were awarded the Param Vir Chakra for their roles in the 1971 Indo-Pakistani War.[2]
Dialogues were written by Shiju Nambyath for the script of Ravi. The film was shot by Sujith Vaassudev, while Gopi Sunder provided the score. Siddharth Vipin, Najim Arshad, and Rahul Subramanian composed the soundtrack. Principal photography commenced on 31 October 2016 in Suratgarh, Rajasthan and completed on 5 February 2017 in Georgia. 1971: Beyond Borders released on 7 April 2017 in India
The filming commenced on 31 October 2016 at Suratgarh in Rajasthan, India.[14] Art director Saloo K. George built huge sets resembling army camps and bunkers. Built in Kochi, Kerala, they were transported to Rajasthan. The filming was conducted in the deserts of Rajasthan, the Viper population was highest in that area, the crew unaware of it first, immediately ordered antivenoms and worn heavy shoes on reaching the location. Chest congestion often occurred to the crew.[15] Sirish joined filming on 5 November 2016. Indian army base in Arjungarh, Junagarh and Mahajan in Bikaner were some of the filming locations in Rajasthan.[16][17] After 25 days of filming, the schedule was wrapped on 23 November 2016.[18] There was also a schedule in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir.[19]
The next few schedules underwent at various location in Kerala, beginning in Pattambi, Palakkad district. The Indo-Pakistani war sequences were planned to shoot at Uganda,[15] later they decided to film it in Georgia instead, following the Kerala schedule. After finishing in Pattambi, they shifted to nearby Ottapalam in early January 2017.[17] Then to Perumbavoor, Ernakulam district in the third week of January 2017, where sets were built resembling North Indian borders and warfare trenches. It was constructed in a 40 acre reclaimed land near Perumbavoor. Mohanlal joined the location on 16 January 2017, filming held during day and night.[20]
The team began filming its final schedule in Georgia on 31 January 2017 for a week. Beyond Borders is the first Malayalam film to be shot in the Eurasian country.[21] Major Mahadevan's action sequences was shot in Georgia who is in a UN peacekeeping mission. The filming wrapped on 5 February 2017
