Before the Rains

Santosh Sivan has already made a name for himself as an established cinematographer. With 'The Terrorist' he proved to be a competent director. Now comes another sensational directorial ventures, 'Before the Rains'. Visually, it's a feast for the eyes. Sivan's way of capturing the beauty and atmosphere of the natural rainforest setting as he stresses on the details to each and every one of his shots is simply amazing.

The intriguing premise of the story is derived of a novel concept. Sivan sensibly tackles themes such as love, class distinction, despair, guilt and betrayal and layers them well within the story and characters. He never goes over the top as he wonderfully manages to keep a low tone. Just when one would think the story would turn towards a predictable path, Sivan throws a surprising turn while staying true to the film. He extracts some incredible performances from his principle cast that includes Linus Roache, Rahul Bose, Nandita Das and Jennifer Ehle.

Overall, Santosh Sivan has improved as a director and continues to be a superb cinematographer. It's definitely a much better movie than 'Asoka'. I would like to see this director make more such films rather than opt for the usual loud Bollywood masala like 'Asoka'.

I had to hunt down where this film was playing - it was 70 miles away and I took a road trip to go catch it. The reviews have been so good, it is made by Sivan, has Nandita Das AND Rahul Bose so it seemed well worth the effort. Unfortunately I feel really let down by the film. It seems specifically made to cater to a Western audience and is less Indian than Darjeeling Limited! Sivan tells an engaging enough tale that the 90+ minutes do not hang heavy on your hands but the characters are not well etched at all. I went in expecting an Indian Ink (Stoppard) or a Passage to India (EM Forster), at the very least I was hoping for a Heat and Dust, but this is lower than that Ruth Praver Jhabvala fare.

Nandita Das plays Sajani, a woman who works as maidservant to the Moores family headed by Linus Roache as Henry Moores. While the wife (Jennifer Ehle) and son are away, Henry gets into an adulterous love affair with Sajani. With the help of TK, a local village man who is English educated, Henry is trying to build a road to improve the spice trade. Sajani is married to a brutish fellow, he does find out and all hell breaks loose. There is the obligatory tragic ending but you watch it from the outside with clinical detachment. The white man is a spineless fellow, the white woman a large hearted up-standing woman (like the white women in Lagaan, RDB).

Nandita Das has a meaningless role that she cannot sink her teeth into, Rahul Bose is equally wasted in the role of a man who is neither fish nor fowl, but caught between two cultures. So much could have been made of this character. Linus Roach plays the gutless white man exceedingly well, you hate him and yet you also know where he is coming from. Jennifer Ehle is wonderful in a small role as the woman full of empathy.

What Sivan does best is showcase the canvas, the photography is absolutely stunning. The locales are full of magic and every shimmering dew drop, the frog jumping into the pond, the mist rising from the tree tops, is all magically captured by his lens. Where he loses out is in etching the characters better, and having more to the story itself. This is a thin tale. He also fails at extracting the best from his stellar cast. Western audiences will love this tale of "forbidden love" - parts of it more graphically shown than we are used to seeing, the spineless British man, the Indian man learning the gentleman's game from the gentleman Henry, and in fact out-gentlemaning Henry in the end. I am sure they will also find most interesting some of the bizarre and arcane rituals that the "tribals' were practicing! I am disappointed because this one could have been so much more.

IT WAS DURING MY SEARCH for other works by Nandita Das that I came across 'Before the rains'. Ordinarily I probably would have given it a go-by but considering it had Rahul Bose in it too and was directed by the talented Santosh Sivan, it seemed worth giving a chance. In the first few frames itself the movie had me wrapped. The breathtaking locales of an enchantingly wooded Kerala make for a perfect backdrop to this tale of epic proportions. When Sivan's roving eye breezes past serene looking tea plantations and gorgeous gorge's carved out of nature's immaculate knife, one can easily see why he is considered one of the finest cinematographers in the country. Add to this the mix of warm locals buzzing around making small talk in Malayalam while keeping the prim houses of the English sahibs clean and you have an interesting concoction of stories ready to spill over.

'Before the rains' starts off by exposing us to the core plot right away. That of the illicit affair between British spice baron Henry Moores (Linus Roache) and his housekeeper Sajani (Nandita). They nuzzle into each other's arms under the very roof that feeds her while collecting fresh honey from friendly beehives in the woods. Their seemingly hush-hush cozy little venture, though, has a silent confidant – T.K. Neelan (Bose), a handyman who works with the Englishman. He shares Henry's vision of cutting through the mountains to make that much awaited road that will transform the tea plantation into a full blown spice manufacturing unit rich with cardamom and pepper. Of course, this has to happen before the monsoon rains so that the road can sustain it. TK does not completely condone what Henry and Sajani share but he understands what love is. Given his adherence of friendship and loyalty to Henry he doesn't find it relevant to keep this a secret from Sajani's husband Rajat and her brother Manas. People he grew up with playing in the very forest that Sajani now spends her awake time enjoying Henry's indulgent kisses and hugs.

