Junoon (1979) (Shashi Kapoor, Shabana Azmi, Jennifer Kendal, Naseeruddin Shah)

[carla]

There's no thread yet for this compelling and interesting film by Shyam Benegal.  Does anyone have any thoughts on it? 

It takes place in the 1857 - immediately after the events depicted in Mangal Pandey - Hindustani soldiers are attacking British cantonments.  In one incident, the local nawab's men, led by Naseeruddin Shah's character, attack a church, and slay all the English worshipers except for one girl, Ruth, who watches in horror as the attackers hack everyone to bits, including her father.  Eventually the girl and her mother (Jennifer Kendal) and grandmother end up in the care of the nawab (Shashi Kapoor), Javed Khan.   Javed instantly becomes obsessed with Ruth, and announces his intention to marry her, to the horror of his existing wife (Shabana Azmi).  Ruth (who is still suffering massive PTSD from the church attack) has no interest in marrying Javed, and so begins a kind of a chess match as Ruth's mother negotiates with Javed to avoid the marriage, as Javed becomes more and more obsessed with the girl. 

I won't give away more of the plot than that, but if anyone who has seen it wants to discuss the ending, I'll be happier to make more spoilerish posts. 

Among the things I loved about this film was Shashi's performance as the arrogant yet fragile nawab.  It was palpable as Javed buckled and wavered under the weight of his own pride.  He had masterful control over his body and his facial expressions, and used them to perfectly capture moments of uncertainty, frailty, anger, desire, or all of the above at once.  An astonishing performance. 

Jennifer Kendal's performance had a quiet strength and dignity that, ironically, I often think of as a hallmark of Shabana Azmi's best work.  Shabana, though, spent most of her meager screen time in this film pouting and fretting over the insult of her husband's very public obsession with an English girl.  It's too bad she didn't have any scenes in direct opposition to Jennifer Kendal, because it would have been quite amazing to see what these two measured and powerful actresses could have done with such a confrontation.  Instead, the nawab's wife skulked around the perimeters, hiding behind curtains and eavesdropping on conversations, only rarely asserting her status. 

Shyam Benegal has a deft touch, and one of the things that amazes me about him is that he knows how to portray strong women being strong women, and not being female men, if you know what I mean.  The men in this film are strong when they wield their weapons; the nawab's hand, for example, often found its way to the hilt of the sword in his waistband, resting there when he found himself losing an argument or losing control of his passion.  The women, though (apart from one memorable scene in which Jennifer Kendal wields a dagger), find their strength in their relationships with each other.  Some of the women in the nawab's immediate circle (his household and the household of an aunt) are very warm to the English women and truly befriend them, while the nawab's wife seems to lack a reliable ally. 

My only real complaint about the film is that the battle scenes went on too long, and were in some cases more graphic than I like (did we really need to see Ruth's PTSD-induced fantasy of Naseeruddin Shah being blown to bits three times in rapid succession?)  Otherwise, it was the kind of compelling close study at which Shyam Benegal excels, and I highly recommend it. 

A note of warning - in addition to the violence, there is a brief sex scene (between Shabana and Shashi) that is quite graphic.  There's no skin shown, but quite a bit of, for lack of more delicate terms, grunting and writhing.  It wasn't exactly sexy.  Then again, it wasn't exactly meant to be. 

It was interesting, also, to watch this so soon after seeing Umrao Jaan, which is in a contemporaneous setting.  Indeed, the events in Junoon seem to be happening down the road from the events in Umrao Jaan.  But the latter is slicker, cleaner, more style, less grit and dust.  Shashi's nawab wears slighty grubbby, threadworn, unadorned clothes, quite a far cry from the snazzy silken and gold-brocade festooned nawab's son that Farooq Sheikh offers us in Umrao Jaan.  As sad as Umrao Jaan is, it is still an escapist fantasy in a way that Junoon works hard not to be.  That doesn't mean Junoon is better, though - I actually think I enjoyed Umrao Jaan somewhat more (i.e., it was more entertaining). 

