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BEFORE THE RAINS Send This Review to a Friend
Step back in time to the India of 1937 under British colonial rule for this steamy story of illicit romance and the power to destroy lives in order to cover up an embarrassing illicit affair. The drama “Before the Rains,” by focusing on personal issues, symbolically demonstrates the nature of colonialism that eventually was doomed in India.
Linus Roache plays Henry Moores, a planter who wants to build a road to help his business involving spices and is sleeping with an attractive village woman, his housekeeper Sajani, played by Nandita Das, She gets a beating when her husband finds out what happens.
Moores has to cover up the affair in the face of the return from England of his wife, Laura, portrayed by the fine actress Jennifer Ehle.
The man put on the spot in all of this is Rahul Bose as T.K., the Indian assistant to Moores. T.K. is an interesting character trying to keep ties to his tribe but also work in the world of the occupier, leaving him with divided loyalties. When Moores rejects Sajani, she is devastated and the results become tragic and T.K. must help Moore with his dirty work.
The situation gets out of hand and the melodrama mounts. The title of the film is double-edged. Moores is racing to get his road built before the monsoons, but the title also would indicate the coming larger “monsoon” of the struggle for independence.
Strangely, “Before the Rains,” written by Cathy Rabin and directed by Santosh Sivan is based on the film “Red Roofs,” which was set in Israel. Now it is soaked in the atmosphere of its new setting with striking cinematography showing off the Kerala location. But if one didn’t know the background, there would be no reason to suspect that the story came from a different society. A Roadside Attractions and Merchant Ivory release.
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