Rajat is a tough guy who has no patience for Sajani's lies and deceit. Despite the lack of any concrete evidence against her, he knows something is amiss and suspects TK of being the guilty one. With things looking like this in walks Henry's wife and son one day. Much to Sajani's disappointment and frustration, her way out of her abusive husband's life seems to be by bridging the cultural divide that separates her and Henry. Things don't necessarily pan out this way when Sajani is beaten senseless one night and is forced to escape from her husband's heavy handed clutches. She runs to Henry's house (where TK also lives in an outhouse) and confesses her need to never have to face her husband again. Henry panics. This is a situation that he had not expected given the highest level of secrecy (and possible bottom line triviality) he had given the case thus far. It is then, on being rejected from Henry at such an important juncture, that Sajani, using TK's gun, shoots herself dead right in front of their bewildered eyes.

'Before the rains' picks up momentum after this incident. The question of what is the right thing to do and who, more importantly, will do this becomes the focus. Will TK be the scapegoat for a murder that was inspired by Henry's lack of character? Or will TK go out of his way to tell everyone that it was Henry who was the cause of Sajani's untimely demise? What will be his true calling at such an hour – his ethics or his loyalty? Will Henry own up to his mistake and risk his spice project, and needless to mention his family's respect, altogether? Will the gora sahib pull his strings to come off unscathed in a time when it is so easy to do so? These are questions that the movie addresses as the frames pass by.

Sivan's understanding of local sensitivity in a place like Kerala (pre- Independence) is obvious in every frame. Right from the attire the people wear to the 'Bharat Chodo' slogans that ring out across the quiet town in tropical Kerala is straight out of history's dusty pages. His bold showcasing of the flawed English colonialism sits bare as the one tragic incident stands to threaten an entire community. The subtle yet prominent mention of the price passion has to pay despite the odds being against a culturally diverse couple is very well showcased.

Performances belong to almost everyone in the movie. Right from Bose, who plays the silent yet defiant Malayali foreman of the English sahib to Das, who plays the victimized and misdirected mistress whose fate eventually does her in. Each character in the movie does justice to a plot that, despite its simplistic way of handling the most complicated of situations, exposes the shocking hues with which the Raj worked in colonial India. At a time when most of the movies coming out of India lack that much needed strand of human emotion, 'Before the rains' stands out like a breathe of fresh air that underlines only one basic human emotion – conscience.

When DOP holds the directorial reigns one can expect a visual feast nothing short of excellence. And precisely that what you are in for "Before the Rains". Every scene seems to hand-picked and aesthetically delivered. Brillaince perhaps would be an understatement for the visual poetry.

The plot weaves a story of love, passion, friendship, loyalty and greed amidst the struggle for freedom from the British Raj neatly showcasing the customs and traditions of Gods own country, Kerala.

Santosh Sivan gets down to business straight away and while the visuals keeps the audience glued, the same cannot be said about the plot/ narrative which seems to give away. Perhaps screenplay needed further cementing.

Performances::

Ψ Rahul Bose:: Needs no intro, he is might in his own right. Manages to pull off the various layers of the role effectively. His character seems to be inspired from Karna in Mahabharata.

Ψ Nandita Das:: Her role was smaller than expected and needed more screen time to establish the character.

Ψ Linus:: He was good, though has immense scope to make a dent.

Ψ Jennifer:: Now literally stealing the thunder would be the apt idiom to compliment her performance and her character backs it up nicely.

Ψ The other stalwarts from Malayalam cinema were confined to character roles and perhaps minuscule.

Before the Rains is a beautifully made drama set in south India in 1937. An engrossing story, it shows us what India was like and awakens our interest in foreign lands. But what stuck in MY mind was the extreme difficulty of having a sexual/romantic encounter in this time and place.

Young people these days take their sex fast and casual. There is no way they can ever understand the restraints of the pre-1960 era (let alone 1937). And this was the case in India, or in the USA. With most women married well before their 18th birthday, with marriage being respected by society, with the remaining single people mostly being (obvious) born losers, non or extra marital sex was virtually impossible, and could lead to the serious and multi-complicated downfalls portrayed in this movie. Easy to say had the lovers handled things wiser or smarter their ultimate problems might have been easier. But wait, they DID handle their situation wisely......