Here are a few screenies, with my usual caveat that I take better screenies of closeups than of action, and I didn't really manage to capture much of the excellent cinematograpy.

Khulbushan Kharbanda, who figured early in the story - he was the first person to help Ruth and her family after the attack.


Jennifer Kendal and Nafisa Ali (Ruth)


Shashi was handsome, but the nawab was a weak man.


The nawab's wife, exercising the only power she has.


Ruth's mother negotiates with the nawab.


Gaah!  I adore my lady's profile. 


Actually for all her pouting and fretting, Shabana was drop-dead gorgeous in this film, so here's one more:

[Darshana]

This one has been on my list since I discovered Bollywood.  I'll go back to trying to get hold of it.  Nehaflix never has it when I want it.

I feel like getting various Shashi pictures together - the new skill of screen capturing, for me, has increased my appreciation of good acting - in every still I, or you (anyone) grab of a good actor, the emotion is there and also the character is there - compare this of bhashi with him in the tuxedo on the Jab Jab Phool Khile thread.

ALso I always love the beauty of the marriage of Shashi and Jennifer when I see them do things like this project together, where she'll be playing somebody "old" in relation to him - in my imagination at least, they shared a professional joy in acting that made things like that totally not matter. (I am thinking of the vulnerability a woman can feel being cast as someone "old" in relation to a man she wants to be attrative to.  I think she had solid confidence in his feelings for her.) 

[Darshana]

scientific proof of acting

can't help myself!!! 

Oh, if you'd like to see Shashi as a nawab-- or maharahah--  with a different personality and costumes, check out Heat and Dust.

[Darshana]

This goes high on my slowly growing list of favorite Shashi Kapoor movies.  It's also an addition to another category I am attracted to, movies with real foreign characters (as opposed to the kind of "foreigner"played by Helen).

Junoon means obsession, obsessional love I believe, and I believe too it may be a word used by Sufis for the love of The Beloved (god) as well as love of one you are in love with.  The liner notes to my Dil Se dvd talked about it a bit.

The obsession of the movie is Shashi Kapoor's, as a married nawab, for a young Anglo-Indian girl (her grandmother, Jennifer Kendal's mother, is Indian) -- she's actually very young emotionally, too young to understand his staring at her at the beginning of the movie - his obsession pre-dates the crisis that gets her and her mother into his protection as survivors of an Indian uprising and massacre of British, and too young to understand the importance of obeying strictures about staying behind the walls of his house, allowing their presence to be discovered.

I more wonder whether Shyam Benegal meant Shashi's obsession to also stand for something in Anglo-Indian relations, than have an idea about that - it's a question I hope to find more educated answers to.  The movie is fine on its own but I know it has more meanings to people who know the history better.

What I liked most about it was Benegal's taking us in to this world of complex relationships between British and Indians in about 1857, the Jane Austen era.  You see the pale, biggish, hoopskirted British through Shashi's Indian eyes, also his household through theirs - particularly I'd say the women, small, dark, jewelry-covered - Shabana especially, she looks tiny and intense, dark and angry, wrapped up like an exotic package in her jewel-colored salwar kameezes and nose-rings. The Indian women don't want the strangers there, it is dangerous to everyone; Shashi insists. 

The begum, Shabana, his wife, does not want them there and hates her husban'd wish to take the girl as a second wife, but at the same time there are kindnesses shown them, and in any case they are on suffrance, and we know it - Indian soldiers are murdering all British, and all that stands between these women and massacre is this hospitality founded in part, at least, on a romantic obsession that neither daughter nor mother wants to to yield to.   To me this is the central thing of the story, these people being under the protection of that man: who has honor and principles that prevent him, though with difficulty, from just taking what he wants.

By the end of the story, the daughter, who never says much, is seen to have a heart response to him of some kind. 

