Junoon

Junoon review :

A commendable attempt by Vishesh Films (Bhatt bros) to create a 'desi' werewolf; Junoon was the only horror film Mahesh Bhatt directed in his entire career. Rahul Roy was cast as the anti hero who turns in to a Tiger at midnight and preys on women. Pooja Bhatt is the common love interest of both Roy and Avinash Wadhawan.

The tiger transformation sequences were brilliantly choreographed for the '90s. The Bhatts had hired foreign technicians for the same. I still remember one scene where Tom Alter sees a Tiger/ Rahul Roy slowly walking towards him in slow motion. Its spine chilling!! Another striking moment is Rahul Roy going to a pub and then killing a lady (Roma Manek) after dancing with her. "O meri dilruba..tu dil ke kareeb hai" was the best of Nadeem Shravan's compositions for this movie. Another catchy number was "Yeh jaan gaye sab" which had Pooja Bhatt in a sexy yellow saree seducing Rahul Roy.

Junoon could've been significantly better if not for that hushed up badly executed climax in a makeshift cave where Avinash and Pooja search for some divine dagger to kill the tiger. That end ruined the overall experience of an otherwise fine film!!

Regards, Sumeet Nadkarni.

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.

This was not expected from Mahesh Bhatt. Poorly penned. Boring at times. Poor narration of the movie. Also a poor background score and music.

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.

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.