So we decided to look back at more Hindi cinema set in that crucial period of Indian history.
This is the second in a three-part feature which takes a look at two stunning films set in the same era, and culminates in a piece about the Aamir Khan starrer.
After exploring Satyajit Ray's Shatranj Ke Khilari, we come to Shyam Benegal's unforgettable Junoon.
...
Shyam Benegal's 1978 film Junoon is made magnificent by the universally flawless performances. Shabana Azmi leads the pack with her scowling, nagging Firdaus, whose face lights up brilliantly only in one scene. The English are coming, and the Indians are fleeing away from home, the more fortunate ones trundled into bullock-carts and makeshift palanquins. She spots her husband, the dashing Javed (Shashi Kapoor) gallop into view, looking desperately for them. Firdaus calls him to her, and flashes a beautiful smile.
|
The year is 1857, and Mangal Pandey has been executed. Apocryphal tales of the martyr have spread across the heartland, inspiring the nation to mutiny. Benegal's screenplay is based on Ruskin Bond's heartrending novel, Flight of the Pigeons, and deals with an English family, the Labadoors. Bloodthirsty carnage in a church one Sunday morning leaves only young Ruth Labadoor (the lovely, perfectly cast Nafisa Ali) alive, as her father perishes.
This massacre is led by a seemingly insane fanatic, Sarfaraz (Naseeruddin Shah), who has no qualms about slashing a priest in two. The English must die! The Labadoors find desperate shelter in the home of an old Indian ally, Mohanlal (Kulbhushan Kharbanda), but are soon discovered there by the fierce Pathan, Javed.
As devoted to the cause as his brother-in-law Sarfaraz, Javed is an affluent man who can't bring himself to be equally ruthless. The lover of pigeons takes the three Labadoor women -- Ruth, her mother Miriam (Jennifer Kendal), and ailing grandmother -- to his own home.
Miriam is unrelenting, and this frustrates Javed no end. Eventually, the two strike a peculiar, greatly symbolic deal: Miriam promises him that he may have Ruth, but only if the Indians can win Delhi.
Throughout the film, Benegal eschews realism for the theatrical, leaving us in a constant state of high drama. The first few fight scenes seem sparse and somewhat contrived -- most of the British are killed almost bloodlessly at church -- but we soon realise that this is not a film aiming at achieving visual authenticity. It is a great story, and the director pulls every narrative device -- including a fantastic pir (Rajesh Vivek) as a minstrel soothsayer -- out of the hat to create an epic Shakespearian tragedy superbly grounded in the era.
The dialogues, by the incomparable Satyadev Dubey and Ismat Chugtai, are a marvel.
This is an overwhelmingly powerful film, a bittersweet, entirely futile love story set against a crucial period backdrop. Both blood and lust are dealt with masterfully, and that is no mean feat. And the performances remain eternally haunting.
Don't miss: In conclusion: Mangal Pandey.