I was impressed with Benegal's telling of a story in which foreigners are entirely sympathetic characters.  Not that this is an unusual human capacity, but it's not one I've seen much in an Indian movie - Rang De Basanti comes to mind as a recent other, also Kisna perhaps less successfully.  Interestingly to me, the scene in the small British church was one of the most authentic church service scenes I've seen in any movie -- we usually go into churches in movies just for weddings or solitary worship. 

Things the movie mades me think about - again (re previous post) - Shashi and Jennifer - he produced the movie - what a wonderful acting couple, and what a life for them.  She speaks Hindi a fair amount in the movie, with a foreign accent.  I would guess she actually learned it in order to live there. 

And - Indian intimate observation of the British - one is used to the crude stereotype that suits one kind of movie (Mard comes to mind) where the British aren't much like people at all - but one is reminded that they were there for 400 years, and at least among some more privileged sectors of society, they were fairly well observed and known.   In the story you experience the fascination on the part of both sets of women with the Other - just as it would be for you if you had a first opportunity for day to day intimacy with a kind of person you'd been seeing from a distance all your life. 

The battle scenes were impressively done and probably historically accurate, and so distressing, men's exposure to close-up fighting; also an impressive use of hundreds of horses and riders. 

A blind village idiot/epileptic/seer is used in a powerful way to set the tone of the story, which begins with men under a tree making and enjoying Muslim music which becomes ecstatic - this raggedy blind tall guy, with a gigantic mouth and white, white teeth, starts spinning and prophesying about blood, and we see him again toward the end - the story is about ecstasy and catastrophe.

[carla]

Darshana, I am glad you watched Junoon and found it compelling. 

I gave it a very high rating immediately after I watched it, and since then it has only grown on me as I've thought about it.  The nice thing about thinking about a film after you see it is that the parts that you thought were draggy or too violent while they were happening kind of fade from memory and you can concentrate on the things that moved you about it - for me, Shashi's frustrated vulnerability, Shabana's bitter skulking in the shadows, Jennifer's upright dignity.

If you don't mind a spoilerish discussion, what did you make of the end?

*SPOILERS*

Why do you suppose the nawab lost interest in Ruth as soon as she showed some interest in him?  Somehow when she popped out of the church calling to him - she just called him "Javed," no titles or deference or anything - you could see his passion melt off of his face.  I think that the exoticism of the English girl, which must have been the fuel for his obsession, was broken by the humiliation of the utter defeat of the rebellion, his family being driven from his home, and so on.  For the first time he looked at her and saw her as English, the enemy - instead of as this exotic and tasty little confection.  What is your interpretation of that final scene?   

[Darshana]

SPOLERS CONTINUE

The final scene made a strong emotional impression on me, but I made something really different of it.  I'll tell you what I thought - look forward to your & others' responses, no conviction re: this impression.  I did keep thinking aobut it, too.

At the end, when mother and daughter are leaving for good, as I remember it, the nawab, S Kapoor/Javed, is in a state of unbearable anguish at the loss forever of the object of his love.  He begs to see the girl one more time, the mother refuses.  But the girl goes out the back door of the church and calls to him, and there is a long emotionally strong period of mutual gazing.  I think it's the emotional fulfillment of the movie stor, whatever is going on in it!!

I thought that we saw her develop some feeling for him in the scenes where she watched him tend to the pigeons he loved, which she loved too -- some feeling that began to replace her initial incomprehension of him and distaste for him, and her later fear of him.   But I didn't see the final scene as  "yes" to his effort to claim her as a wife, I saw it as a compassionate loving action meant to provide him the relief he'd asked for, of one last look at her.   So I'd guess it meant, "I now see you, I recognize you as a man, I feel sympathy for you as a human being." 

I didn't notice what you did in Shashi's face.  So I thought - she gave him this thing that he asked for and allowed him a moment of communion with her, and a completed good bye. 

The written narration on screen at the end tells us - whether this story was based on a true story or not I do not know - that the girl, Ruth, went back to England and never married - so you may well be right, that we are meant to see her as having developed "real" romantic love for him.  Your version of the emotional development definitely makes some sense.

