Junoon

It is one of my favorite Horror movies of all time. It was inspired by a Hollywood movie "An American werewolf in London" but the writer of this film added extra thriller and horror and made the story better than the original one. The music of the movie is excellent and the background scene during beginning credits is awesome. I saw this movie when I was just 6-7 years old and then I suffered from insomnia because I thought that I will be transformed into a tiger too in midnight. ha ha. The story is about a college student named Vikram who went for hunting along with his friend Varun in full moon night and got attacked by a cursed tiger and then Vikram became cursed because he killed the beast and transformed into the same in next full moon night.

Instead of a man turning into a wolf, he turns into a tiger instead. This film is directed by veteran director Mahesh Bhatt who has directed some decent films over the years like: Arth (1982), Saaransh (1984), Awaargi (1990), Jurm (1990), Aashiqui (1990), The Gentleman (1994) and many more.

I think this is his only horror film he made in his career.

Plot: Junoon tells the story of Vikram (Rahul Roy), who is nearly killed by a cursed tiger when he and his friend go for a hunting spree in the jungle. His friend is killed on the spot by the tiger, but Vikram manages to shoot the beast. Still, the tiger wounds Vikram badly before it dies.

Later on in the hospital, Vikram's hopes of survival are minimal. But the spirit of the tiger gets into Vikram. Vikram is treated by Dr. Nita (Pooja Bhatt) and he begins to like her. As the days go by, Vikram realizes that there is an evil present in him. His dead friend's spirit tells him about the cursed tiger and that he himself will become the same beast on the upcoming full moon and every full moon thereafter. His friend also tells Vikram to kill himself, but Vikram refuses saying that he will accept whatever his future has in store for him.

Vikram's liking for Dr. Nita turns into an obsession (Junoon) after he comes to know that she is in love with an up-and-coming singer, Ravi (Avinash Wadhawan). The evil in Vikram comes forward and he plots to separate Nita and Ravi. Then he consoles and convinces Nita's father to allow him to marry Nita. The night of their marriage is the night of the full moon, and that night Vikram transforms into a tiger in the hotel and kills an unknown woman. The following nights, Vikram's hunting spree continues as he kills more people after transforming into a tiger.

His wife Nita finds something fishy going on as every night Vikram leaves the house on some pretext or another. That is why one night she manages to keep him at home. Vikram transforms into a tiger in front of her and tries to kill her, but she manages to escape because of Ravi, a villager from the jungle where the beast came from and a policeman who has doubts about Vikram's strange behavior. But both the villager and the policeman are killed trying to save Nita.

A priest (Tom Alter) informs Ravi and Nita that there is a dagger in a specific cave which can actually kill Vikram because trying to kill him in any other way would mean taking the curse upon oneself. Ravi and Nita go in search of the dagger and are successful in finding the dagger. But before Ravi and Nita can get out of the cave, Vikram shows up and demands the dagger for himself. That is when a fight ensues and after a long battle with Vikram in the cave, they manage to slay him and end the curse.

Verdict: I did not find this film suspenseful enough. The effects in the film sometimes let it down. The script also was below par and this is the reason it fails in many aspects, even though it has a good cast of actors.

Better Horror Films: Tahkhana, Bandh Darwaza, Purana Mandir, Purani Haveli, Veerana.

It's a windy night and it's a creepy forest. And the ghost of a man eating tiger awaits them.

Loosely but efficiently adapted from American Werewolf in London. Junoon boasts of good production values and a strong cast for a movie of the early 90's.

Vishesh Films usually deliver films of good quality and with Mahesh Bhatt at the helm of Junoon, it turns out to be a very good flick.

The pace and rhythm in the second half are relentless and it certainly ranks as one of the best horror movies that Bollywood has churned out.

The special effects are noteworthy for a Hindi film of that period. It is one of the first Indian venture to hire a crew of well known foreign technicians and make-up artists for the special effects and these still look good for today's standards. They shot a lot of the scenes that needed special effects at Pinewood Studios, London.

Rahul Roy's first transformation into a tiger still looks scary.

This easily ranks as Roy's best career best performance. You can see he whole heartedly digs his teeth into the role. He looks handsome, mysterious and scary and seems to have put his heart into the performance.

Amongst the rest of the cast, Tom Alter, Homi Wadia and Mushtaq Khan are effective.

The film has a couple of good songs from duo Nadeem-Shravan. The background music score by Viju Shah is another plus point of the film.

Altogether, it makes a very good watch. Gripping, adventurous and scary. Recommended.

Junoon Is A Brilliant Try In Comparison To Other Horror Movies In This Time And Despite Being A Weretiger Movie Its A Very New Genre For Bollywood But Vishesh Films Nailed It And The VFX Looks Little Bit Old For Now In Transformation Scenes And The Concept Is Very Good And Songs Are Also Good But The Movie Was Not Able To Give A Scary Experience And In The Last Scene Or We Can Say Climax It Gets A Little Bit Over The Top And VFX After The Transformation Scenes Is Very Good But I Missed One Thing In This Movie Which Is Brutality, After Watching The First Scene I Thought That This Will Be A Brutal Horror Movie.

Horror movies in the early 90s were typically Ramsay Brothers low budget fares starring B list actors. Junoon was the rare exception, produced by the Mukesh Bhat and with a quite strong cast, including the then rising young stars of Bollywood, Rahul Roy and Puja Bhat. The story was pretty good too, with a quite original take on the werewolf myth, only with tigers. Rahul Roy plays a spoilt rich brat, who is attacked by a cursed tiger during a nocturnal hunting expedition. The next full moon, he himself turns into a tiger and must hunt for prey. The rest of the story is his wife (Puja Bhat) and her ex boyfriend racing against time to stop him. Not really that scary, but the original story and very good special effects, considering the times make this the best Indian horror movie of the 90s, and one of the better ones of all time. Recommended.