As I write my own answer, thanks to your question, I get more of a sense of a line of thought about the British-Indian themes of the story, about people seeing each other.

[carla]

Wordless scenes can be so rich and difficult to parse.  I will need to watch the end again and look carefully at the actors' faces - both Shashi's, and the girl (whose name I can't recall at the moment). 

I am getting a sense that Shyam Benegal loves these silences, where his actors are forced to rely upon their ability to express themselves though delicate control of their faces and body language.  In Ankur, for example, Shabana's husband was deaf and mute, which created these fascinating enraged pantomimes when she scolded him.  (When she really lost it, of course, she would just yell at him even though he couldn't hear her.) 

Now when I watch Junoon again I want to look for these silent scenes throughout the film, not just at the end.

Hasn't anyone else seen this film, apart from me and Darshana?  Darshana, do you think we need to send my DVD on a trek around the world to solicit the comments of our oldie/art-head friends?   

[Darshana]

I would also love it if some more discussants of this movie turned up.  It was a FilmFare Best of the Year, too.  I do think people will turn up, in the year I've been here I've started up a couple of old movie threads, or revived old ones, and enjoyed finding a flurry of responses after often many months.  (Sometimes from you, Carla!!)

And - I found a copy of this in NY (but finished watching yours because it was more fun that way) at Sangeet House on Lexington Ave at 28-29th St -- in case anybody else wants it. 

I looked around a little for useful reviews, didn't find much in the obvious places (imdb, rotten tomatoes, bollywood501, upperstall) that I know.  But somebody said that the novel (in English) it was based on was based on a true story. 

It counts as Bollywood partly because there are two - wonderful - songs in it.  I see a Shyam Benegal bender in my future.

[stimpy]

*SPOILERS*

*SPOILERS*

Why do you suppose the nawab lost interest in Ruth as soon as she showed some interest in him?  Somehow when she popped out of the church calling to him - she just called him "Javed," no titles or deference or anything - you could see his passion melt off of his face.  I think that the exoticism of the English girl, which must have been the fuel for his obsession, was broken by the humiliation of the utter defeat of the rebellion, his family being driven from his home, and so on.  For the first time he looked at her and saw her as English, the enemy - instead of as this exotic and tasty little confection.  What is your interpretation of that final scene?   

I did see it more like you did Carla. But rather than his thinking that she represented solely the enemy at that point, to me it was more that he finally saw her for what she really was; just a terribly young naive innocent girl, a far cry from the obsession he had drawn up in his mind, that he'd lived and breated in since he first saw her, one to die for. It was as if his heart broke, waking up to the ruination around him and realising that he hadn't really loved her but an idea of her. I didn't feel he blamed her for it either, rather "This? This illusion is where my head and heart has been while everything has been going to the dogs"  He's was a sad, shattered expression, of one who has regained himself in a single blow of a look. Then he rides off into a fairly certain death, and you feel he will fight with a tremendous vigour to recompense. Not for his folly, as the feeling was true, but... Ah blah, I'm grasping for the words to describe what I mean   

SPOLERS CONTINUE

I thought that we saw her develop some feeling for him in the scenes where she watched him tend to the pigeons he loved, which she loved too -- some feeling that began to replace her initial incomprehension of him and distaste for him, and her later fear of him.   But I didn't see the final scene as  "yes" to his effort to claim her as a wife, I saw it as a compassionate loving action meant to provide him the relief he'd asked for, of one last look at her.   So I'd guess it meant, "I now see you, I recognize you as a man, I feel sympathy for you as a human being." 

I didn't notice what you did in Shashi's face.  So I thought - she gave him this thing that he asked for and allowed him a moment of communion with her, and a completed good bye. 

The written narration on screen at the end tells us - whether this story was based on a true story or not I do not know - that the girl, Ruth, went back to England and never married - so you may well be right, that we are meant to see her as having developed "real" romantic love for him.  Your version of the emotional development definitely makes some sense.

As I write my own answer, thanks to your question, I get more of a sense of a line of thought about the British-Indian themes of the story, about people seeing each other.

I didn't think she had so lofty thoughts about humanity. To me she had found a passionate hero for her young heart in the form of a saviour to their family (despite the oggling or maybe because of it  ). But equally as much as he didn't see her for who she was, nor did she. He did finally, but she lived with it her idea, maybe for the rest of her life. They were vastly different culturally, despite her Indian grandmother. It did work well as a British-Indian parable in that way, it's like they weren't really living in the same country at all, and as such there was not much scope for understanding each other or ever seeing things eye to eye. That's why to me Nawab/Shashis expression was like realisation, a glimps to another territory, totally foreign. Not that there couldn't be an understanding (and I don't mean romatic here), but it was too late for that in every sense. 

Loved the film and Shyam Benegal, haven't read the book the film was based on.

[Darshana]

Great, Stimpy - I certainly get the distinction you make and the idea that she had come to see him as a hero/savior, and not as I was thinking just to get to see him as a real person, which was a change from his being a frightening adult male Other.  Also the movie's statement about her never marrying goes with the idea of her placing him in her heart and keeping him there. 

There is so much to this story.  I look forward to watching it again (but not the battles).

[carla]

Oh yay!  we caught a stimpy!  stimpz, you have seen just about everything, so if we are discussing a good movie I know you will turn up sooner or later.   

Anyway, I loved your embellishment of my thought, that Javed is specifically thinking "I can't believe I let the rebellion collapse while I was all mushy-headed over this grubby, pale-faced little girl, instead of doing my part to support it." 

It's kind of hard to believe, actually - though we have the benefit of historical hindsight - that he made the bargain with Ruth's mother at all (I mean the bargain where he could have Ruth if the rebels took Delhi).  He had a lot of confidence in the rebellion, although he wasn't personally involved in it.  (I presume he was helping to fund it, and Naseeruddin, who was I think his brother-in-law, was of course out there fighting.) 

I am dying to watch this again.   

[Nina]

I loved reading this thread -- so much intelligent commentary. Thank you all.

I saw this film over the weekend and loved it.  ...All except for the voice of the narrator at the end saying "...and she never married".  This is exactly the same thing that appears at the end of Lagaan, where the voice of the narrator tells us that Elizabeth never married, and it bugged me just as much there since it smacks of "If I can't have her no-one else can". Though for the purpose of plot, those narrator interventions do serve to tell us that although cultures divide Indian heroes and English women, they would prefer no relationships if they can't have The Love That Could Not Be.

I agree with Stimpy that, to Ruth, the nawab ended up being a romantic hero, whom she idealised as a naive young girl with PTSD, and that is why she calls to him at the end.  But I didn't read in the Nawab's gaze a realization that she was, in the end, not worth his obsession.  Rather, his duty to his country and his honour as a Pathan had finally outweighed his obsession over her, and he really did just want to look at her one last time before going back to the fight.  I read it that way because of the way he abandons his wife and aunt after finding them in the line of refugees:  he clearly has cut off emotional ties to his family already, and is on his way to end emotional ties with the English girl, before going back to the fight which is now his sole purpose.

Yes, that's extrapolation, but it works for me -- and the beauty of ambiguous endings is the many ways in which they can be read!

[dmitrirex]

I liked Junoon but the major flaw for me was I could not understand how Shashi could be so obsessed over someone whose personality, looks, and sensuality could not hold a candle to Shabana.  I think one of the two actresses should have been changed and, since Shabana is one of my favorite actresses, I guess my recommendation is obvious.

[filmifan]

*spoilers abound.*


Junoon was a delight to watch, especially in terms of it being a female-centric film. Carla's already beautifully pointed out the focus on strength of relationships versus that of brute force. and with a cast like Sushma Seth, Shabana, and Jennifer, how could you go wrong? many of my favorite scenes in the film were those of just the women interacting.

my take on the ending has a lot to do with Ruth’s dreams throughout the film, which i saw as being a journey about her Anglo-Indian identity. at first, her dreams were from the perspective of the English being victimized by Indians - reliving her father's death at the hands of Indian rebels, her being sexually taken, forcefully, by Javed (an awakening on a sexual level as well) - to that of the Indian perspective - seeing the deaths of Indians at the hands of the British, specifically Sarfaraz being tied to the front of a cannon. the longer Ruth lived among the nawab's family, the more her identity shifted to that of her Indian heritage. Ruth could see the cruelty of both sides; something with which her mother didn’t quite empathize. Mariam questioned Sarfaraz on the humanity of those who killed the British in the church; she told Ruth that "we" (the British) have taken Delhi back. We don’t know whether Miriam ever questioned her identity when she was younger, but we know that marrying an Englishman no doubt solidified where she felt she belonged in society. But her daughter ends up being “oogled” by a Pathan, and Ruth's dreams represent her growing openness to this Pathan and her possibly leading a different life in the new India.

i also don’t think it’s just chance, or Shashi’s pull as a producer, that Jennifer was cast as a "pro-English" Anglo-Indian character who could ‘pass’ for white, while Ruth (although having less Indian blood) could ‘pass’ as Indian.

Now for the ending….to me, Ruth looked confused at Javed’s reaction. She loved him romantically and probably expected Javed to take her away with him. I’m not quite sure how much she really knew about him from observing him with the pigeons and her mother, but she was certainly sexually attracted to him, and had legitimate concern for his well-being - in that she wanted him to return safely from battle, not as a protector, but as a suitor. Ruth saw the effects of war, the bodies that came back, and the potential for loss. And as she embraced her Indianess, she was probably optimistic in their having a future.

Javed's reaction at the end, on the other hand, seemed to be one of resignation and loss...him realizing he won't have her; that there's a larger war to fight; that he’ll most likely die soon. He sees Ruth wearing her English dress again, but with her hair still in tassled braids, and maybe Javed realized the difficulty Ruth would find in the new India as an Anglo-Indian. i didn’t see his obsession with Ruth as being based on the exotic Other. if so, wouldn't seeing her in salwar kameezes with her dark hair in braids - looking just as desi as the rest of his family - have created some earlier loss of interest? Actually, Ruth seemed to be the one attracted to such a fetish; at first Javed’s Pathan dress and stature bothered her, but once in his house, she begins to attentively observe Muslim Indian life; even to the extent of trying on bridal jewelry and clothing and having her mother tell her she looks like a nautch girl.

i did wonder though whether Javed would have been as open to developing an obsession for another if Firdaus had been able to conceive and/or produce an heir. this certainly seemed to be part of the distance in their relationship, at least on Javed's end. i got the impression that he was sexually disinterested in Firdaus before Ruth came into the picture.

on a technical note, it saddens me to see such high-quality films being archived so poorly. the narrative text was chopped off on the sides, the film had endless scratches and jumps, and one scene had a major portion of dialogue chopped out. the scene was when all the women are on the rooftop watching the fighters gather; Javed comes up and asks for Mariam's decision about the marriage. Javed storms over to Firdaus after her comment, and as soon as he starts the speak, the scene jumps to him looking like he was about to hit her. this DVD may have only been produced by one distributor, but on the off-chance, did anyone see a version where this scene was intact?

[Darshana]

Thanks so much for such a thoughtful and valuable commentary.  I had not thought about Ruth's sense of herself being developed as a theme in the movie and I look forward to watching it again with your ideas in mind. 

Have you also read the novel or memoir on which it is based?  I watched the movie as Shashi-centered mostly, because I am, but the original I imagine is Ruth-centered and so possibly is the movie.  It's sophisticated enough to develop several characters for sure.

[filmifan]

Ruth was such a quiet character, with little dialogue, that it's easy to see her as a lesser character in the film. plus she's not very proactive until the very end...she's the type of character that's always reacting (or being told how she'll react) to whatever circumstances are presented to her.

i haven't read the story it's based on, but saw in the credits where Ruskin Bond was the author. i've read a couple of his short stories and plan on tracking this one down now.

[carla]

filmifan, I too thank you for the excellent and thoughtful post.  You have just jumped Junoon to the top of my rewatch list so I'll pop back in to the thread soon. 

[carla]

I watched Junoon again over the weekend, with mr. carla, who had not yet seen it. 

on a technical note, it saddens me to see such high-quality films being archived so poorly. the narrative text was chopped off on the sides, the film had endless scratches and jumps, and one scene had a major portion of dialogue chopped out. the scene was when all the women are on the rooftop watching the fighters gather; Javed comes up and asks for Mariam's decision about the marriage. Javed storms over to Firdaus after her comment, and as soon as he starts the speak, the scene jumps to him looking like he was about to hit her. this DVD may have only been produced by one distributor, but on the off-chance, did anyone see a version where this scene was intact?

You got Firdaus mouthing off to him - where she says that he is pathetic and has no dignity to be begging from foreigners?  He raises his hand to smack her on that remark, and Ruth - Ruth! - cries out "nahin!"  Javed then thinks better of hitting Firdaus.  I don't remember seeing any funny cuts in this scene, but I will look again and make sure.

Anyhow, after the re-watch, I find I am still puzzled about the ending.  It's true that Javed was resigned to his death at that point, and so perhaps is not turned off by Ruth but rather just sad that she's finally warmed to him right when he has to go off and kill himself in battle with her people.  But I realized that I felt very differently toward Javed by that point of the film - I have such sympathy for him through most of the film, though he is weak and fragile, because he is nevertheless principled.  But the way he treats Firdaus at the end - there is no excuse for that, and I realized that at that point I hated him and I wanted him to be punished.

Think about it - Firdaus is in the middle of a refugee train, probably scared out of her wits.  And despite all of her bitterness, she is genuinely happy to see him alive.  But he just looks right through her - "Angrezi kahaan hain?"  This is really unredeemable, I think - riding off like that, leaving her (and his aunt too) without so much as a word of farewell. 

Now, the interesting point that mr. carla raised was this:  wouldn't it have been common for a man like Javed to have second wives?  If the prevailing (Muslim) laws allowed it, there would have been no reason not to do it, especially in a situation where the first wife wasn't producing heirs.   Now that doesn't mean that a woman like Firdaus wouldn't have been deeply hurt and humiliated by the prospect; her pain was real and valid.  But by dwelling on her hurt, and by ending the film with this scene that really makes Firdaus the ultimate victim, the film is taking a modern/secular (at least, a non-Muslim) editorial stance about polygamy. 

I think I've got more but I do have to run now so I will leave it at that fairly incoherent place and invite all of your comments.

[chandranc]

Sashi kapoor in Junoon was full of ...junoon(passion).

people like that can be hated with passion too.

The point the film seemed to make to me (and to the british ) was that you may be a very sweet lord and master yet you may not love/ be loved with a passion.
Junoon sweeps everything away.

[nicoletta]

Junoon is one of my "legal" dvds (bought last spring in mumbai) but... honesty doesn't pay! I had already realized the battle scenes were roughly cut but,now, after reading carla's summary, I can see that the scissors have been busy indeed! no sex scene, no dagger scene in my copy, and God knows what else is missing! Grrrrr....
I love this film, anyway. It is one of those rare movies that really give you the feel  and the pulse of an age They must have taken great care in studying details such as the way people walked etc , but they downplayed that costantly, so we don't have the usual irritating  period glosss. The clothes, for ex. look like clothes , not costumes, clean but "worn",  a very important detail which is quite difficult to achieve. Also, the almost musical team-work of all the actors is impressive.
Shashi's expression at the end is a puzzle indeed. There is clearly an element of shame and horror but,directed at whom/what? Did they want an "open ending"? I'd like to read the original tale.

[Darshana]

In the City Palace, Udaipur, Feb. 2008 - if you've seen Junoon maybe you'll know why this elegant pigeon coop from a maharajah's palace affected me so much - I went back to see it and take some photos: